On April 26, the Lincoln train reached Albany, New York. That same day, John Wilkes Booth was cornered in a barn in Caroline County, Virginia. Troops who had been trailing him set fire to it and he was fatally shot despite orders to take him alive. Reportedly he whispered as he died, "Tell my mother I died for my country."
When Lincoln's body reached Chicago, the Tribune said: "He comes back to us, his work finished, the republic vindicated, his enemies overthrown and suing for peace."
During the train's 1,700-mile journey, the last Confederate unit had surrendered; the war was over.
When the train finally arrived in Springfield, a Civil War veteran had a sense that Lincoln's work was not yet complete. Without him, the road to equality for blacks was going to be a long and hard one.
Thousands of blacks came to Springfield for his burial. "As the bier passed, almost every one of them either knelt or prostrated himself or herself upon the ground and gave way to touching demonstrations of grief," said Major Robert McClaughry. "They knew that their greatest friend was passing to his rest, and the future seemed dark enough to their vision."
--Old Secesh
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