The Capitol Dome

"to feel that the great national family had lost its head, that this was the funeral of the foremost man in all this world." 16 As the crowd waited in anticipation, Lincoln's pallbearers, a rotating group of senators, representatives, military officers, and civilians, lifted the coffin onto a horse-drawn carriage (fig. 3). 17 Minute guns fired near St. John's Church, the City Hall and the Capitol, while church and firehouse bells tolled throughout the city. According to Noah Brooks, the Sacramento Bee's Washington correspondent, and a Lincoln family friend, "just before the procession began to move, the Twenty-Second United States Colored Infantry (organized in Pennsylvania), landed from Petersburg and marched up to a position on the avenue, and when the head of the column came up, played a dirge, and headed the procession to the Capitol." 18 The New York Times provided additional information regarding the order of procession (fig. 4), beginning with the "detachment of colored troops," then the other regiments and military officers, then the "the hearse, drawn by six white horses—the coffin prominent to every beholder . . . . Then followed Physicians of the late President . . . . Capt. ROBERT LINCOLN and little TAD, the President's favorite son, in a carriage, and TOMMY [Lincoln's brother] behind." An assortment of diplomats, judges, senators, representatives, state delegations, clergy, and clerks followed. "Then came one of the saddest scenes in the entire column, a battal- ion of scarred and maimed veterans, with bandaged limbs and heads, with an arm or leg gone, but hobbling along on Fig. 3. e funeral carriage that conveyed Lincoln's body from the Executive Mansion to the Capitol, April 19, 1865. L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTO GR APHS DIVISION Fig. 4. e funeral procession as depicted in the May 6, 1865 issue of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTO GR APHS DIVISION THE CAPITOL DOME 22

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