On April 14, 1865, the day Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, he became a martyr sacrificed for the causes of the Civil War.

The funeral train took 20 days to travel from Washington, DC to Springfield, Illinois.  There were 13 funerals en route.  Lincoln's body was returned to Springfield for burial in Oak Ridge Cemetery. The entire city was in mourning.  Thousands descended on Springfield, looking for a way to connect to Lincoln and to take something with them that belonged to Lincoln, to his city, to the place he described when leaving as “to this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.”

As word of Lincoln’s assassination spread in Springfield, businesses and houses were draped in mourning, including the home the Lincolns still owned. 
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The Lucian Tilton family, who rented the house from the Lincolns, dressed the house in a simple mourning drape and began to receive the thousands of visitors who wanted to pay their respects.

The City of Springfield provided elaborate decorations for the Lincoln home.  Ropes of evergreens hung at the corners of the house and created an arch over the front gate.  Black flags and curtains, accented with white ribbon, were placed at each window, and festoons and rosettes covered the cornice near the roof. 

According to a local newspaper article, there were people “who attempted to turn the occasion into a means for financial profit, by taking photographs of the house, horse, and dog and selling them….”  Mourning badges and ribbons were also sold.  Lincoln’s body arrived in Springfield on May 3.  For 24 hours, Lincoln’s body lay in the Hall of Representatives at the State House in a coffin “heavily fringed with silver... The outside of the coffin is festooned with massive silver tacks…and the outer edges are adorned with silver braid, with five tassels...” (Illinois State Journal).

The coffin closed for the last time and was loaded onto the hearse.  It was extremely hot and everywhere lilac bushes were blooming, making the still, humid air almost suffocating with the scent.  People gradually fell into place behind the hearse as the procession, led by Major General Joseph Hooker, began to move through Springfield.  It passed the Governor’s Mansion and the Lincoln Home before heading to Oak Ridge Cemetery.  Soldiers; Lincoln’s horse, Old Bob; the six pallbearers, and finally the Lincolns’ oldest son, Robert with cousins Lizzie Grimley and John Hanks, led the rest of the mourners.  In the back were the “colored persons,” including Lincoln’s friend and barber, William Florville.  The procession took so long that the last of the walkers did not make it to the tomb before the services were over.

Mary Lincoln was too distraught to leave Washington and kept her youngest son, Tad, with her for company. 

Waiting at the cemetery was the coffin of third son, Willie, who had died in the White House.  His coffin had been brought with Lincoln’s across the country.  The choir sang and then the minister read Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, spoken by President Lincoln just weeks before: 
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow , and his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. 
It was as if Lincoln had left them directions for continuing his work.