Lincoln exhumation (1901)

Date: September 26, 1901

The Event: When a new tomb was constructed in 1900 to hold Abraham Lincoln’s remains, Robert Lincoln, fearing that his father’s tomb might be robbed, arranged for Lincoln’s coffin to be exhumed before it was finally encased in an impregnable block of cement.

Significance: Witnesses who attended the reburial of Lincoln’s coffin were permitted to look inside the coffin to identify the remains because it was considered important to verify that the body was indeed that of Abraham Lincoln before the new tomb was sealed.

During Abraham Lincoln’s presidential administration, the United States was divided as it had not been since its founding, with the North and the South pitted against each other in war. Only days after the Civil War ended in April, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, an actor, shot Lincoln while the president was attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.; Lincoln died the following day. There was little question about how Lincoln died, but conspiracy theories circulated about who was involved in his death. Punishment was meted out swiftly to those who had anything to do with the assassination. Less than two weeks after the shooting, Booth was captured and killed, and within three months, a military court sentenced four coconspirators in the crime to death by hanging.

Lincoln’s body lay in state in Washington and several other cities before it was returned to Springfield, Illinois, to a receiving vault in Oak Ridge Cemetery on May 2, 1865. Shortly thereafter, it was transferred to a temporary vault, where it stayed until September, 1871, when it was placed in the unfinished Lincoln monument in the cemetery. At this point, the body was transferred to a metal casket. In October, 1874, prior to the dedication of the new Lincoln tomb, the body was transferred to another coffin, this one of red cedar lined with lead. The coffin was sealed before it was placed in a white sarcophagus.

On November 7, 1876, a band of grave robbers attempted to steal the Lincoln coffin so that they could hold the body for ransom. Their plot was foiled, but it resulted in a decision to transfer Lincoln’s coffin to a protected place deep inside the tomb. The threat that someone might want to disturb his father’s remains moved Lincoln’s only surviving son, Robert, to call for the body’s exhumation and to seek a means of protecting the body when it was reinterred.

Application of Forensic Science

Little sophisticated forensic science was involved in the final exhumation and reburial of Abraham Lincoln’s casket. On September 26, 1901, in a ceremony cloaked in secrecy, the casket was removed from an underground vault in the temporary tomb that held Lincoln’s and his wife’s remains from 1889 until 1901. Twenty-three carefully selected witnesses were present for the final burial of the coffin.

Given the threats of grave robbing that had been uncovered earlier, there was considerable feeling that the coffin must be opened before it was reburied to confirm that the body it contained was indeed that of Lincoln. Although some of those present thought that opening the casket would violate family privacy, others argued convincingly that if the contents of the casket were not verified, rumors would persist that Lincoln’s body was not there. It was eventually decided that a hole would be cut into the casket through which the witnesses could view the contents. An oblong piece was removed from the coffin directly above the head and shoulders of the body within; when the witnesses peered in, they saw a remarkably well-preserved body that was still recognizable as that of Abraham Lincoln.

The piece that had been removed was then replaced, and the casket was lowered into a huge cage in the ground, which was then covered with more than two tons of concrete. Protecting the coffin in this way was Robert Lincoln’s idea; it was based on his knowledge of how industrialist George Pullman’s remains had been entombed.

Bibliography

Goodrich, Thomas. Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Presents a thorough account of the Lincoln assassination and its aftermath.

Kunhardt, Dorothy Meserve. “That Happened to Lincoln’s Body?” Life, February 15, 1963. Richly illustrated article focuses on the exhumation of Lincoln’s body in 1901.

Lewis, Lloyd. The Assassination of Lincoln: History and Myth. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. One of the best resources available on the exhumation of Lincoln’s body.

Sanders, Gerald. Abraham Lincoln Fact Book and Teacher’s Guide. New York: Eastern Acorn Press, 1982. Extremely informative volume for those interested in studying Lincoln. Includes discussion of the exhumation.

Steers, Edward, Jr. Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001. Excellent source of background material regarding the assassination.

Winik, Jay. April 1865: The Month That Saved America. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Offers a useful account of the events that followed Lincoln’s assassination.