(Matthew B. Brady/ U.S. Library of Congress Archives)In honor of President's Day, Today's Train of Thought is very much a blast from the past courtesy of Pennsylvania photographer Matthew B. Brady and the Library of Congress. The image reportedly shows Abraham Lincoln, enroute to Gettysburg, making a station stop at Hanover Jct. PA on November 18, 1863 [the figure to the immediate right of the locomotive and in front of the depot donning the stovepipe hat]. The date of the image and whether or not it shows Honest Abe from a distance has been the subject of much speculation
As President, Lincoln understood the value of an extensive railway network in moving materiel and troops for the Union during the Civil War as well as the potential for it's use in westward expansion. Prior to his inauguration, Lincoln was warned by detectives from the Pinkerton agency that there was a credible plot to sabotage his train on it's way into Washington D.C., so the president had to arrive clandestinely.
Even before he was president, Lincoln was no stranger to the railroads. As a lawyer, he successfully represented the Alton & Sagamon Railroad in an 1851 legal dispute where one of the shareholders withheld payment of his stake on the grounds that the railroad changed alignment. Lincoln argued that the Railroads charter could be changed in the public interest and that the A&S's new route was quicker and less expensive to construct. The court ruled in favor of the A&S and the shareholder was ordered to pay $2000.
After being struck down by an assassin's bullet, the 16th President of the United States returned from the District of Columbia to his native Illinois on a Funeral train for burial in the state's capital.
As President, Lincoln understood the value of an extensive railway network in moving materiel and troops for the Union during the Civil War as well as the potential for it's use in westward expansion. Prior to his inauguration, Lincoln was warned by detectives from the Pinkerton agency that there was a credible plot to sabotage his train on it's way into Washington D.C., so the president had to arrive clandestinely.
Even before he was president, Lincoln was no stranger to the railroads. As a lawyer, he successfully represented the Alton & Sagamon Railroad in an 1851 legal dispute where one of the shareholders withheld payment of his stake on the grounds that the railroad changed alignment. Lincoln argued that the Railroads charter could be changed in the public interest and that the A&S's new route was quicker and less expensive to construct. The court ruled in favor of the A&S and the shareholder was ordered to pay $2000.
After being struck down by an assassin's bullet, the 16th President of the United States returned from the District of Columbia to his native Illinois on a Funeral train for burial in the state's capital.
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