Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse by James L. Swanson

Author:James L. Swanson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Autobiography.Historical Figures, History, General
ISBN: 9780061233784
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

THE NOTORIOUS GURNEY IMAGE, TAKEN INSIDE NEW YORK CITY HALL. EDWARD D. TOWNSEND STANDS AT THE FOOT OF THE COFFIN IN THE ONLY SURVIVING PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN IN DEATH.

and his assistant, Mr. G. W. Hawes, removed the dust from the face and habiliments of the dead…and the lid was silently screwed down without form or ceremony, and with none but a few officers and orderlies and a couple of reporters as witnesses. The…bearers, eight in number, sergeants of the Veteran Reserve, stationed themselves on each side of the coffin, and remained there motionless as statues awaiting further orders.”

At 12:30 p.m. the hearse, drawn by sixteen white horses, began traveling uptown to the depot of the Hudson River Railroad on Twenty-ninth Street. One hundred and twenty-five people had viewed the corpse. Five hundred thousand stood along the procession route.

A TIME FOR WEEPING, BUT VENGEANCE IS NOT SLEEPING, read one of the signs posted along the parade route.

The hearse stopped for an oration at Union Square, and by 3:00 p.m., the head of the procession arrived at the Hudson River Railroad depot. But it took another half hour for the hearse to reach the embarkation point.

The spectacular events in New York City outdid all previous public honors for the late president, even those conducted in the national capital. The New York Times congratulated the people of Gotham: “As a mere pageant, the vast outpouring of the people, the superb military display, the solemn grandeur and variety thrown into the procession by the numberless national, friendly, trade and other civic societies; the grand accomplishment of music; and, above all, the subdued demeanor of the countless multitude of onlookers, made the day memorable beyond the experience of the living generation.”

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