FUNERAL PLANS

A full-fledged funeral train isn’t the only thing that might be missing at the recreation of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral set for the first weekend in May. Before the interment at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Lincoln’s body – the real thing – was taken to the State Capitol, where the assassinated president lay in state for 24 hours. Before the body reached Springfield, Lincoln also lay in state in the White House, in the U.S. Capitol, in Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the New York State Capitol, to name but a few places where the body was brought so the public could pay respects. But Lincoln, or, at least, his coffin, won’t be brought indoors in Springfield to mark the 150th anniversary of his funeral. Instead, organizers plan to set the hearse and coffin up at the intersection of Sixth and Washington streets, where an all-night vigil will be held featuring reenactors dressed as Union soldiers. “That vigil replicates the lying in state,” said Katie Spindell, chairwoman of the 2015 Lincoln Funeral Coalition. Here’s hoping that it won’t rain, as it did during Lincoln’s funeral in 1865. Chris Wills, spokesman for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency that’s in charge of the Old State Capitol where Lincoln lay in state after he was assassinated, said that the state couldn’t afford the overtime to keep the building open 24 hours a day. He also said that the building couldn’t handle tens of thousands of visitors that were projected for the funeral recreation. “We did offer to let them bring the coffin into the building, have a public sort of show, then take the coffin out of the building and to the cemetery, but they declined,” Wills said.