The Capitol Dome

crutches, determined that their homage to their great chief should be as sincere as that of their companions." 19 Members of the general public walked as well, including four thousand African Americans, in lines of forty. "They wore high silk hats and white gloves and marched hold- ing hands." 20 Other civilian groups joined them. Conspicu- ously absent, though, was Mary Todd Lincoln, who "was not present at either the ceremony or in the procession, she not having left her bed since Saturday last." 21 e Washington Chronicle's reporter observed the proces- sion's slow advancement from the Capitol's East Front, which he claimed provided "the most imposing view of the proces- sion that could be attained at any point." For him and the other "privileged" spectators, the "grandest" demonstration they had ever seen appeared "like a grand panorama, in which the fig- ures were statuesque, and gradually presented to the view. e crowd was too immense to bring within the scope and compre- hension of ordinary vision, even with the aid of a glass." 22 Below the reporter, thousands of spectators stretched out upon the Capitol grounds (fig. 5), there since morning to catch a glimpse of the procession as it reached its final destination. 23 A cordon of cavalry and infantry maintained a clearing in front of the building's old portico, where there was a stand, "upon which the coffin might be placed when removed from thefuneral car." Meanwhile, Capitol Police, headed by the one- armed Captain Newman, lined the steps, excluding all from the building except a "few representatives of the press, who had duly authorized passes." 24 Finally, after hours of anticipation, the Washington Evening Star reported, "that part of the procession bearing the corpse" came into view and the "carriages containing the pall- bearers, followed by the funeral car, approached the eastern portico . . . . After a few moments the coffin was removed and borne by twelve soldiers of the Veteran Reserve Corps to the Fig. 5. Flags at half-staff and black crepe at the Capitol continued to mark a nation in mourning when this photograph of the Grand Review of the Armies took place in May 1865. CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION, L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION THE CAPITOL DOME 23

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