much black cloth as they could scare up, and soon the city was shrouded in “miles upon miles of material,” as a federal clerk put it, or as Julia Shepard described the scene, the drapery went “on and on,” the streets presenting “only the blackness of darkness.” 34
Beyond the capital, mourners worked just as hard. Women transformed the victory flags, sewing black trim along the edges or tying black ribbon to the poles. A man traveled nearly five miles to procure a half-yard of black crape. A woman who didn’t get to the shops quickly enough had to festoon a window with her own black shawl, and widows lent their personal mourning attire to drape local church altars. A shopkeeper used lace collars to display the words “The dead still live.” Poor people everywhere tacked up black rags, while Anna Lowell instructed her servants to decorate the portico of her home with black alpaca and white cotton, accented withblack and white rosettes. At the Winter Garden Theatre in New York, someone covered over the name of Edwin Booth, the assassin’s brother, who had just ended a run as Hamlet. Across the continent the labor continued for more than a week, “hammers & stepladders everywhere,” black and white bunting concealing the facades, columns, window frames, and door frames of city halls, churches, banks, department stores, shops, hotels, libraries, schools, and houses from tenement to mansion. Up went the bordered flags, the swags and streamers, the bows and ribbons, banners pronouncing the nation in mourning, and photographs of the slain president, their frames fringed in black. 35
In the defeated Confederacy, freedpeople, Yankee occupiers, and Unionists got to work too. In Charleston and New Orleans, black residents decorated houses and clothing. In Savannah and Norfolk, the homes of even the most impoverished African Americans had “a bit of black suspended upon door or window,” and the smallest children wore mourning badges. On the Sea Islands, freedwomen made their children “little crape rosettes,” and the children crafted wreaths of roses tied with dark crape, while white teachers distributed scraps of fabric to those who had none. On Saint Helena, one little girl cut her black bonnet into pieces small enough that she “supplied the whole school.” By order of the War Department, Union soldiers and officers set to the task of draping their military posts. One soldier had to travel into the nearest town, inquiring of every merchant and any person along the way if they had any makeshift mourning goods to sell or donate. Union officers meanwhile saw to it that the only trade conducted, most especially among local Confederates, was in mourning goods. 36
All these rituals were carried out amid shock, the same state of mind so recently entered by defeated Confederates. Yet Lincoln’s supporters had not truly exchanged places with their enemies, for the president’s assassination did not reverse Union victory, and Confederates remained the ones for whom the war had been fought in vain. Nonetheless, the crime compounded the uncertainty of what would happen next for the triumphant nation. This was true most especially for African Americans: recall the freedpeople in Washington who wondered right away if Lincoln’s demise would jeopardize freedom. Although black leaders had criticized the president’s hesitancy regarding emancipation early in the war, Lincoln had over time been deeply influenced by the convictions of blackand white abolitionists, including the more radical members of his own party. For many African Americans in the spring of 1865, Abraham Lincoln was the Great Emancipator (the “bondman’s saviour,” wrote a member of the U.S. Colored Troops), and his death brought very real forebodings. In Charleston, black men and women expressed apprehension about the murder, fearing “the result of it to themselves.” On the Sea Islands, some wondered if the white northerners who were running the
Beyond the capital, mourners worked just as hard. Women transformed the victory flags, sewing black trim along the edges or tying black ribbon to the poles. A man traveled nearly five miles to procure a half-yard of black crape. A woman who didn’t get to the shops quickly enough had to festoon a window with her own black shawl, and widows lent their personal mourning attire to drape local church altars. A shopkeeper used lace collars to display the words “The dead still live.” Poor people everywhere tacked up black rags, while Anna Lowell instructed her servants to decorate the portico of her home with black alpaca and white cotton, accented withblack and white rosettes. At the Winter Garden Theatre in New York, someone covered over the name of Edwin Booth, the assassin’s brother, who had just ended a run as Hamlet. Across the continent the labor continued for more than a week, “hammers & stepladders everywhere,” black and white bunting concealing the facades, columns, window frames, and door frames of city halls, churches, banks, department stores, shops, hotels, libraries, schools, and houses from tenement to mansion. Up went the bordered flags, the swags and streamers, the bows and ribbons, banners pronouncing the nation in mourning, and photographs of the slain president, their frames fringed in black. 35
In the defeated Confederacy, freedpeople, Yankee occupiers, and Unionists got to work too. In Charleston and New Orleans, black residents decorated houses and clothing. In Savannah and Norfolk, the homes of even the most impoverished African Americans had “a bit of black suspended upon door or window,” and the smallest children wore mourning badges. On the Sea Islands, freedwomen made their children “little crape rosettes,” and the children crafted wreaths of roses tied with dark crape, while white teachers distributed scraps of fabric to those who had none. On Saint Helena, one little girl cut her black bonnet into pieces small enough that she “supplied the whole school.” By order of the War Department, Union soldiers and officers set to the task of draping their military posts. One soldier had to travel into the nearest town, inquiring of every merchant and any person along the way if they had any makeshift mourning goods to sell or donate. Union officers meanwhile saw to it that the only trade conducted, most especially among local Confederates, was in mourning goods. 36
All these rituals were carried out amid shock, the same state of mind so recently entered by defeated Confederates. Yet Lincoln’s supporters had not truly exchanged places with their enemies, for the president’s assassination did not reverse Union victory, and Confederates remained the ones for whom the war had been fought in vain. Nonetheless, the crime compounded the uncertainty of what would happen next for the triumphant nation. This was true most especially for African Americans: recall the freedpeople in Washington who wondered right away if Lincoln’s demise would jeopardize freedom. Although black leaders had criticized the president’s hesitancy regarding emancipation early in the war, Lincoln had over time been deeply influenced by the convictions of blackand white abolitionists, including the more radical members of his own party. For many African Americans in the spring of 1865, Abraham Lincoln was the Great Emancipator (the “bondman’s saviour,” wrote a member of the U.S. Colored Troops), and his death brought very real forebodings. In Charleston, black men and women expressed apprehension about the murder, fearing “the result of it to themselves.” On the Sea Islands, some wondered if the white northerners who were running the
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