The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 9:45 a.m.
with a military processional to Lincoln Tomb. The ceremony begins at
10 a.m. and will feature addresses by Jeffry C. Burden,
commander-in-chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the
United States, and Donald D. Palmer Jr., commander-in-chief of the
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Memorial wreaths will then
be placed near the tomb entrance. Patriotic music will be provided
by the 33rd Illinois Volunteer Regiment Band, a Civil War-era group.
The Rockford Zouaves, a Civil War re-enactment group, will post and
retire the colors. On April 14, 1865, at about 10:30 p.m., actor
and conspirator John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in
Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. The president lapsed into a state
of unconsciousness from which he never recovered. Lincoln died the
next morning.
The
Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois
Historic Preservation Agency, is the final resting place of the 16th
president; his wife, Mary; and three of their sons, Eddie, Willie
and Tad. The Lincoln Tomb is in Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery.
[Text from file received from
the Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency] |
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