Disconnected from Death: The Evolution of Funerary Customs and the Unmasking of Death in America by April Slaughter & Troy Taylor

Author:April Slaughter & Troy Taylor [Slaughter, April]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

A TICKET FOR ADMITTANCE TO THE LINCOLN FUNERAL IN THE EAST WING OF THE WHITE HOUSE. THE BLACK BORDER BECAME A TRADITIONAL LOOK FOR MOURNING CARDS AND CORRESPONDENCE

On Wednesday, Lincoln’s body rested in the East Room, which was now hushed and dim and draped in hundreds of yards of black crepe. Upstairs, Mary was locked in her room, too deranged from grief and hysterical weeping to attend the services. Tad tried to console her. Though stricken himself, Tad would throw his arms about his mother’s neck and plead with her, “Don’t cry so, Momma! Don’t cry, or you will make me cry, too! You will break my heart!” But it was no use, Mary was simply too crazed to be able to pull herself together.

Services began around 11:00 a.m. To thwart gate-crashers, funeral guests were not allowed direct entry into the Executive Mansion. Instead, guards directed the bearers of the 600 coveted tickets, printed on heavy card stock, next door, to the Treasury Department. From there, they crossed a narrow, elevated wooden footbridge, built just for the occasion, which led into the White House. As guests entered the building, none of them knew what to expect. The East Room overwhelmed them with its decorations, flowers, and the catafalque. It was an unprecedented scene. Two presidents had died in office, William Henry Harrison in 1841 and Zachary Taylor in 1850, but their funerals were not as grand or elaborate as this. No president had been so honored in death, not even George Washington, who, after modest services, rested in a simple tomb in Virginia.

The scene lives on today only in the written accounts of those who were there and a few artist’s sketches and newspaper illustrations. No one took a photograph, before or during the funeral. It could have been done. Alexander Gardner had photographed more complex scenes, including the second inaugural, where he took close-ups of the East Front platform and one of his operators had managed to take a long view of the Capitol dome while Lincoln was reading his address. Edwin Stanton had failed to invite Gardner, or his rival Matthew Brady, to preserve the history of Lincoln’s funeral.

The guests crowded into the East Room. Robert Lincoln, his face ashen and grave, was wearing his military uniform and he stood at the foot of the coffin. He tightly held the hand of his little brother and Tad trembled, his face swollen with tears. General Ulysses S. Grant, a black mourning band on one arm, sat alone at the other end, staring at a cross of lilies. He began to cry, unable to believe what had happened. He would always maintain that this was the saddest day of his life. By now, nearly all of Washington was there, including President Andrew Johnson and his Cabinet, Charles Sumner and his congressional colleagues, numerous military officials, Lincoln’s personal cavalry escort, his secretaries and bodyguards, and mayors and government delegates from across the country.

Four different ministers spoke and prayed for Lincoln and after that, 12 reserve corps sergeants carried his casket out to the funeral car.

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