Existing comment:
New York:
On April 24, Lincoln's coffin was placed in City Hall while more than 500,000 mourners waited.
"During the entire time the remains thus lay in state, a ceaseless throng of visitors were admitted... while many thousands were turned away unable to obtain admittance. All classes of our citizens, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, without distinction of color or sex, mingled in the silent procession..."
-- David A. Valentine
On Tuesday, April 25, there was a grant funeral procession from City Hall to the Hudson River depot. The New York Herald commented: "The people, with tearful eyes, under the shadow of the great affliction, waited patiently and unmurmuringly the moving of the honored dead..."
The procession passed the Roosevelt home where six-year-old Theodore Roosevelt, future president, watched from a second story window.
On Wednesday, April 26, Lincoln's body was taken to the State Capitol in Albany.
"When morning dawned it revealed the fact that the whole city was draped in mourning... At least 4,000 people passed the casket each hour. The numbers increased until the line waiting admission was more than a mile in length... cars and steamboats... brought additional thousands to the city, many coming from one or two hundred miles."
-- J.C. Power
At 7:00am on Thursday, April 27 the train arrived in Buffalo. There was no formal procession, but according to J.C. Power: "An impromptu procession was formed by the citizens, headed by the military."
100,000 mourners passed the coffin, including former President Millard Filmore and future president Grover Cleveland. At 10:00pm the train began the journey to Ohio. |