ALBANY >> The 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train, which took the slain president’s remains on a slow journey from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill., comes to New York this weekend, with events in New York City, Albany and Buffalo.
The National Park Service program includes stops in each of the cities that held services for Lincoln, who was assassinated on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, and was buried in Springfield, Ill., on May 3. In its size and scope, there has not been a funeral as big as Lincoln’s before or since in U.S. history.
The Capitol will be open for special Lincoln-themed tours on Saturday, and re-enactors and a Lincoln performer will be in place. “We are going to video it because history is so popular here,” Heather Groll, a spokeswoman for state Office of General Services, said Thursday.
The solemn procession began in Washington, D.C., on April 18 with a public viewing of Lincoln’s remains. It continued the following day as the body was taken by a slow-moving train to Baltimore, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. The body of Lincoln’s son, William, who had died from a childhood illness at age 11 in 1862, was also on the train.
The New York City public viewing of Lincoln’s body was held from 1 p.m. on April 24 until 11:40 a.m. on April 25 in City Hall. The Albany viewing was from 1:15 a.m. until 2 p.m. on April 26 in the old State Capitol, which no longer exists. It was located on State Street where a park now is located on the east side of the Capitol, and was torn down when the new building went up later in the 19th century.
The Buffalo viewing was April 27 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in St. James Hall, a gathering place that also no longer exists. It stood on the site of what is now One M&T Plaza, which is a modern office tower.
The train made other stops in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois before arriving in Springfield for the burial. The train passed through hundreds of communities, including dozens in New York state.
The trip’s route attracted spectators in Manhattanville, Yonkers, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown, Sing-Sing, Peekskill, Garrison’s Landing (opposite West Point), Cold Spring, Fishkill, New Hamburg, Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, Staatsburg, Rhinebeck, Barrytown, Tivoli, Germantown, Hudson, Stockport, Coxsackie, Stuyvesant, Schodack, and Castleton. The train arrived in Rensselaer late at night and the body was taken by ferry across the Hudson River to the Capitol.
The Lincoln Special later traveled through Troy, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Fonda, Fort Plain, Little Falls, St. Johnsville, Herkimer, Utica, Canajoharie, Oneida, Syracuse, Rochester, Batavia and Hamburg before arriving in Buffalo.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, Civil War re-enactors representing the 123rd New York Volunteers, the 125th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the 26th USCT, the 7th New York Heavy Artillery, and several other recreated Civil War units will gather in West Capitol Park near Swan Street and begin a ceremonial march down Washington Avenue to East Capitol Park where they will conduct a memorial service honoring President Lincoln.
The re-enactors will march and talk to visitors afterwards, and a 12-pound Mountain Howitzer replica cannon that is part of the 7th New York Heavy Artillery will also be on display throughout the day in East Capitol Park.
Free Capitol tours will be offered on the hour from 2 to 6 p.m., starting from the Senate staircase.
At 3:30 pm and 6:30 p.m. a living history performance will be held for ticket holders only. “Musicians Anne and Ridley Enslow, dressed in 1860s costumes, will recapture the drama and pathos of the great American Civil War through songs and tunes,” according to organizers. “This will be followed by a first person interpretative program presented by noted Lincoln impersonator Fritz Klein that focuses on Lincoln’s hopes and dreams for the country during his tenure as president.”
Groll said no more tickets are available, but the public is encouraged to come and see the re-enactors and tour the Capitol. Plans are to eventually make the video of the Lincoln program publicly available.
“The Capitol is going to be open on Saturday and doing tours,” Groll said. “For a lot of people who have family and work and stuff who can’t come and do that during the weekdays, it’s really nice.”
