Many folks will remember the 200th birthday of Jefferson Davis on June 3, 2008.
Please share this story with family and friends and remember our American soldiers on Monday, May 28th---Memorial Day.
The United States and Confederate flags were appropriately displayed during the funeral of a man who gave a lifetime of service to his country and the Southland.
An American President was laid to rest on Memorial Day. It is written that Jefferson Davis' Funeral Train was as popular as Lincoln's funeral train to his state of Illinois and that of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral train from Georgia to Washington, D.C.
If you listen closely, and the wind blows in the right direction, you may hear a train whistle in the distance.
Growing up near Atlanta, Georgia, this and the sound of "taps" from nearby Fort McPherson were special sounds. Today, air conditioners and closed windows segregate the sounds of trains, owls and many wonderful sounds of the symphony of night.
On Sunday, May 28, 1893, in New Orleans, Louisiana, a story began that overshadowed all other events reported in the newspapers North and South of the Mason-Dixon Line.
On this day, one hundred fourteen years ago, the remains of Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate States of America, lay in state at Confederate Memorial Hall in the crescent city of New Orleans.
Jefferson Davis died in 1889 and was temporarily buried at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. Four years later, on May 27, 1893, his body was removed from the burial site of the Army of
Northern Virginia, placed in a new oak casket and taken to Confederate Memorial Hall.
At 4:30 PM, May 28th, a funeral service was held for Mr. Davis and a moving memorial address was delivered by Louisiana's Governor Murphy J. Foster as thousands listened. There were no sounds of cars, planes, sirens, cell phones, sound systems or electric guitars. They did not exist. A reverent silence fell among the people as the funeral procession made their way to the railroad station.
Train No. 69, with Engineer Frank Coffin, waited patiently as the casket was taken up a platform and passed through an open observation car window to a catafalque.
This was the vision of Mrs. Jefferson (Varina) Davis when she began three years previous to secure a funeral train with military escort for a 1,200 mile funeral train trip from New Orleans to Richmond.
Train engine No. 69 of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad slowly pulled out of New Orleans Station at 7:50 PM. L and N later became CSX Railroad.
Newspaper reporters from New Orleans, Richmond, Boston, New York and the Southern Associated Press were guests on the train.
The train stopped near Gulfport, Mississippi at Beauvoir which was the last home of Jefferson Davis. It was here Davis wrote his book, "The Rise and fall of the Confederate Government."
Uncle Bob Brown, a former servant of the Davis family and a passenger on the train, saw the many flowers that children had laid on the side of the railroad tracks. Brown was so moved by this beautiful gesture that he wept uncontrollably.
In Mobile, Alabama a thousand mourners met the train and the Alabama Artillery fired a 21-gun salute. Locomotive No. 69 was retired and Locomotive No. 25 was coupled to the train. The new train Engineer was C.C. Devinney and Warren Robinson was its fireman.
Church bells rang in Montgomery, Alabama when the train pulled into the city at 6:00 AM on May 29th. A severe rainstorm delayed the funeral procession to about 8:30 AM when a caisson carried the
body of Davis to Alabama's state capitol. A procession carried the casket through the portico where Jefferson Davis, in 1861, had taken the oath of office as President of the Confederate States of
America.
The casket was placed in front of the bench of the Alabama Supreme Court room. Above the right exit of the room was a banner with the word "Monterrey" and above the left exit was a banner with
the words "Buena Vista." During the War with Mexico, Jefferson Davis was a hero at Monterrey and wounded at Buena Vista.
At 12:30 PM Davis' train left Montgomery and a brief stop was made at West Point, Georgia to pick up Georgia's Governor William J. Northen and his escort.
At 4:30 PM the funeral train pulled into Union Station in Atlanta, Georgia. It was estimated that 20,000 people lined the city streets as the funeral procession made their way to the state capitol. Among
those in attendance were former Confederate General and former Governor John B. Gordon. Atlanta's Old Gate City Guard stood guard over the president's remains.
At 7:00 PM the train traveled North on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which later became Southern Railway and, today, Norfolk-Southern. The train went through Lula, Georgia, Greenville, South
Carolina and stopped at the North Carolina capitol in Raleigh. Davis' remains were taken to the capitol building to lie in state.
A brief stop was made in Danville, Virginia where a throng of people gathered around the train and sang "Nearer My God To Thee" as city church bells toiled.
Finally, the train reached Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday May 31, 1893, at 3:00 AM. It was Memorial Day. Jefferson Davis' casket was taken to the Virginia state house.
At 3:00 PM, May 31, the casket was placed on a caisson and taken to Hollywood Cemetery, which overlooks the historic James River.
With Mrs. Jefferson Davis were her daughters Winnie and Margaret. Six state governors acted as pallbearers. It was estimated that 75.000 people attended this final salute to President Davis. The ceremony concluded with a 21-gun salute and "Taps."
It had been only 28 years since the War Between the States ended, but they came by the thousands to pay tribute to their former president. In truth, they came to remember a hope and a dream. And all across the South hundreds of thousands of people heard that train.
Some call the "Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway" the largest memorial to an American.
Lest We Forget!!!!
http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/5/89699