1.
Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, in doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, in 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained little support in the slaveholding states of the South. Subsequently, on April 12,1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage and his Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war and his primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. On April 14,1865, five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days later on April 26, Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U. S. presidents. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12,1809, the child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk to its namesake of Hingham, samuels grandson and great-grandson began the familys western migration, which passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincolns paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, the presidents father
2.
Early life and career of Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12,1809, in a one-room log cabin at Sinking Spring farm, south of Hodgenville, in Hardin County, Kentucky. After a land title dispute forced the family to leave, they relocated to Knob Creek farm, by 1814 Thomas Lincoln, Abrahams father, had lost most of his land in Kentucky in legal disputes over land titles. In 1816 Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, their daughter, Sarah, and seven-year-old Abraham moved to Indiana. Abraham spent his years, from the age of 7 to 21. As was common on the frontier, Lincoln received a formal education. However, Lincoln continued to learn on his own life experiences. In 1818, two years after their arrival in Indiana, nine-year-old Lincoln lost his mother, Nancy. Thomas returned to Kentucky the following year and married Sarah Bush Johnson, Abrahams new step-mother and her three children joined the Lincoln family in Indiana in 1819. A second tragedy befell the family in 1828, when Abrahams sister, Sarah, in 1830 twenty-one-year-old Abraham joined his extended family in a move to Illinois. After helping his father establish a farm in Macon County, Illinois, Lincoln worked as a boatman, store clerk, surveyor, militia soldier, and became a lawyer in Illinois. He was elected to the Illinois Legislature in 1834, and was reelected in 1836,1838,1840, in 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd, the couple had four sons. In addition to his law career, Lincoln continued his involvement in politics and he was elected president of the United States in 1860. Lincolns first known ancestor in America was Samuel Lincoln, who migrated from England to Hingham, Massachusetts, Samuels son, Mordecai, remained in Massachusetts, but Samuels grandson, who was also named Mordecai, began the familys western migration. John Lincoln, Samuels great-grandson, continued the westward journey, born in New Jersey, John moved to Pennsylvania, then brought his family to Virginia. Johns son, Captain Abraham Lincoln, who earned that rank for his service in the Virginia militia, was the future presidents paternal grandfather, born in Pennsylvania, he moved with his father and other family members to Virginias Shenandoah Valley around 1766. The family settled near Linville Creek, in Augusta County, now Rockingham County, Captain Lincoln bought the Virginia property from his father in 1773. Thomas Lincoln, the presidents father, was Captain Lincolns son. Thomas was born in Virginia and moved west to Jefferson County, Kentucky, with his father, mother, and siblings in the 1780s, in 1786, at the age of forty-two, Captain Abraham was killed in an Indian ambush while working his field in Kentucky
3.
Presidency of Abraham Lincoln
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Lincoln was the first member of the recently-established Republican Party elected to the presidency. He was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson, a former Whig politician, Lincoln ran on a political platform opposing the policies of the Pierce and Buchanan administrations that would have preserved slavery for the foreseeable future. His election served as the impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. During the 16 weeks between Election Day and Inauguration Day, seven slave states declared their secession from the Union, after being sworn in as president, Lincoln refused to accept any resolution that would result in Southern secession from the Union. Despite having limited experience, Lincoln was first and foremost a war president, as the Civil War began just weeks into his presidency. Lincoln was called on to both the political and military aspects of the war, facing challenges in both spheres. Lincoln also became the first president to institute a military draft, Lincolns 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed about 3 million slaves in Confederate-held territory. In 1865, Lincoln was instrumental in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, Lincoln also presided over the passage of important domestic legislation, including the first of the Homestead Acts, the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, and the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. Lincoln ran for re-election in 1864 on the National Union ticket, though Lincoln feared he might lose the contest, he defeated his former subordinate, General George B. McClellan of the Democratic Party, in a landslide. Lincolns assassination five days after the surrender of General Robert E. Lee left the challenge of reconstructing the nation to others. Political historians have long held Lincoln in high regard for his accomplishments, Lincoln was in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois on election day. He voted in mid-afternoon and spent the rest of the day discussing politics, primarily local and he took a few hours off at 5,00 pm to have dinner at home with his family. He returned to the capitol, but by 9,00 p. m. he had moved to the telegraph office where he could observe first hand as the election returns were reported. It was after midnight before the news reached Lincoln that he had carried New York. As Lincoln received visitors and mail in Springfield, people expressed their concern about events in the South. Many expected Lincoln to somehow provide reassurances to the South that their interests were not being threatened, I am not at liberty to shift my ground -- that is out of the question. If I thought a repetition would do any good I would make it, but my judgment is it would do positive harm. The secessionists, per se believing they had alarmed me, would all the louder
4.
1860 Republican National Convention
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Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for President of the United States and Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice President. Lincolns nomination was a surprise, as the favorite before the convention had been former Governor of New York, Lincolns campaign manager, David Davis, is credited for Lincolns victory over Thurlow Weed, Sewards campaign manager. Lincoln-Hamlin went on to three other major tickets that year, including Democratic nominee Stephen A. Douglas, U. S. While the Republican Presidential effort on behalf of the 43-year-old Colonel John C, frémont in the 1856 election had met with failure, party gains were made throughout the Northern United States as the sectional crisis over slavery intensified. Party leaders sought to hold their 1860 nominating convention in the burgeoning Middle Western trade center of Chicago, the Convention commanded the interest and attention of a multitude of curious citizens who crowded the Wigwam to the rafters. Some 86 votes were apportioned to the six states of New England, slave and border states with substantial delegations under the rules included Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri. The total of all credentialed delegate votes was 466, with the convention called to order on May 16, former U. S. Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania was elected chairman of the gathering. He had been the author in 1848 of the Wilmot Proviso which would have banned slavery from new states incorporated into the Union. That interest has wrested, and is now wresting, all the powers of this government to the one object of the extension and nationalization of slavery. It is our purpose, gentlemen, it is the mission of the Republican Party and it is our purpose and our policy to resist these new constitutional dogmas that slavery exists by virtue of the constitution wherever the banner of the Union floats. Organizational tasks filled the rest of the first days activities, including the appointment of a Credentials Committee, there were no contested seats although a delegation purporting to represent the state of Texas was ruled ineligible by the Credentials Committee. A Platform Committee was also named, including one delegate from every state and this committee began its work at once and completed its task with a report on the evening of the second day, May 17. This Amendment was initially rejected by the convention, prompting a walkout by its proposer, the matter was hastily reconsidered by the Convention, and with the addition of the amendment the disgruntled Mr. Giddings returned to his seat, crisis resolved. With the Democrats in disarray and with a sweep of the Northern states possible, Senator William H. Seward of New York was generally expected to get the nomination. Other candidates seeking the nomination at the convention included Lincoln, Governor of Ohio Salmon P. Chase, representative Edward Bates of Missouri, and U. S. As the convention developed, however, it was revealed that Seward, Chase, delegates were concerned that Seward was too closely identified with the radical wing of the party, and his moves toward the center had alienated the radicals. German-Americans in the party opposed Bates because of his past association with the Know-Nothings and it was essential to carry the West, and Lincoln was a prominent Westerner
5.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
6.
Emancipation Proclamation
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The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1,1863. It purported to change the legal status of more than 3 million enslaved people in the designated areas of the South from slave to free. It had the effect that as soon as a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, by running away or through advances of federal troops. Eventually it reached and liberated all of the designated slaves and it was issued as a war measure during the American Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the executive branch of the United States. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in ten states, because it was issued under the Presidents authority to suppress rebellion, it necessarily excluded areas not in rebellion – it applied to more than 3 million of the 4 million slaves at the time. The Proclamation was based on the constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces. The Proclamation was issued in January 1863 after U, the Proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not outlaw slavery, and did not grant citizenship to the ex-slaves. It made the eradication of slavery a war goal, in addition to the goal of reuniting the Union. Around 20,000 to 50,000 slaves in regions where rebellion had already been subdued were immediately emancipated. Prior to the Proclamation, in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, also specifically excluded were some regions already controlled by the Union army. On September 22,1862, Lincoln issued a warning that he would order the emancipation of all slaves in any state that did not end its rebellion against the Union by January 1,1863. None of the Confederate states restored themselves to the Union, and Lincolns order was signed, the Emancipation Proclamation outraged white Southerners who envisioned a race war. It angered some Northern Democrats, energized anti-slavery forces, and undermined elements in Europe that wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy, the Proclamation lifted the spirits of African Americans both free and slave. It led many slaves to escape from their masters and get to Union lines to obtain their freedom, the Emancipation Proclamation broadened the goals of the Civil War. While slavery had been an issue that led to the war. The Proclamation made freeing the slaves an explicit goal of the Union war effort, establishing the abolition of slavery as one of the two primary war goals served to deter intervention by Britain and France. The Emancipation Proclamation was never challenged in court, to ensure the abolition of slavery in all of the U. S. Lincoln pushed for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Congress passed it by the necessary two-thirds vote on January 31,1865, the United States Constitution of 1787 did not use the word slavery but included several provisions about unfree persons
7.
Gettysburg Address
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The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U. S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history. Abraham Lincolns carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, was one of the greatest and most influential statements of national purpose, Lincoln also redefined the Civil War as a struggle not just for the Union, but also for the principle of human equality. Despite the speechs prominent place in the history and popular culture of the United States, the five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address in Lincolns hand differ in a number of details, and also differ from contemporary newspaper reprints of the speech. Following the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1–3,1863, reburial of Union soldiers from the Gettysburg Battlefield graves began on October 17, Lincolns address followed the oration by Edward Everett, who subsequently included a copy of the Gettysburg Address in his 1864 book about the event. During the train trip from Washington, D. C. to Gettysburg on November 18, on the morning of November 19, Lincoln mentioned to John Nicolay that he was dizzy. Hay noted that during the speech Lincolns face had a ghastly color, after the speech, when Lincoln boarded the 6,30 pm train for Washington, D. C. he was feverish and weak, with a severe headache. A protracted illness followed, which included a vesicular rash and was diagnosed as a case of smallpox. It thus seems likely that Lincoln was in the prodromal period of smallpox when he delivered the Gettysburg address. The program organized for that day by Wills and his committee included, Music, by Birgfelds Band Prayer, by Reverend T. H. Stockton, D. D. Music, by the Marine Band, directed by Francis Scala Oration, by Hon. Edward Everett Music, but the duty to which you have called me must be performed, —grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and your sympathy. Lengthy dedication addresses like Everetts were common at cemeteries in this era, the tradition began in 1831 when Justice Joseph Story delivered the dedication address at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Those addresses often linked cemeteries to the mission of Union, shortly after Everetts well-received remarks, Lincoln spoke for only a few minutes. With a few appropriate remarks, he was able to summarize his view of the war in just ten sentences, of these versions, the Bliss version, written well after the speech as a favor for a friend, is viewed by many as the standard text. Its text differs, however, from the versions prepared by Lincoln before. It is the version to which Lincoln affixed his signature. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war and we have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this, but, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground
8.
1864 National Union National Convention
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The party name was created in May 1864, during the American Civil War, ahead of the 1864 presidential election, in which President Abraham Lincoln, then a Republican, was running for reelection. Frémont, who had been the Republicans first presidential nominee during the 1856 election, the convention dropped then-Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, a Radical Republican from the ticket, and chose War Democrat Andrew Johnson as Lincolns running mate. The National Unionists hoped that the new party and the Lincoln-Johnson ticket would stress the national character of the war and it also praised the use of black troops and Lincolns management of the war. On the first ballot, Missouri delegates cast their 22 votes for General Ulysses S. Grant, the Missourians quickly changed their votes to make Lincoln’s renomination unanimous. Andrew Johnson, the former Senator from and current Military Governor of Tennessee, was named as Lincolns running-mate, in keeping with the tradition of the time, Lincoln did not attend the convention
9.
Reconstruction Era
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Johnson followed a lenient policy toward ex-Confederates. Lincolns last speeches show that he was leaning toward supporting the enfranchisement of all freedmen, whereas Johnson was opposed to this. A Republican coalition came to power in all the southern states and set out to transform the society by setting up a free labor economy, using the U. S. Army. The Bureau protected the rights of freedmen, negotiated labor contracts. Thousands of Northerners came South as missionaries, teachers, businessmen, rebuilding the rundown railroad system was a major strategy, but it collapsed when a nationwide depression struck the economy. The Radicals in the House of Representatives, frustrated by Johnsons opposition to Congressional Reconstruction, filed impeachment charges, in early 1866, Congress passed the Freedmens Bureau and Civil Rights Bills and sent them to Johnson for his signature. Meanwhile, self-styled Conservatives strongly opposed reconstruction and they alleged widespread corruption by the Carpetbaggers, excessive state spending and ruinous taxes. Southern democrats and conservatives violently counterattacked and had regained power in each redeemed Southern state by 1877, meanwhile, public support for Reconstruction policies, requiring continued supervision of the South, faded in the North, as voters decided that the Civil War and years of conflict should stop. Reconstruction was a significant chapter in the history of civil rights in the United States, in the different states Reconstruction began and ended at different times, federal Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877. In recent decades most historians follow Foner in dating the Reconstruction of the south as starting in 1863 rather than 1865, Reconstruction policies were debated in the North when the war began, and commenced in earnest after Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1,1863. As Confederate states came back under control of the US Army, President Abraham Lincoln set up reconstructed governments in Tennessee, Arkansas and he experimented by giving land to blacks in South Carolina. By fall 1865, the new President Andrew Johnson declared the war goals of national unity, Republicans in Congress, refusing to accept Johnsons lenient terms, rejected new members of Congress, some of whom had been high-ranking Confederate officials a few months before. Johnson broke with the Republicans after vetoing two key bills that supported the Freedmens Bureau and provided federal civil rights to the freedmen and that same year, Congress removed civilian governments in the South, and placed the former Confederacy under the rule of the U. S. Army. In ten states, coalitions of freedmen, recent black and white arrivals from the North, Conservative opponents called the Republican regimes corrupt and instigated violence toward freedmen and whites who supported Reconstruction. Most of the violence was carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan, Klan members attacked and intimidated blacks seeking to exercise their new civil rights, as well as Republican politicians in the south favoring those civil rights. One such politician murdered by the Klan on the eve of the 1868 presidential election was Republican Congressman James M. Hinds of Arkansas, widespread violence in the south led to federal intervention by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1871, which suppressed the Klan. Nevertheless, white Democrats, calling themselves Redeemers, regained control of the state by state, sometimes using fraud. The end of Reconstruction was a process, and the period of Republican control ended at different times in different states
10.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
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Lincoln was the third American president to die in office, and the first to be murdered. An unsuccessful attempt had made on Andrew Jackson 30 years prior, in 1835. The assassination of Lincoln was planned and carried out by the stage actor John Wilkes Booth. By simultaneously eliminating the top three people in the administration, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to disrupt the United States government. As the President was watching the play, Booth shot Lincoln from behind at a distance of three or four feet, hitting him in the back of the head. At 7,22 a. m. the following day, the rest of the conspirators plot failed, Powell only managed to wound Seward, while Atzerodt, Johnsons would-be assassin, lost his nerve and fled. Booth made an escape, resulting in a lengthy manhunt that ended in his death. Several other conspirators were tried and hanged. The funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln was a period of extended national mourning, John Wilkes Booth, originally from Maryland, was a proud Southerner and an outspoken Confederate sympathizer. In late 1860, Booth was initiated in the pro-Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle in Baltimore, born into a family of well-known stage actors, Booth had become a famous actor and a nationally recognized celebrity in his own right by the time of the assassination. In March 1864, Ulysses S. Grant, the general of all the Unions armies. As harsh as it may have been on the prisoners of both sides, Grant realized the exchange was prolonging the war by returning soldiers to the outnumbered and manpower-starved South. John Wilkes Booth conceived a plan to kidnap President Lincoln and deliver him to the Confederate Army, Booth recruited Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael OLaughlen, Lewis Powell, and John Surratt to help him. Surratts mother, Mary Surratt, left her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland and moved to a house in Washington, while Booth and Lincoln were not personally acquainted, Lincoln had seen Booth in The Marble Heart at Fords on November 9,1863. Subsequently Lincoln sent a invitation backstage inviting Booth to visit the White House, afterwards, actor Frank Mordaunt stated that Booth evaded multiple invitations from the president. Lincoln was an admirer of the man who assassinated him and that actor was John Wilkes Booth. Booth attended Lincolns second inauguration on March 4,1865, as the invited guest of his secret fiancée Lucy Hale, daughter of John P. Hale, soon to become United States Ambassador to Spain. Booth afterwards wrote in his diary, What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, on March 17,1865, Booth informed his conspirators that Lincoln would be attending a play, Still Waters Run Deep, at Campbell Military Hospital
11.
Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln
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The funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln included a three-week series of events in 1865 held to mourn the Presidents death and memorialize him. The body was accompanied by dignitaries, Lincolns eldest son Robert Todd rode the train to Baltimore and then disembarked and returned to the White House. Lincolns 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 fathers final funeral and burial. Several stops were made along the way, in which Lincolns body lay in state, the train retraced the route Lincoln had traveled to Washington as the president-elect on his way to his first inauguration. Millions of Americans viewed the train along the route, and participated in the ceremonies, Lincoln was interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. Mary Todd Lincoln and three of their four sons are buried there. Because of the length of the funeral, historians have called this event The Greatest Funeral in the History of the United States. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, his body was carried by a guard to the White House on Saturday April 15,1865. He lay in state in the East Room of the White House which was open to the public on Tuesday, the body again laid in state on the 20th and on the early morning of the following day a prayer service was held for the Lincoln cabinet. At 7 a. m. on Friday, April 21, Edwin M. Stanton, Gideon Welles, Hugh McCulloch, John Palmer Usher, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, and Montgomery C. Meigs left the escort at the depot, and at 8 A. M. the train departed, at least 10,000 people witnessed the trains departure from Washington. The funeral train consisted of nine cars, including a baggage, the car had been draped in mourning and contained the coffins of Lincoln and his son. Different locomotives were used on different stretches of the trip, the train was preceded by a pilot locomotive with one car to see that the track ahead was unobstructed. No person was allowed to be transported on the cars except those authorized by the War Department, M. Smith, Brigadier General John Blair Smith Todd, a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln, and Charles Alexander Smith, the brother of C. M. Smith. Caldwell, Alfred Terry, George D. Ramsey, and Daniel McCallum, Union Navy Rear Admiral Charles Henry Davis and Captain William Rogers Taylor, and Marine Corps Major Thomas H. Field. Four accompanied the train in a capacity, Captain Charles Penrose, as quartermaster and commissary of subsistence, Ward Hill Lamon, Lincolns longtime bodyguard and friend. Marshal for the District of Columbia, and Dr. Charles B. Brown and Frank T. Sands, embalmer and undertaker, respectively. Governor Oliver P. Morton of Indiana, Governor John Brough of Ohio, Lincolns funeral train was the first national commemoration of a presidents death by rail
