Event
“Now He Belongs to The Ages” Lincoln Remembrance
Fee:
Free.Dates & Times
Date:
Time:
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Type of Event
Description
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park will observe the assassination of Abraham Lincoln with an evening event on April 14th from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The Memorial Building will don 19th century mourning cloth and be illuminated with white light for the evening program.
On April 14th at 6:30 p.m., the evening event will feature a guest park ranger from Ford’s Theatre who will recall the assassination story and the stunning impact on the nation. At 7:00 p.m., Superintendent Catherine Bragaw will give an introduction and the Kentucky Home Guard Band, a period Civil War-Era Brass Band, will perform mournful period music played during the long journey Abraham Lincoln took from Washington DC back to his home in Springfield, Illinois. A second performance will take place just after 8:00 p.m. including a reading of Walt Whitman’s elegy “Oh Captain, My Captain.”
On the night of April 14th, 1865, while attending a production of the “Our American Cousin,” Abraham Lincoln was cut down by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln would die the next morning becoming one of the last casualties in a war that had already taken the lives of over 700,000 Americans. The war also freed 3 million African Americans, ending legal enslavement in the United States. The Civil War is considered a turning point and the seminal event in American History. Abraham Lincoln’s loss was a blow that caused the country to enter a deep mourning period. Visitors will receive a period reproduction mourning pin and a mourning card to record their thoughts of the event.
All events are free and open to the public.