ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - One hundred and fifty years ago Saturday, the body of President Abraham Lincoln arrived in Albany during its long trip from Washington to Illinois. The casket was taken to the old state Capitol building where mourners paid their respects through the night.
The anniversary of the funeral procession will be commemorated this weekend with events in New York City, Albany and Buffalo - all cities where Lincoln’s casket was put on display.
The procession - which also made stops in Baltimore; Philadelphia; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis and Chicago - hit many of the same cities and places that Lincoln had visited on his 1861 trip from Illinois to Washington as president-elect.
The huge numbers of Americans who stood in line to see the casket and waited beside the railroad to glimpse the train reflected a nation still reeling from the collective trauma of Lincoln’s death - and the recent conclusion of the Civil War, according to New York University history professor Martha Hodes, author of “Mourning Lincoln.”
“It was an enormously big deal. It was the first presidential assassination. And it came at the end of the nation’s only civil war,” she said. “People knew they were participating in history.”
The events this weekend are timed to coincide with the exact days Lincoln’s funeral train passed through New York.
In Albany, Civil War re-enactors will hold a memorial service near the state Capitol on Saturday along with drills and demonstrations. Other events will include performances by musicians in period costume and a Lincoln impersonator.
A new Capitol exhibit features Lincoln-related items, including a piece of fabric purportedly stained with his blood and a large American flag that was displayed with his casket in Albany.
On Friday, the National Park Service hosted an event at Federal Hall in New York City. An estimated 500,000 New Yorkers tried to view Lincoln’s casket when it was displayed at City Hall. Many were still waiting in line when the casket was readied for the journey to Albany.
The train’s arrival in Buffalo will be remembered with events in that city on Sunday and Monday.
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