Showing posts with label Lincoln's Funeral. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lincoln's Funeral. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Brigadier-General Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, April 19, 1865

NEW CREEK, WEST VIRGINIA, April 19, 1865.

MY DARLING:— I have just returned from Cumberland to meet Dr. Joe from Winchester and to see the funeral ceremonies, etc., at department headquarters.

Had a good time. I feel the national loss, but even that is nothing compared to the joy I feel that this awful war is ended in our favor. Joe and I moralized over it, and agreed that no one man, not even so great a one as Lincoln, was anything by the side of the grand events of the month.* We are to leave the service hereafter when things take shape a little, if possible at the same time.

I asked you in a late letter to be ready to come to me on short notice. I, or somebody, will meet you at Parkersburg or somewhere. Come without much baggage ready to travel. We will perhaps take a journey of three weeks or so when I quit. Joe will go along and possibly two of my staff. Can we take Birch without Webb? Can you leave George?

I am so anxious to be with you. Your letter of the 5th, which I find here, is the first I have from you in a great while. I am so happy in the prospect of being with you for good soon. Reply at once.

Affectionately, ever,
R.
MRS. HAYES.
_______________

* See Dr. Joseph T. Webb to Maria Cook Webb, April 20, 1865

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 578

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, April 17, 1865

I was actively engaged in bringing forward business which had been interrupted and suspended, issuing orders, and in arranging for the funeral solemnities of President Lincoln. Secretary Seward and his son continue in a low condition, and Mr. Fred Seward's life is precarious.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 291

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, April 18, 1865

Details in regard to the funeral, which takes place on the 19th, occupied general attention and little else than preliminary arrangements and conversation was done at the Cabinet-meeting. From every part of the country comes lamentation. Every house, almost, has some drapery, especially the homes of the poor. Profuse exhibition is displayed on the public buildings and the dwellings of the wealthy, but the little black ribbon or strip of black cloth from the hovel of the poor negro or the impoverished white is more touching.

I have tried to write something consecutively since the horrid transactions of Friday night, but I have no heart for it, and the jottings down are mere mementos of a period, which I will try to fill up when more composed, and I have leisure or time for the task.

Sad and painful, wearied and irksome, the few preceding incoherent pages have been written for future use, for the incidents are fresh in my mind and may pass away with me but cannot ever be by me forgotten.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 292

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, April 19, 1865

The funeral on Wednesday, the 19th, was imposing, sad, and sorrowful. All felt the solemnity, and sorrowed as if they had lost one of their own household. By voluntary action business was everywhere suspended, and the people crowded the streets.

The Cabinet met by arrangement in the room occupied by the President at the Treasury. We left a few minutes before meridian so as to be in the East Room at precisely twelve o'clock, being the last to enter. Others will give the details.

I rode with Stanton in the procession to the Capitol. The attendance was immense. The front of the procession reached the Capitol, it was said, before we started, and there were as many, or more, who followed us. A brief prayer was made by Mr. Gurley in the rotunda, where we left the remains of the good and great man we loved so well. Returning, I left Stanton, who was nervous and full of orders, and took in my carriage President Johnson and Preston King, their carriage having been crowded out of place. Coming down Pennsylvania Avenue after this long detention, we met the marching procession in broad platoons all the way to the Kirkwood House on Twelfth Street.

There were no truer mourners, when all were sad, than the poor colored people who crowded the streets, joined the procession, and exhibited their woe, bewailing the loss of him whom they regarded as a benefactor and father. Women as well as men, with their little children, thronged the streets, sorrow, trouble, and distress depicted on their countenances and in their bearing. The vacant holiday expression had given way to real grief. Seward, I am told, sat up in bed and viewed the procession and hearse of the President, and I know his emotion. Stanton, who rode with me, was uneasy and left the carriage four or five times.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 292-3

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, April 21, 1865

On the morning of Friday, the 21st, I went by appointment or agreement to the Capitol at 6 A.M. Stanton had agreed to call for me before six and take me in his carriage, the object being to have but few present when the remains were taken from the rotunda, where they had lain in state through Thursday, and were visited and seen by many thousands. As I knew Stanton to be uncertain and in some respects unreliable, I ordered my own carriage to be ready at an early hour. I wished also to take my sons with me to the obsequies, the last opportunity they or I would have to see the remains and to manifest our respect and regard for the man who had been the steady and abiding friend of their father. Stanton, as I expected, was late, and then informed me he had not, as he agreed he would, informed Governor Dennison of our purpose. He said he had to go for another friend, and wished me to take up Governor D. Not until I had got to Dennison's house was I aware of Stanton's neglect. It was then about six. Governor D., who had not yet risen, sent me word he would be ready in three minutes. I think he was not five. Stanton, I perceived, did not tell me the truth about another visitor. He moved in great haste himself, being escorted by the cavalry corps which had usually attended the President.

We hurried on, reached the Capitol, and entered the rotunda just as Mr. Gurley was commencing an earnest and impressive prayer. When it was concluded, the remains were removed and taken to the depot, where, in waiting, were a car and train prepared for the commencement of the long and circuitous journey of the illustrious dead to his last earthly resting-place in Springfield, in the great prairies of the West. We were, as we had intended, an hour in advance of the time, and thus avoided the crowd, which before the train departed thronged the roads and depot.

The meeting of the Cabinet was not protracted. Stanton did not bring forward his reconstruction or reëstablishing scheme. He seemed desirous of evading or avoiding the subject. I alluded to but did not care to press it, if no one seconded me. We discussed the measure of amnesty, and the Attorney-General expressed his views as to the construction which he would put upon the proclamation and declarations of the late President. Stanton and he, I perceived, were acting in concert, and one if not two others had been spoken to in advance.

Stanton called at my house about 6 P.M. and invited me to a hasty Cabinet convention at 8 P.M. on important matters requiring immediate action. When we had assembled, General Grant and Preston King were also present. Stanton briefly mentioned that General Grant had important communications from General Sherman, and requested that he would read them, which he did. It stated he had made a peace, if satisfactory, with the Rebels, etc., etc. This and everything relating to it will be spread before the world. Among the Cabinet and all present there was but one mind on this subject. The plan was rejected, and Sherman's arrangement disapproved. Stanton and Speed were emphatic in their condemnation, though the latter expressed personal friendship for Sherman. General Grant, I was pleased to see, while disapproving what Sherman had done, and decidedly opposed to it, was tender to sensitiveness of his brother officer and abstained from censure. Stanton came charged with specified objections, four in number, counting them off on his fingers. Some of his argument was apt and well, some of it not in good taste nor precisely pertinent.

It was decided that General Grant should immediately inform General Sherman that his course was disapproved, and that generals in the field must not take upon themselves to decide on political and civil questions, which belonged to the executive and civil service. The military commanders would press on and capture and crush out the Rebels.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 293-5

Monday, May 13, 2019

Diary of Captain Luman Harris Tenney: April 18, 1865

Had a very good night's rest. Up early. Pleasant visit with an Indiana man. Several Southern ladies on board the boat. Great gloom in Washington. Excitement very high. Went to White House and viewed the President's remains in state. Everybody on the alert to discover the conspirators. Drew pay for January and February. Took the evening train via Harrisburg. Read papers and slept. The whole nation in mourning. All business places draped.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 161

Diary of Captain Luman Harris Tenney: April 19, 1865

Reached Pittsburg at 2 P. M. Left on Cleveland train at 3. Pittsburg in mourning. Rode in company with a Cleveland man, Briggs, I believe. Pleasant visit. Gave me a detail of the working of the carrier P. O. system. Passed through Cleveland at 10 P. M. Stayed over at Grafton. The funeral of the President took place today. Ceremonies throughout the Union. Johnson bound to deal roughly with traitors.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 161

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Diary of Julia Ward Howe: Wednesday April 19, 1865

The day of President Lincoln's funeral. A sad, disconnected day. I could not work, but strolled around to see the houses, variously draped in black and white. Went to Bartol's church, not knowing of a service at our own. Bartol's remarks were tender and pathetic. I was pleased to have heard them.

Wrote some verses about the President — pretty good, perhaps, — scratching the last nearly in the dark, just before bedtime.

This is the poem called “Parricide.” It begins: —

O'er the warrior gauntlet grim
Late the silken glove we drew.
Bade the watch-fires slacken dim
In the dawn's auspicious hue.
Staid the armed heel;
Still the clanging steel;
Joys unwonted thrilled the silence through.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards & Maud Howe Elliott, Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, Large-Paper Edition, Volume 1, p. 221

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Edwin M. Stanton to Major-General John A. Dix, April 15, 1865 – 3 p.m.

WAR DEPARTMENT,         
April 15, 1865 3 p.m.
Major General DIX:

Official notice of the death of the late President Abraham Lincoln was given by the heads of Department this morning to Andrew Johnson, Vice-President, upon whom the Constitution devolved the office of President. Mr. Johnson upon receiving this notice appeared before the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the United States, and took the oath of office as President of the United States, and assumed its duties and functions. At 12 o'clock the President met the heads of Department in Cabinet meeting at the Treasury building, and among other business the following was transacted:

1. The arrangements for the funeral of the late President was referred to the several Secretaries, so far as relates to their respective Departments.

2. William Hunter, esq., was appointed Acting Secretary of State during the disability of Mr. Seward, and his son, Frederick Seward, the Assistant Secretary.

3. The President formally announced that he desired to retain the present Secretaries of Departments as his Cabinet, and that they would go on and discharge their respective duties in the same manner as before the deplorable event that had changed the head of the Government.

All business in the Departments was suspended during this day. The surgeons report that the condition of Mr. Seward remains unchanged. He is doing well. No improvement in Mr. Frederick Seward. The murderers have not yet been apprehended.

EDWIN M. STANTON,       
Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume 46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 781-2

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Diary of Corporal Charles H. Lynch: April 19, 1865

All duty except guard and picket suspended since the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. These are days of mourning. Officers wear crape on the left arm and on the hilts of swords for thirty days. The funeral takes place today in Washington. The towns-people have arranged for a funeral parade and service to be held in the Court House. Our regimental band is engaged to furnish the music for the procession. On the march a coffin was carried, making a solemn appearance as the funeral procession marched to the cemetery where the coffin was buried. The whole thing was in charge of the towns-people. It was a very strange proceeding in the eyes of down-east Yankees. It was a very solemn occasion all through, to the burial of the coffin.

SOURCE: Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary, 1862-1865, of Charles H. Lynch 18th Conn. Vol's, p. 149-50

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, April 27, 1865


Headquarters Army Of The Potomac,
Burksville, Va., April 27, 1865.

I have received your letters of the 22d and 23d insts. Such exhibitations as are now being made of the body of Mr. Lincoln, are always in my judgment in bad taste, and are never solemn or impressive. Still, as public ceremonies, I suppose they always will be, as they ever have been, necessary for the masses of people.

I cannot understand Sherman's course.1 I am very sorry for Sherman, no one can dispute that his services have been pre-eminent, and though he may have erred in judgment, and have mistaken the temper of the North, he is entitled to the considerations due to his past services, which should have shielded him from having his motives and loyalty impugned. I am curious to see whether Grant, when he joins him, will smother him as he did me.
_______________

1 General W. T. Sherman's terms for the surrender of General Johnston were repudiated by the authorities at Washington.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 277