![[U.S. 36 Great Star flag]](../images/u/us_llfun.gif)
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 24 November 2017
Last modified: 2019-08-01 by rick wyatt
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Jim Ferrigan gave me a call about the flag's decorating the Lincoln funeral
train engines. The engines were switched as the train was passed from railroad
to railroad. There were at least five different engines used to pull the train
on its journey, plus five more that ran the tracks ahead of the train, and each
railroad used their best and most powerful engines to move the funeral train
from station to station. They each decorated their engines with locally made
flags. There was such a demand for mourning flags that flag manufacturers used
all their flags in stock, adding the black borders to whatever they had. The
result was Great Star, Concentric Circle, and Grand Luminary designs all being
used in different places. Basically we can add a black board to any of these
period flags and they were all most likely used. Everybody wanted a flag to
express their feelings of loss.
Pete Loeser, 24 November 2017
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 24 November 2017
I tried to find images of this flag, but no luck. On this one photo, a ring
of stars with something inside can be seen in the canton of the flags hoisted on
the locomotive:
http://images.mentalfloss.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/3094579.jpg
António Martins-Tuválkin, 24 November 2017
I'd seen mention of nine engines. I'd also seen a mention of two dozen
engines, but that seemed rather high. Maybe the higher count includes the pilot
engines, running ahead of the funeral train itself.
Anyway, the point is
that though the "United States" (the funeral car, actually intended as a
presidential car, a kind of Railroad Car One) travelled the entire route, and
one other car apparently did as well, the engines pulling the train did not.
Thus "the" engine of the "Lincoln Special" is a rather sloppy description for
any of those engines.
I set about gathering what I could find, with both
train bits and flag bits. (Several minutes in front of the Funeral Train ran the
Pilot Train, which had to make sure the track was clear.)
1 - #25? (B&O)
-- Washington DC to Baltimore, MD
Whichever stage the #25 ran, it seems to
have had regular flags.
https://wvncrails.weebly.com/lincoln-funeral-train-commemorative.html
2 - #25? (NCRY) -- Baltimore, MD to Harrisburg, PA
3 - #331 (PRR) --
Harrisburg, PA to Philadelphia, PA:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/285986 -- A union bearing a
star within a circle within a circle.
4a - Philadelphia, PA to New
Brunswick, NJ
4b - (NYR&T) -- New Brunswick, NJ to New York, NY
5 -
#56 "Union" (HRR) -- New York, NY to Albany, NY:
http://www.cnyhistory.org/wp-content/themes/oha/press/2015-FQ-CH-LT_.pdf --
"... two silken American flags, shrouded in black, were affixed on either side
of the smokestack."
5p "Constitution" on the pilot.
Albany:
http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/mr-lincolns-visits/the-funeral-train/:
'Searcher wrote: “All marchers except the hearse itself were on foot including
the governor, mayor, public officials, and all delegations. No banners or other
devices were permitted, only the national colors, black-bordered, held in the
horizontal position.'}
- (T&G) and (R&S) to get the train to the other side
of the Hudson.
6a - "Edward H. Jones" (NYC) -- Albany, NY to Utica, NY:
http://www.cnyhistory.org/wp-content/themes/oha/press/2015-FQ-CH-LT_.pdf
6ap "Chauncy Vibbard" on the pilot.
Schenectady: Signalmen at the crossings
held white square flags bordered with black.
http://www.cnyhistory.org/wp-content/themes/oha/press/2015-FQ-CH-LT_.pdf.
6b "Major Priest" -- Utica, NY to Syracuse, NY:
6bp - #4 on the
pilot.
Oneida: "The funeral car stopped directly in front of us and we had an
unobstructed view of the interior of the car. ... The casket draped with flags
..."
http://www.cnyhistory.org/wp-content/themes/oha/press/2015-FQ-CH-LT_.pdf.
6c ?
6d - "Dean Richmond" -- Syracuse, NY to Buffalo NY:
http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/mr-lincolns-visits/the-funeral-train/
6dp - #79 on the pilot
Batavia: The station was decorated with a Grand
Luminary!
http://www.cnyhistory.org/wp-content/themes/oha/press/2015-FQ-CH-LT_.pdf.
I don't think I've seen the pattern before.
7 "Atlas" - (C&E) --
Buffalo, NY to Cleveland, OH:
http://abrahamlincolnblog.blogspot.nl/2010/04/lincolns-funeral-at-albany.html
-- It was handsomely trimmed with flags, and crape in festoons, and adorned with
bouquets. The interior of the cab was concealed from outside by a monster
American flag, and the light shining through it produced a fine effect.
7p -
"Comet" on the pilot. "It was handsomely decorated with flags, flowers, and
tastefully draped with white and black crape."
8 - #113 "Nashville"
(CC&C) -- Cleveland, OH to Columbus, OH:
http://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/222: -- Mourning fringes around
both the flag and the union, the union bearing a circle of stars and one star in
the centre. [The Buffalo Daily Courier has it that this was the Atlas again.]
9a - (C&I) -- Columbus, OH to Piqua, OH
9b - Piqua, OH to Indianapolis,
IN
10a - (L&I) -- Indianapolis, IN to Lafayette, IN
10b - (CIL) --
Lafayette, IN to Michigan City, IN
10c - (MC) -- Michigan City, IN to
Chicago, IL-- No flags that I can see. (After leaving a few breakfasters behind,
the Funeral train had to wait while a yardtrain allowed them to catch up.)
11 - #57 (58?) C&A
http://www.railsplitter.com/sale11/images/1529.jpg:
Chicago, IL to
Springfield, IL -- " decorated from the ‘cowcatcher’ to the rear draw-bar with
flags intertwined with crepe and bunting and other symbols of mourning"
11p -
#40 on the pilot, supposedly double heading on steep track; both engines were
dressed the same
Well, every sources added more engines, fragmenting the
overview of the journey further, though not all are described or pictured in
enough detail to know their flags, if any. It's 11 stages, but with several
extra changes; plus in Illinois the number of trains apparently grew larger.
I've now seen "at least 42 trains" mentioned, though I expect that's counting
the pilots and the Illinois extras. All those engines would mean a lot of flags,
but for most, only little is known about flags used.
So far the only
Grand Luminary I've found was on a building. If the
Great Star Flag had 36 Stars but was nevertheless used in late 1864, for
some reason, then it would so far seem more likely it was on a building rather
than on the train. (Well: On an engine for the train.)
OK, that's not
entirely true: I've also seen what look like grand luminaries on the replica in
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum. But no mention of whether those were
authentic.
Also, often, descriptions mention "craped flags" at the stops.
Could it be the flags aren't really any different,. but black fringes have
merely been added temporarily? The one thing I didn't read about was flags
half-staffed in mourning. Too recent a custom, or not something done in a mass
tribute?.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 1 December 2017
Here are some interesting references as well:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_496935
https://www.museumsouthernhistory.com/Abraham%20Lincon%27s%20Flag.html
https://www.in.gov/history/markers/4110.htm
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-singh/8-things-you-didnt-know-abraham-lincoln_b_7062044.html
http://www.saratogian.com/article/ST/20150424/NEWS/150429780
http://indiana105.com/region-news/lincoln-funeral-train-stop-150-years-ago/
https://www.flagcollection.com/resourcesstaticcontent.php?CollectionHTMLZone_Code=tours_lincolnfuneral
http://www.The2015LincolnFuneralTrain.com (redirects to:
http://www.thosetrainpeople.com/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jf6FNnQxmc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_and_burial_of_Abraham_Lincoln
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Catafalque
http://www.jwwerner.com/history/FLAG.html
Esteban Rivera, 4 December 2017
