By Alex Mayes
The Baltimore Chapter NRHS held its annual banquet on March 25, 2023, at Columbus Gardens in Baltimore, Md.
The chapter’s two program co-coordinators developed a most creative and interesting three-part program centered around President Abraham Lincoln, our nation’s Commander-in-Chief during the Civil War. President Lincoln was instrumental in building the nation’s Transcontinental Railroad; he signed The Pacific Railway Act in 1862, providing government support for what would become the Transcontinental Railroad.
Before the meal began, the group was entertained with Tom Cook’s Railroad Trivia Quiz, testing the most railroad-knowledgeable attendees on their savvy of Maryland rail history.
Throughout the afternoon, the members and guests in attendance dined on a buffet-style meal of roast beef, baked chicken, meatballs in tomato sauce, pasta, and green beans iced chocolate cake and coffee cake while three presentations were offered, with short breaks between each.
Fritz Klein, a nationally-known Lincoln impersonator and founder of the educational Lincoln Institute of Springfield, Ill., gave an outstanding talk on “President Lincoln, A President of Faith.”
The team of Shannon Brown, Project Leader of the Lincoln Funeral Train and Steve Torrico, general superintendent of the Harrisburg, Lincoln and Lancaster Railroad, provided a detailed talk on the history of the funeral train, to include the locomotive, their rebuilding and move to its current home at Stone Gables Estate. Stone Gables is situated on a site containing a three- mile site section of the track on which the funeral train passed over on its long route, of which .62 miles of track have been reconstructed with more to be done. The funeral train was originally built by the United States Military Railroad to be the Presidential Train, the Air Force One of its day, in 1865. President Lincoln was scheduled to inspect the newly-constructed train on April 15, the day after he and his wife attended the play at Ford’s theater. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton directed that the train carry the body of the President and his son Willie, who had died in 1862, back home to Springfield, Ill., their final resting place. Another important piece of the HL&L Railroad is the steam locomotive, and exact replica of Leviathan, built in 1868 by Schenectady Locomotive Works for the Central Pacific Railroad in Sacramento. This 4-4-0 locomotive was completed in 2009 and purchased by Stone Gables Estate in 2018. Among artifacts in the Stone Gables collection is the podium used by President Lincoln when he delivered the Gettysburg Address.
Local historian Scott Mingus provided an in-depth discussion of the entire funeral train along all 12 stops, nearly replicating the trip President-elect Lincoln took when he traveled to Washington, D.C. Scott has detailed the trip of President Lincoln and his son Willie, who was disinterred in Washington and placed aboard the funeral train to accompany his father to their final resting place, in his book, “Carnival of Grief.” Scott was a very popular presenter at a Chapter meeting in 2022, discussing his book “This Trying Hour – The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad in the Civil War,” co-authored with Robert L. Williams, and the Chapter looks forward to hosting him as meeting presenter in 2023.
The afternoon of presentations concluded with President Lincoln delivering his moving and iconic Gettysburg Address.
After the presentations ended, all four of the presenters were on hand for questions and answers, to pose for photographs, and provide autographs in books sold or what attendees had on hand.
Click photos below to see full view.
