Main Content

President Lincoln's funeral train

President Lincoln's funeral train

The funeral train that would carry Lincoln’s body in doleful parade to most of the Union’s statehouses, to be viewed by millions. Less than two weeks before, Lincoln had declined to use the brand-new presidential car, built in Alexandria, Virginia, for his triumphal trip to fallen Richmond, believing it too opulent and thus the wrong tone for the occasion. The painted decorations of the car, itself lost in a fire, survive in the Union Pacific Railroad Historical Museum, Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Credit
Library of Congress