Lincoln’s Death is Mourned in Ellicott’s Mills

On this Day in Howard County History: In 1865 Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral Train Stopped at Annapolis Junction

Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral Train makes its first stop in Howard County – Lincoln’s Death is Mourned in Ellicott’s Mills

On the morning of April 21, 1865, a funeral train carrying the body of Abraham Lincoln left Washington, D.C. starting its 1,654-mile journey to Springfield, Illinois. As the train travelled northward along the B&O Railroad’s Washington Branch, it stopped for several minutes at Annapolis Junction on Howard County’s eastern border. The buildings in Annapolis Junction were draped in black. About 500 soldiers and citizens somberly stood along the track. After Governor Bradford and others boarded the train, it resumed its journey to Baltimore.[1]

Annapolis Junction straddles the Anne Arundel - Howard County line, but the train tracks are in Howard County.  So, the first stop made by Lincoln’s funeral train was made in Howard County, although it was an unofficial stop.

Two days earlier, on April 19, Lincoln’s death was observed in Ellicott’s Mills, which had been strongly pro-Union during the Civil War. Businesses closed for the entire day, and nearly all of the town’s homes were decorated with tokens of mourning. Bells tolled from noon until 2:00pm and all the churches held services. Emory Methodist Church had a large attendance that included the members of the local Union League. After the service was over, mourners marched in a procession under an arch that had recently been built to celebrate the Union’s victories, but which was now draped in mourning with a large image of President Lincoln suspended from it.[2]

By Jerry Ueckermann

‍ ‍[1] “President Lincoln’s Remains”, Baltimore Sun, Apr. 22, 1865, p. 1; “In Memoriam!”, Philadelphia Inquirer, Apr. 22, 1865, p1. The Philadelphia Inquirer, which had a reporter on the train, reported that the train glided along slowly past the station in Annapolis Junction. Other newspapers that had reporters on the train, however, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Boston Daily Advertiser, corroborate the Baltimore Sun’s account that the train was joined by additional passengers at Annapolis Junction.

[2] “The Nineteenth of April at Ellicott’s Mills”, Baltimore American, April 21, 1865, p. 4.