On 150th anniversary, Lincoln's hometown re-enacts funeral
Source: AP-Excite
By JOHN O'CONNOR
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — At Abraham Lincoln's death, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton declared, "Now he belongs to the ages," but the meticulous, 150th anniversary funeral procession his hometown presented Saturday proved how profoundly the prairie city still considers the slain president its own.
Thousands of people, including many in period costume, gathered at the Old State Capitol, where the 16th president lay in state, to pay tribute to the simple, country lawyer who saved the Union and thrust the nation toward abolishing slavery.
Ranks of soldiers in Union blues and pallbearers, including several direct descendants of those who accompanied Lincoln's casket in 1865, retraced the route from a downtown train station to the old capitol square, where the coffin was taken from a replica hearse and placed on a catafalque during opening ceremonies.
Drums pounded out a funeral march and many of the 1,250 Civil War re-enactors strode by while a costumed chorus sang the "Star-Spangled Banner," and a man in a top hat with a black mourning sash trailing from it ran kid gloves over the coffin to prepare it for a bouquet of flowers.
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Randy Weaver of Canton, Ill., a member of the 10th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Regiment Reactivated, demonstrates how to weild a Model 1860 Light Cavalry Sabre in combat on volunteer Colleen Corcoran on the grounds of the Springfield Art Association Friday, May 1, 2015. Members of the regiment began camping on the grounds Thursday night in preparation for the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's funeral weekend. (Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register via AP)
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150502/us--lincoln_funeral-73dd2a9f87.html
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