After the April 14, 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, a three-week series of events mourned his death and memorialized his life. Funeral services and lyings in state were held in Washington, D.C., and then in additional cities as a funeral train transported his remains for burial in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois.
Lincoln’s eldest son Robert Todd rode the train to Baltimore and then disembarked and returned to the White House. Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd Lincoln remained at the White House because she was too distraught to make the trip.
Robert took a later train to Springfield for his father’s final funeral and burial.The remains of Lincoln’s youngest son, William Wallace Lincoln (1850–1862)were also placed on the train,
which left Washington, D.C., on April 21 at 12:30 pm and traveled 1,654 miles (2,662 km) never exceeding 20 mph to the final stop at Springfield, arriving on May 3. Several stops,
in principal cities and state capitals, were made along the way in which ceremonies and processions were held. The train largely retraced the route Lincoln had traveled to Washington as the president-elect on his way to his first inauguration, more than four years earlier.
