The Train to Nowhere: Abraham Lincoln's Ghost Train

From his White House in Washington – where it began –

they carried his coffin, and followed it nights and days for twelve days…

Bells tolling, bells sobbing the requiem

The salute guns, cannon rumbling their inarticulate fire

To Springfield, Illinois, the old home town

The Sangamon nearby, the New Salem hilltop nearby,

For the final rest of cherished dust.

And the night came with great quiet.

And there was rest.

-Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years

The Tip-Off:

I can’t tell you the first time I heard this story. It is fairly well-known in the area I grew up in, and since I was a true ghost story nut, history buff, and living about an hour from Springfield as a kid, it was inevitable for me to be drawn to it. I was even convinced for a bit, as a teenager, that I could hear the ghost train on the old railroad tracks that used to run on our property, although now I’m pretty sure the train would not have been on that route. It’s still a great story, though! J

The Story:

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, was dead. A fractured nation, just beginning to find a sliver of hope in reunification after a bitter civil war, was plunged into collective mourning by an assassin’s bullet. Lincoln succumbed to his wounds on Saturday, 15 Apr 1865, six weeks after his second inauguration. His official funeral was held at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on 19 Apr 1865, after laying in state at the White House. (Supposedly fulfilling Lincoln’s prophetic dream about his death, but that’s another story.) However, Lincoln was not buried at the end of his funeral service, as is the custom today, nor is he buried at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., another popular misconception. After laying in state at the Capitol Building for another two days, Lincoln’s body, and the body of his son William (1851-1862), began a trek “back home” to Springfield, Illinois, which possibly continues to this day. (Neighbors)

Photo credit: Library of Congress

The train designated to bear the president’s body to its final resting place was not originally intended to be a funeral train. The new Pullman cars, with the engine “Nashville”, were supposed to have been the official presidential transport vehicle, much like Air Force One is today. Instead of moving Lincoln and his aides around the country to assess the post-war scenarios, however, the dark maroon cars (Pruitt) were decked with black bunting and American flags, and a portrait of the late president was fixed to the engine. (Associated Press) In addition to the funeral car carrying the Lincoln coffins, there were no fewer than six passenger cars for the president’s advisors and press, an officer car, and at least one baggage car. (Pruitt) Approximately 300 passengers accompanied the President and his second son on their final journey, including Cabinet members, a full honor guard of soldiers, and Lincoln’s eldest surviving son, Robert. (Neighbors)

Photo credit: McLean County Museum of History

On 21 Apr 1865, the procession began its somber journey into history. En route to Springfield, it would travel through most of the Northern states, covering over 1600 miles and passing through 40 cities. In larger cities, such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Chicago, the train would stop. The coffin would then  be removed from the train and transported on a hearse to a public venue, such as a state capital, allowing both the public and private citizens to pay respects. (History.com) For smaller communities, the funeral train would slowly pass through, with weeping townspeople lining the tracks and waving American flags. (Associated Press) Regiments of Civil War veterans and active service members, some newly returned from war, would line up in parade formation and fire guns or cannon in remembrance. There are newspaper accounts of churches tolling bells, choirs singing funeral hymns, and other acts of mourning. (Daily Union Vedette)

Above: A schedule of the train's route for newspaper publication. Photo credit: The Lincoln Highway Museum & Archives

Left: A rough map of the train route. Photo credit: The News-Palladium

The train arrived in Springfield without incident, and, after much discussion between politicians and family members during the journey, the president was buried with his son in what is now the Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery on 4 May 1865. (History.com) The engine that had carried the bodies was sold at an auction sometime after the funeral, and eventually made its way to Minneapolis. It was destroyed by a fire there in 1911. (Pruitt)

That should have been the end of the story. But it isn’t.

While there are many tales of Lincoln’s ghost haunting the White House or various places in Springfield, the story of the train may be the most inexplicable. By fourteen years, at the latest, after the original trek, the “weird story” of a phantom train annually traveling the funeral route was already well-established. An 1879 New York Sun article noted, with a large amount of skepticism, that there were “many trackmen and laborers along the (Hudson River Railroad) line who pretend to have seen the spectacle…it is said on that night (the anniversary of when the actual train would have passed through the area), every year, all the trainmen…hear and see and feel the spectre train rush by them.” The article went on to describe the experiences of the railroad workers, from seeing ghostly yellow train headlights rush toward them when there was no train on the rails, to hearing a train’s whistle and bell “strike terror to the hearts of those that hear them”.(New York Sun) An undated article in the Albany Evening Times has probably the most famous and most-quoted description of the event:

Regularly in the month of April, about midnight, the air on the tracks becomes very keen and cutting. On either side of the tracks it is warm and still. Every watchman, when he feels the air, slips off the track and sits down to watch. Soon the pilot engine of Lincoln’s funeral train passes with long, black streamers and with a band of black instruments playing dirges, grinning skeletons all about.

It passes noiselessly. If it is moonlight, clouds come over the moon as the phantom train goes by. After the pilot engine passes, the Funeral Train itself with flags and streamers rushes past. The track seems covered with black carpet, and the coffin is seen in the center of the car, while all about it in the air and on the train behind are vast numbers of blue-coated men, some with coffins on their backs, others leaning upon them.

If a real train were passing its noise would be hushed as if the phantom train rode over it. Clocks and watches would always stop as the phantom train goes by and when looked at are five to eight minutes behind. Everywhere on the road about April 27, watches and clocks are found to be behind.(Lewis)

Modern sightings of the train have been reported all along the route from Baltimore to Springfield, however, they appear to mostly cluster in New York around 26-27 April, Ohio around 28-29 April, and Illinois at the beginning of May. Oddly, descriptions of the event don’t deviate too much from the original 1800s articles; people report the feeling of wind rushing past on old tracks, hearing a train whistle or bell when no trains are visible, an odd headlight appearing and a distinct feeling of “other” in the air, and occasionally reports come in of seeing the engine itself. Some reports are that the air stills and warms, others are that it chills and whips. (Granato) Groups now gather in known sighting locations on the anniversary in the hopes of experiencing a bit of folklore and history and phantasma.(Neighbors)

There are no tragic accidents, ancient curses, or any of the usual ghost story origins, just a relatively ordinary train, with presumably quite a few very sad passengers aboard, so it is not quite certain what the reason for the spooky spectacle actually might be. The real train did complete its somber journey, but the phantom never seems to reach its final destination, as Springfield itself doesn’t appear to have many reports of the event. Lincoln is never "seen" on the train, just reports of soldiers and unnamed skeletons. Perhaps it is not the direct association with the death of President Lincoln that causes the haunting. It is very likely so much stronger than a nation’s emotions for one man, who was not nearly as universally admired at the time of his death as he is now. Perhaps the cause of the spectre is the entire collective mourning of the nation. Perhaps it was what the president’s death train represented. 

“They mourned for the President, and yet, the outpouring of sorrow was greater than for just one man. They mourned for every husband, father, son, and brother who died during the war. It was as though, on that train, all of them were coming home.”(Taylor)

Lincoln Tomb and War Memorial Photo Credit: Michelin Travel

Further Reading:

Troy Taylor has been researching stories and legends of Central Illinois and the Midwest since at least the mid-1990s. He has TONS of well-researched books in print, quite a few of which I read as a teenager, which probably did not help me sleep more soundly, but did pique my interest in “real” ghost stories with some historical basis, or at least a real oral tradition, behind them, rather than “scary” stories intended only terrify (which I don’t like at all). While Ghosts of the Prairie is the one cited here, he has another book called Haunted President that tells many more of the paranormal happenings surrounding the sixteenth president.

References:

Associated Press. "Pilot Recalls Somber Run of Lincoln Funeral Train." The News-Palladium 12 Feb 1930: 2. Newspaper article. 26 Feb 2020. <http://www.newspapers.com>.

Granato, Sherri. Haunted America: Lincoln's Ghost Train - Dead But Not Gone...Eerie U.S. Sightings. Amazon Services LLC, 2018. Ebook.

History.com Editors. Abraham Lincoln's Funeral Train. 27 Oct 2009. Blog post. 20 Mar 2020. <http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/president-lincolns-funeral-train>.

Lewis, Lloyd. The Assassination of Lincoln: History & Myth. MJF Books, 2000. reprint.

Neighbors, Joy. Lincoln's Phantom Train. 26 Apr 2013. Blog post. 03 Mar 2020. <http://agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2013/04/lincolns-phantom-train.html>.

New York Sun. "Yarns By A Train's Crew." Chicago Tribune 04 Aug 1879: 7. Online Archive. 26 Feb 2020. <http://www.newspapers.com>.

Pruitt, Sarah. Chemist Solves Lincoln Funeral Train Mystery. n.d. Blog post. 20 Mar 2020. <http://history.com/news/chemist-solves-lincoln-funeral-train-mystery>.

Taylor, Troy. Ghosts of the Prairie: History & Hauntings of Central Illinois. Amazon Kindle, 2016. ebook.

The Lincoln Funeral Train. McLean County Museum of History. The Pantagraph. Bloomington, 2013. Photograph. 26 Feb 2020. <www.newspapers.com>.

The Lincoln Highway National Museum & Archives. "The Great Funeral Cortage: The Lincoln Funeral Train Route." n.d. The Lincoln Highway National Museum & Archives. PDF. 3 Mar 2020. <http://www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/WHMC/WHMC-LFTR-01.html>.

"Train Schedule." Daily Union Vedette 28 Apr 1865: 2. Newspaper schedule. 26 Feb 2020. <http://www.newspapers.com>.

Watson, Elmo Scott. "Seventy Five Years Ago This Month The Whole World Was in Mourning for America's First Martyred President." The Pleasant Grove Review 12 Apr 1940: 3. Newspaper article. 26 Feb 2020. <http://www.newspapers.com>.