Lincoln Funeral Story

At night, the torches and fireworks that illuminate it illuminate half of the North American continent. The funeral car carried Lincoln's body back to Illinois, and a large number of people lined the road to pay their respects. The car itself was wrapped in wrinkled silk; the locomotive, like the horses that pulled the hearse, was covered with a large black blanket dotted with silver stars. As the train moved slowly northward, more and more people gathered on both sides of the track, and their expressions became increasingly sad. , Before the train arrived at the Philadelphia station, it passed through miles of dense human walls; as it entered the city, thousands of people crowded the streets. The procession of mourners stretched 3 miles from Independence Hall. They spent 10 hours together, just to pay homage to Lincoln's body for a second. At midnight on Saturday, the hall door was closed, but the mourners refused to disperse and stayed in place all night. By 3 a.m. on Sunday, the crowd was even denser, and some young men were even selling their seats for 10 yuan. Soldiers and policemen tried their best to keep traffic flowing and avoid obstructions. Hundreds of women fainted, and veterans who had participated in the Battle of Gettysburg collapsed from exhaustion while struggling to maintain order. , The funeral was scheduled to be held in New York, and 24 hours beforehand, the excursion trains rolled into the city day and night, carrying the largest crowd in the city's history - the hotels were full, and they poured into private residences and rushed to parks and ship terminals. . , The next day, 16 white horses driven by black people pulled the hearse onto Broadway, and sad women threw flowers along the way. There was a rushing sound from behind - it was 160,000 mourners holding waving flags, which read: "Ah, regret, Iago - regret!" "Quiet, know that I am God" and other famous lines . , 500,000 people struggled and trampled each other, trying to see the long parade. The second-floor windows facing Broadway cost 40 yuan to rent per seat, and the windows were removed to accommodate as many spectators as possible. , The choir stood on the street corner in white robes and sang hymns; the band recited laments as they walked, and 100 cannons echoed over the city every 60 seconds. , The crowd sobbed beside the coffin at New York City Hall. Many people talked to the deceased, and some wanted to touch his face; one woman lowered her head and kissed the body when the guards were not paying attention. , After the coffin was closed at noon on Tuesday, thousands of people who were unable to pay their respects hurried westward to several other locations where the hearse would stay. Before the hearse arrived in Springfield, it was always surrounded by bells and salutes. During the day, it passed through the arch made of ivy and flowers, and passed by the hillside where children waved flags; at night, the torches and fireworks that illuminated it stretched across half of the North American continent. , The whole country went crazy with excitement. There had never been such a funeral in history. There are people everywhere who are broken down by overwork. A young New York man cut his throat with a razor and shouted, "I'm going to stay with Abraham Lincoln." Forty-eight hours after the assassination, a delegation of committee members rushed to Washington from Springfield and begged Mrs. Lincoln to bury her husband in his hometown. . At first she refused harshly. She knew she had few friends in Springfield. Although she had three sisters living there, she disliked two of them and despised another, and she was full of contempt for the gossipy little village of Springfield. She said to her black seamstress, "God, Elizabeth, I'll never come back to Springfield!", so she planned to bury Lincoln in Chicago, or in the Capitol where George had been buried. In the tomb built by Washington. , However, after everyone begged for seven days, she finally agreed to send her legacy back to Springfield Town. The town raised a public fund and bought a piece of land with four streets. The state council sent people to dig day and night and organize it into a cemetery. , On the morning of May 4th, the hearse finally entered the city. The cemetery had been completed. Thousands of Lincoln's old friends gathered together and were about to hold a ceremony. Mrs. Lincoln suddenly became furious and overturned the original plan to prevent the remains from being buried in the cemetery. in a good grave, and was to be buried two miles away in the woods at Oak Ridge Cemetery. , There must be no compromise on what she decides, and everything must be done according to her wishes. Otherwise, she will take "strong" measures to bring the body back to Washington. The reason for her objection was absurd: the tomb was built on "Mather Street" in the middle of Springfield, and Mrs. Lincoln looked down on the Mather family. A few years ago, the Mather family had made her angry. Now, facing her husband's body, she still did not forget the old grudge and did not agree to let Lincoln rest in the soil contaminated by the Mather family. , This woman has lived under the same roof for more than 20 years with her husband, who "does not hold grudges against anyone" and "spreads compassion all over the world." But her stubbornness prevented her from learning anything or changing anything.

So, at 11 o'clock, the body was taken out and moved to a public ossuary in Oak Ridge Cemetery. , "Fighter Joe Hooker" rode his horse to clear the way in front of the coffin, followed by "Old Buck", whose red, white and blue blanket was embroidered with the words "Old Abel's Favorite Horse". , "Old Buck" returned to the stable. Not even a fragment of the blanket on his body could be found; the souvenir hunters had stripped him naked. They raided the coffin like vultures and scrambled to grab the coffin cloth. They refused to stop until soldiers rushed towards them with bayonets. , After the assassination, Mrs. Lincoln lay in the White House crying for 5 weeks, refusing to leave her boudoir day and night. During this period, Elizabeth. Keckley stayed by her bedside, and Mrs. Keckley wrote: "I will never forget that scene - the heartbreaking wails, the strange screams, the terrifying convulsions, the wails from the depths of my soul. I washed Mrs. Lincoln's hair with cold water and tried my best to calm her down. Ted was as sad as his mother, but the terror of his mother's loss of control scared the little boy into silence. Ted often heard his mother's cries at night. Wearing white pajamas, he climbed out of bed and walked to his mother's bedside and said, "Don't cry, Mom; I can't sleep if you cry! Dad is fine. He is very happy there with God and brother Willie." Together. Don't cry, mother, or I will cry too. '", They ran together through the dark Maryland lowlands, dreaming of winning crazy applause in Dixie. When Booth shot Lincoln, Major Raspen, who was sitting in the box with the president, immediately jumped up to catch the assassin. But Booth slashed desperately with the hunting knife and made several deep cuts on the major's arm, making it impossible for the major to catch him. Booth quickly jumped over the railing of the box and jumped 12 feet below to the stage. The bayonet caught in the flag fold of the presidential box, causing him to fall awkwardly and break the bones of his left leg. , Severe pain spread throughout the body. He quickly regained his composure, brandished the knife while shouting Virginia's slogan "Always deal with tyrants like this" - and rushed across the stage, stabbing a musician who happened to be blocking his way and knocking down a female actress. Then he rushed out through the back door, jumped on the waiting horse, knocked out the boy pulling the horse "Peanut John" with the butt of his gun, and ran wildly down the street, the pony's steel hooves hitting the cobblestone road in the dark night. The friction caused little sparks. , He ran two miles through the city, passing by the Capitol Square. When the moon climbed over the treetops, he flew to the Anakossia Bridge. Sergeant Cobb, a federal sentry, rushed out with a rifle and bayonet and asked: "Who are you? Why do you come out late at night? Don't you know you are not allowed to cross the bridge after 9 o'clock?" Booth actually confessed his real name and said that he lived in Charles County, I went to the city for business and had to rush home by moonlight. That sounded reasonable; the war was over anyway, so why make a fuss? Sergeant Cobb lowered his rifle and let Booth pass. Minutes later, Booth's co-conspirator David. Harold also hurried across the Anakossia Bridge under the same pretext. After the two met at the agreed place, they ran together through the dark Maryland lowlands, dreaming that they would win crazy applause in Dexi. , At midnight, they stopped in front of an inn in Suratville. The owner was quite friendly; they fed the panting horses water; they asked for some binoculars, guns and ammunition; drank a dollar of whiskey; and then boasted that they He shot Lincoln and then disappeared into the night on his horse. , Originally, they planned to go straight to the Potomac River, so that they could reach the river early the next morning, and then row immediately to the other side of Virginia. It was a good plan, but it didn't anticipate that Booth would break his leg. That night, with Spartan perseverance, Booth endured the pain and galloped forward. He wrote in his diary: The bones that were broken into jagged shapes pulled the muscles with the horse's "first jump." ”, but he continued to run. It wasn't until he couldn't stand it anymore that he and Harold turned their horses to the left. Before dawn on Saturday, they stopped in front of the house of a country doctor--the doctor's name was Samuel. A. Mudd, lives 20 miles southeast of Washington. , Booth was weak and the wound hurt so much that he could not dismount. He had to be carried off the saddle by someone else and carried to the bedroom upstairs with a cry of pain. There were no telegraph lines or railroads in this remote area, so no one there knew of the president's assassination. Booth said he was crushed when his horse fell to the ground. Dr. Mudd did not raise any suspicion at all. He cut open the leather boot of Booth's left leg, joined the broken bones, tied them tightly with a splint made from a hat box, made a very simple crutch for the lame leg, and gave him a Only shoes for going out are allowed.

, Booth slept all day at Dr. Mudd's house. At dusk, he endured the pain and got out of bed. He refused to eat, so he shaved off his beautiful mustache, put a gray scarf on his shoulders to cover the initials tattooed on his right hand, put on a fake beard, and paid the doctor 25 yuan in banknotes. He and Harold mounted their horses again and headed for the river. , But the Zega Swamp lay across their path - a huge swamp covered with shrubs and dogwoods, with soft mud and sticky backwaters - a paradise for snakes and lizards. The two knights lost their way in the darkness and wandered in confusion for several hours. , Late at night, they were raped by a black man, Oswald. Shi Huang rescued him. Booth suffered from severe pain in his calf and could not sit astride the horse; so he paid 7 yuan and asked Shi Huang to take him in the car. At dawn on Easter, the coachman reined up the white mule in front of Rich Hill - the home of a rich and famous Confederate Captain Cox. The first leg of Booth's desperate journey ended like this. , Booth told Captain Cox who he was and what he had done, and showed his initials tattooed on his hand as proof. He begged Captain Cox not to betray him, as he was sick, lame, and in great pain, and said that he had done what he thought was best for the Confederacy. Now seriously ill, Booth could no longer ride or ride in a carriage, and Captain Cox hid the two fugitives in a pine forest near his home. It could be said to be an authentic jungle, covered with laurel and holly; the two fugitives stayed there for six days and five nights, waiting for Booth's leg injury to recover before continuing their escape. Lincoln