“A Carnival of Grief” The Lincoln Funeral Train in Pennsylvania

The funeral train carrying the remains of the slain President Abraham Lincoln passed through the commonwealth of Pennsylvania on April 21-22, 1865, on its way to New York City and again on April 28 as it headed west from Buffalo to Cleveland and passed through the Erie region. Tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians passed by the coffin as Lincoln lay in state in Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Massive, untold numbers of residents watched the funeral train slowly steam past their farms, small towns, communities, and whistle stops. Many left personal reminiscences.

Author Scott Mingus has tapped into these often obscure or rare diaries and journal entries. Coupled with the eyewitness accounts of a small cadre of big-city reporters on board the train and those newsmen in the towns through which the train passed to present a detailed, yet highly readable account of the funeral train’s passing through Pennsylvania. Mingus includes overviews of the locomotives used, the crewmen, the railroads the train used, time tables, and other fascinating aspects.

Presented by Scott L. Mingus, Sr.