Diary of Orrin Brown—April 21, 1865

Diary of Orrin Brown, New Bern, North Carolina

Friday–Apr. 21st

We had a nice night but it has been cloudy and quite warm the most of the day with light showers of rain but it is cool this evening. There has been 4 heavy guns fired about every 15 minutes all day down here in town to show their respect for our late President and they have kept their flags at half mast for the last four days. There are but few but mourn the loss of that good man. I am about the same in health as yesterday. We sold some more Lemonade today. I read 8 Chapts. We drew soft bread again tonight. I wrote a letter to J. L. Gifford today.

On the 20th of April 1865, 3,000 people per hour passed by the late President’s coffin in the Capitol rotunda.  On the 21st, President Lincoln’s body left the capital for the last time.  From the Library of Congress exhibit:

On April 21 the funeral train left Washington, D.C., en route to its final destination of Springfield, Illinois. The journey took 13 days and covered 1,700 miles through 7 states. Also on the train was a coffin containing the body of the president’s beloved son, Willie, who had died three years earlier at the age of eleven. The president’s remains were displayed in several cities along the route. On the first day, in Baltimore, 10,000 people viewed his remains on a dismal, overcast day that seemed to suit the occasion.

Meanwhile in Washington, Major Hitchcock and Sherman’s Peace were not well received by the President’s Cabinet.  In particular, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and old Sherman-rival Gen. Henry Halleck, frothing for retribution, concocted a story that Sherman was in cahoots with Jefferson Davis to allow the Confederate cabinet to escape to Mexico with their treasury.  The New York Times jumped on the story and Sherman was slimed before he ever knew what was happening.

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