On April 29, 1865, the body of Abraham Lincoln lay in state in the rotunda of the Statehouse in Columbus for public viewing.

After the president's assassination April 14, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, an Ohioan, arranged a funeral train to carry the body from Washington to Springfield, Ill. The day before its arrival in Columbus, the train stopped in Cleveland.

Gov. John Brough accompanied the train to the capital. Six white horses pulled a hearse with Lincoln's remains to the Statehouse, accompanied by a civil and military parade. The body lay in state from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., and about 8,000 people passed by the casket each hour. More than 50,000 people paid their respects.

It was the third and final time Lincoln would visit Ohio's Statehouse. He gave a speech to a small crowd on the east terrace in 1859, and as president-elect he spoke to a joint session of the Ohio General Assembly in the House Chamber in 1861.

- Rebecca Goodman

E-mail: rgoodman@enquirer.com or call 768-8361.