The Backstory: Millions gazed at Lincoln's decomposing face

last chance to connect with their martyred president. Thus began a train trip through hundreds of towns, with stops in thirteen cities, where people got to look at Lincoln in his open coffin as his body began to decompose. I'm Patty Steele. The funeral train seen in person by fully one third of all Americans. That's next on the backstory.

The backstory is back. Can you imagine the nation respecting and loving a political figure so much that millions of people turn out to offer a last goodbye when he dies, A full third of the US population. As we close in on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's shooting by John Wilds Booth on April fourteenth, and of his death early the next morning on the fifteenth. We need to understand

the intense devotion so many Americans felt for him. The level of grief people felt was overwhelming, especially since his assassination came just five days after the official end of the brutal Civil War on April ninth, eighteen sixty five. Nobody was ready to let him go, but what to do. Mary Lincoln was so freaked out about her husband's death she didn't leave her bed in the White House for

six weeks afterwards. She didn't go to Abes's funeral, and she saw almost no one, including her two sons, Robert, who was twenty two and Tad, who had just turned twelve. Mary had always been sort of jealous of the time her husband gave to his job, and now that he was dead, she wanted him all to herself. She wanted Abe's body to take the most direct route home to Springfield, Illinois,

where he would be buried. Problem is Secretary of War Edwin Stanton felt the nation needed a chance to say goodbye. In the aftermath of the Civil War, which again had ended just five days before Lincoln's assassination. Stanton pushed Mary to approve a whole different trip home, and his plan won. That trip would take his body on an almost seventeen hundred mile journey through four hundred cities and towns in seven states, with stops in thirteen major cities where his

coffin would be taken to public buildings. Lincoln would lie in state with the coffin lid open, while hundreds of thousands of people filed past for one last peak. The railroad journey retraced the whistle stops Lincoln had made from his home in Springfield, the Illinois capital, to Washington, d c. The nation's capital, four years earlier, just before his inauguration.

The funeral car called the United States had actually been built as sort of the eighteen sixties version of Air Force One, meant to carry Lincoln on any trips he needed to make as president. It was state of the art, even able to adjust to different sized tracks. It was a presidential office on wheels. The car was lavishly decorated with luxurious blood red silk upholstery, etched glass windows, paneling in walnut and oak, with gilded trim and crystal chandeliers.

It took several years to build, but Lincoln had never ridden in it for two reasons, it was only finished several months before his death, and because it was a bit ostentatious for his very simple tastes. So the president's corpse was carefully prepared for burial, and the long trip west a tough task, especially because his body would be

on display to masses of people. There had been huge advances in the embalming of bodies during the Civil War that had allowed the unrefrigerated bodies of thousands and thousands of soldiers to be sent home to their families for burial, so those advancements were also used on Abe Lincoln's body. The chief embalmer was a guy named Charles Brown. He told the big wigs and the press there would be no obvious change in Lincoln's appearance by the end of

this lengthy trip west. He told the Chicago Tribune, the body of the President will never know decay. Well, not so much, but we'll get to that part. At dawn on April twenty first, Lincoln's black mahogany coffin was placed on a hearse, which in those days kind of looked a little like a scary float in a parade. It was pulled by horses from the US Capitol, where it had spent two nights lying in state, to the train station.

Soldiers gripped the coffin silver handles and placed it in the railroad car, Lincoln's first and last ride in it. They also carried in a small all coffin that held the body of Willie Lincoln, the president's eleven year old son, who had died of typhoid fever three years earlier. His coffin had been held in a vault in Georgetown Cemetery where his parents could visit him, ironically waiting to return

to Springfield for burial after his dad left office. Over the twelve day trip, the train, pulled by an engine with Lincoln's portrait on the front, traveled through four hundred cities and towns. No matter the time of day, both sides of the track were filled with people paying their respects, praying, catching a quick look at the coffin, or just observing. Towns had built elaborate decorated archways over the tracks. There

were bonfires blazing all along it. There were choirs and performances. Trackside, there were tiny children and very old people. They all wanted to say goodbye and maybe be a part of history. There were thirteen major stops where Lincoln's coffin was taken off the train, placed on a horse drawn hearse, and taken to a public building for viewing. In Philadelphia, Lincoln's body lay in state next to the Liberty Bell in

Independence Hall for twenty hours. During that time, one hundred and fifty thousand people filed past his open coffin after waiting in a line that was three miles long. Even larger crowds came out in New York City. There a half million spectators, including six year old Teddy Roosevelt, who watched from a second floor window in his family's mansion, saw sixteen horses pull an elaborate hearse. Hundreds of thousands

filed past his open casket at City Hall. As the days progressed, it became pretty clear the embalmer had overestimated his skills. Folks said Lincoln's eyes began to sink into his skull, and his skin darkened and withered as he decomposed. The New York Evening Post said, it is not the genial,

kindly face of Abraham Lincoln. It is but a ghastly shadow. Yikes, But the Embalmer along on the trip to care for the body, pretended all was well, saying to the press, no perceptible change has taken place in the body of the late President since it left Washington. But he tried to hide Lincoln's darkening face by loading it with chalk

white makeup. As for the smell of rotting flesh, they continually doused the body with the perfume of lilacs and camellias, which only added to the miasma as you can imagine. The funeral train finally reached Springfield, Illinois on May third, after a sixteen hundred forty five mile journey. Lincoln was home. There was a twenty four hour public viewing there in the Illinois state capital. Finally, Lincoln's coffin was closed on

the morning of May fourth. He and his little boy Willie were laid to rest at Oakridge Cemetery inside a limestone vault. The doors and iron grating were sealed. But during the almost three weeks since his death, over one and a half million had seen Lincoln in his coffin, and more than seven million, a full third of the entire US population, had watched his coffin go by. As they waited by the side of the train tracks. President Abraham Lincoln was finally at rest. Hope you're enjoying The

Backstory with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me if you have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premieer Networks, the Elvis Durand Group and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new

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