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Editor's Note: As Halloween approaches this weekend, we thought we'd share one of our favorite Hudson River Valley ghost stories, based in a real historical event. Many thanks to HRMM volunteer George M. Thompson for finding and transcribing the historic newspaper article.  "The "Old Nashville." The Engine that drew Lincoln's Funeral Train from Washington to Springfield, Illinois." Wikimedia Commons. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865 shocked the nation. Six days after his death, an ornate, nine-car funeral train left Washington, D.C. for Lincoln’s home in Springfield, Illinois. The train carried Lincoln’s body as well as the remains of his son William Wallace Lincoln, also known as Willie, who had died of typhoid in 1862 at the age of 11. Pulled by a steam locomotive carrying Lincoln’s framed portrait and a wreath on the front, the nine cars were draped in black bunting and included a car for the hearse and horses, the President’s car, which was retrofitted as a hearse for the two caskets, as well as accommodations for family, an honor guard consisting of Union generals and other military brass, and funeral procession personnel, including an embalmer, who had the somewhat gruesome task of re-embalming Lincoln’s body between stops. Mary Todd Lincoln, distraught by her husband’s violent death, did not accompany the train home. Traveling an extensive route designed to pass through most major cities in the Northeast, the train arrived in New York City on April 24, 1865. Lincoln’s casket was removed from the train and processed through the city for the thousands of mourners who gathered to see his body.  "President Lincoln's Funeral Procession in New York City," as published in Harper's Weekly, May 13, 1865, p. 296-297. Library of Congress. After the procession, the train departed New York City at 4:15 PM on April 25 and traveled through the evening and overnight, reaching Albany at 1:55 AM on April 26. Traveling up the east shore of the Hudson River, the train passed through many stations, watched by mournful New Yorkers as it made its way to Illinois. Perhaps because the train’s journey through the Hudson Valley took place largely at night, in the years after experienced railroad men began to report strange sightings. In the days before automation, trackmen and line workers often worked at night, caring for the rails, operating switches, and manning signal and water stations. On September 13, 1879, the Rockland County Journal published "A Railroad Ghost Story," reprinted from the Fishkill Standard, which is excerpted below in its entirety. A RAILROAD GHOST STORY. "An exchange tells the following tale. — We do not remember having seen it before. It was related among a number of other railroad stories. The writer says: "Then was narrated a weird story about an apparition of a train on the Hudson River Railroad. It was told with an effort at sincerity that did not deceive the listener, but I am told that there are many trackmen and laborers along the line of the Hudson River Railroad who pretend to have seen the spectacle. The tale was about a mystic counterpart of the funeral train that bore Abraham Lincoln's remains from New York City to the West. The actual and substantial train passed over the road on a certain day in April, 1865. The car that contained the President's remains was heavily draped, I believe. It is said that on that night, every year, all the train men that are on the road at a certain hour (that varies in various subdivisions of the road), hear and see and feel the spectre train rush by them. It sounds hollow and awful. Its lights are yellow, pale and funeral. Its train hands and passengers are sepulchral figures. It looks like the outline of a train, yet every detail is perfect. Those who have seen it say, though they felt that it was only a vision, that a man could walk through it if he dared, or throw a stone through it; yet it seems perfect in everything but substantialness. It even carries with it a whirl of wind as fast as trains do, but it is a cold, clammy, grave-like atmosphere, all its own. As it passes another train the shriek of its whistle and clang of its bell strike terror to the hearts of those that hear them." Have you ever seen Lincoln's ghost train? If you haven't you'll have to wait until April 25th of next year to see if you can catch a glimpse. Happy Halloween! If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
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Editor's Note: Last week we visited the confusion around two Thomas Collyers, one of which ferried Abraham Lincoln to the Hampton Roads Conference, but the Conference itself took place aboard the River Queen, which we feature today. The following text is a verbatim transcription of an article written by George W. Murdock, for the Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman newspaper in the 1930s. Murdock, a veteran marine engineer, wrote a regular column. Articles transcribed by HRMM volunteer Adam Kaplan. For more of Murdock's articles, see the "Steamboat Biographies" category.  The steamboat "River Queen" at an unidentified wharf, undated. Wikimedia Commons. Although having the distinction of once being General U.S. Grant’s private dispatch boat and also honored by being selected to convey one of the United States greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, on a mission of peace, the “River Queen” was one of the steamboats about which little is remembered by followers of the famous Hudson River vessels. Benjamin C. Terry built the wooden hull of the “River Queen” at Keyport, New Jersey, in 1864. She was 181 feet long, breadth of beam 28 feet five inches, depth of hold nine feet. Her gross tonnage was 578 with a net tonnage of 426, and she was propelled by a vertical beam with a cylinder diameter of 48 inches with a 10 foot stroke. The “River Queen” was originally built for service in and about New York waters but she was soon chartered by the federal government and placed in service as General Grant’s private dispatch boat on the Potomac river during the last year of the Civil War. The year-old vessel was recognized as a steamboat of extreme beauty, and because of this she was selected to convey President Abraham Lincoln and the peace commissioners from Washington to City Point on the James river, where they were to meet a similar delegation representing the Confederate government.  "The Peacemakers," painting by George Peter Alexander Healy, 1868. Seated aboard the steamboat "River Queen" for the Hampton Roads Conference are L:R - William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and David Dixon Porter. Courtesy The Whitehouse Historical Society. At the close of the Civil War the “River Queen” was returned to service in New York harbor, and she was placed on a route between New York and New Hamburgh on the Hudson river as a freight and passenger vessel. She plied this route until 1871 when she was taken east and operated under the banner of the Newport Steamboat Company between Providence and Newport. From 1873 to 1880 the “River Queen” was in service crossing Nantucket Sound as a running mate to the steamboat “Island Home.” During this period of service the “River Queen” was operated on Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds by the Vineyard Company, replacing the steamboat “Monohansett,” which had been chartered to the Old Colony Railroad to run in connection with its Woods Hole branch line. The Vineyard Company finally sold the “River Queen” for $60,000 to the Nantucket & Cape Cod Steamboat Company who kept her in island service until the autumn of 1881. For several years afterwards she was chartered to various parties around New York and farther south. During the winter of 1891 the “River Queen” was sold to the Mount Vernon & Marshall Hall Steamboat Company of Washington, D.C. Under the ownership of this company she saw service on the Potomac river until 1911 when she was deemed completely worn out and dismantled. The hull of the “River Queen,” a steamboat once honored by the presence of Abraham Lincoln, was finally converted into a coal barge- ending a brilliant and notable steamboat career. AuthorGeorge W. Murdock, (b. 1853-d. 1940) was a veteran marine engineer who served on the steamboats "Utica", "Sunnyside", "City of Troy", and "Mary Powell". He also helped dismantle engines in scrapped steamboats in the winter months and later in his career worked as an engineer at the brickyards in Port Ewen. In 1883 he moved to Brooklyn, NY and operated several private yachts. He ended his career working in power houses in the outer boroughs of New York City. His mother Catherine Murdock was the keeper of the Rondout Lighthouse for 50 years.  "The Steamer Thomas Collyer" by James Bard, 1850. This blog post is called "The Confusing Tale of two Thomas Collyers," and is about two steamboats by the same name, in operation around the same time, and the confusion that results. But in some ways it should really be about THREE Thomas Collyers - the two vessels and the man who built both of them. Thomas Collyer began his work as an apprentice shipbuilder in the Hudson Valley of New York, building his first ship - the aptly named First Effort - in the early 1830s. His second vessel, the Katrina Van Tassel (named for the love interest in Washington Irving's "Sleepy Hollow") was completed in 1838. Building steamboats in Troy, NY and Lake Champlain, he finally settled in New York City, building such boats as the Daniel Drew and Henry Clay. And, it turns out he built two separate boats named after himself - one in 1850, and another in 1863. A few weeks ago we shared George Murdock's steamboat biography of the steamboat Thomas Collyer, built in 1863 and Thomas Collyer's last boat he built before he died. But unmentioned in that account was that an earlier Thomas Collyer was built in 1850 in New York City, but serving the bulk of her life operating out of Georgetown, District of Columbia. She was later renamed City of Brunswick and operated out of Brunswick, Georgia, before being removed from documentation in 1896.  Photograph of the "City of Brunswick," originally the "Thomas Collyer" built in 1850. Georgia Archives. A Thomas Collyer served as a dispatch boat for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It was not uncommon for fast steamboats to be pressed into service, but it's unclear which Thomas Collyer served when! Perhaps both? The 1850 Thomas Collyer served as one of the first steamboats to make regular trips to Mount Vernon. Tourists had been making pilgrimages to visit George Washington's tomb for decades, but in 1853 the Thomas Collyer started making regular landings at Mount Vernon itself. One reference indicates that by 1862 the Thomas Collyer was under the control of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. Mary Lincoln visited the historic site and Washington's tomb in 1861, again aboard the Thomas Collyer. President Abraham Lincoln did not accompany his wife, but was an admirer of Washington.  Advertisement for the "Thomas Collyer," Washington, CD "Daily Republic," April 28, 1851. On May 25, 1861, Naval records note that the USS Pawnee captured the Confederate steamer Thomas Collyer at Alexandria Virginia. Was this the 1850 Thomas Collyer pressed into Confederate service? Was the captured boat later repurposed? In 1864, Lincoln tried to visit Mount Vernon again. According to the University of Michigan: Lincoln's endorsement is written on a letter from Harriet V. Fitch, Vice Regent of the Mount Vernon Association, February 26, 1864, requesting that the steamboat Thomas Collyer be permitted to run between Washington and Mount Vernon: ``We have through much labor bought, and paid for, the, home and grave of Washington, and but for the national troubles, would long since have collected a sum, equal to its restoration, and future keeping. Now, we have no means to keep it---no revenue but such as this boat will bring us. With that we will be enabled to go on another year, at least, and at the end of that time, let us hope for brighter days, when we can add to our fund; by further collections in the States.'' Stanton's endorsement follows Lincoln's: ``The Secretary of War does not deem it expedient to allow a Steamboat to run to Mt Vernon at present.'' Although Lincoln never made it to Mount Vernon due to security concerns, it's unclear whether the Thomas Collyer mentioned here was his regular dispatch boat, or the vessel making the tourist runs. It seems likely that it was the original, 1850 vessel, given the destination, but it could have also been the 1863 vessel.  "The Side Paddlewheel 'Thomas Collyer,'" by James Bard, 1864. Hudson River Museum. The Thomas Collyer built in 1863 was used as a U.S. dispatch boat. One source indicates she was chartered in 1863. Known as a very fast steamboat, on November 11, 1864, the Washington, DC Evening Star reported "The steamer Thomas Collyer arrived here this morning from City Point with the mails and passengers. Having been placed on the mail route in place of the steamer Manhattan. The Collyer brings no news from the war front." But it did have thirty Confederate deserters aboard, having taken the "oath of allegiance," along with several Union soldiers being dishonorably discharged. In February of 1865, Lincoln visited Annapolis. He left Washington by train and arrived in Annapolis later that day, before boarding the Thomas Collyer to get to Fort Monroe for the Hampton Roads conference, which are held on board the steamboat River Queen just off the Union controlled fort. The peace talks ultimately failed. On March 14, 1865, the Evening Star reported that "A party of fifty or sixty excursionists, composed principally of Congressmen and their wives, bound on a pleasure trip South, left the 6th street wharf this morning on the Government steamer Thomas Collyer." The point of the excursion was apparently to view "points South now in the possession of our troops." Just short of a month later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at the Petersen House on April 15, 1865. On April 17, a special dispatch the New York World reported that when the news of Lincoln's assassination reached Richmond, VA, "Two steamers left City Point simultaneously - the City Point and the Thomas Collyer." It is unclear which Thomas Collyer is referred to. On July 28, 1865, the Thomas Collyer was still working as a dispatch boat for the government. A "Notice to Travellers" in The Norfolk (VA) Post announced that the M. Martin, another New York steamboat chartered for government service, along with the Thomas Collyer were available for both mail and passengers. The end of the 1850 Thomas Collyer is unclear, but on May 16, 1866, the Baltimore Daily Commercial reported on a US District Court Case involving the Thomas Collyer (likely the 1850 one). U.S. Marshall W. Bonifant reported that the Collyer was being sued by Charles Reeder for libel "in a cause of contract." Bonifant reported he had "seized and taken the said steamer, and have the same in my custody," holding it until the owner or owners appeared in court. After the war, the 1863 Thomas Collyer returned to New York for service. You can read the rest of her story in the George Murdock article. Even so, the tale of the two Thomas Collyers remains tangled. I guess we can only blame Thomas Collyer himself. If you have more definitive information on either of the Thomas Collyers and their Civil War service, please let us know! Email research@hrmm.org. AuthorSarah Wassberg Johnson is the Director of Exhibits & Outreach at the Hudson River Maritime Museum. Her interest in steamboats used as dispatch boats by the U.S. Government during the Civil War was first piqued by the news that the Thomas Powell was chartered as a dispatch boat, leading to references to the M. Martin and Thomas Collyer. In the meantime, the quest to untangle the two Thomas Collyers continues. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
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