Who's Buried In Grant's Tomb? Part 2

John Tyler's grave stands near James Monroe's tomb in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery John Tyler's body lay in state at the Confederate Congress in Richmond with a Confederate flag covering the open casket. Following the funeral at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, a procession of over 150 carriages followed Tyler's coffin to Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery. He was buried near another former president, James Monroe. Because his active support for the Confederacy was unpopular with officials in Was.h.i.+ngton, Tyler's death was virtually ignored by the federal government. This president was viewed as a Confederate and buried near its government. Congress did not place an official marker at his gravesite until more than fifty years later.

Touring John Tyler's Tomb at Hollywood Cemetery Hollywood Cemetery is located in Richmond, Virginia. It is open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. There is no admission fee. A tour map is sold in the office for $1.00.

From Interstate 95 southbound or Interstate 64 eastbound: Take exit 76 to Belvidere Street. Follow Belvidere south through downtown over the Downtown Expressway to Spring Street. Make a right onto Spring Street. Continue on Spring until you reach Cherry Street and take a right onto Cherry. The entrance to the cemetery is located at the corner of Cherry and Albemarle Streets.

From Interstate 95 northbound or Interstate 64 westbound: Take exit 76/Chamberlayne Avenue and turn left off the ramp onto Chamberlayne Parkway. Follow the parkway to Leigh Street. Turn left around the Bojangles monument onto Leigh Street and follow Leigh to Belvidere Street. Turn left onto Belvidere. Follow Belvidere south through downtown over the Downtown Expressway to Spring Street. Make a right onto Spring Street. Continue on Spring until you reach Cherry Street and take a right onto Cherry. The entrance to the cemetery is located at the corner of Cherry and Albemarle Streets.

President Tyler's grave is located in President Circle. From the cemetery entrance, bear right on Hollywood Avenue. Turn left at Westvale Avenue and proceed to Hillside Avenue which leads to President Circle. James Monroe is buried in the center of the circle; Tyler is buried on the circle's perimeter.

For additional information Hollywood Cemetery 412 South Cherry Street Richmond, VA 23220 Phone: (804) 648-8501 www.hollywoodcemetery.org "...John Tyler, died a traitor."-Richard Norton Smith To date, no American president has been cremated, although many have been condemned to the flames of academic purgatory. One member of the fraternity, John Tyler, died a traitor. After failing to secure a peaceful settlement of sectional differences in the winter of 1860-61, Tyler, a native Virginian, followed his state into the Confederacy. His pa.s.sing in January 1862, came before he took his seat in the Confederate Congress. Jefferson Davis and other high rebel officials accompanied his cortege to Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery where Davis himself would rest one day, part of a presidential trifecta that includes James Monroe, a Virginian of stauncher nationalist sympathies.-RNS

James K. Polk Buried: State Capitol, Nashville, Tennessee Eleventh President - 1845-1849 Born: November 2, 1795, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Died: June 15, 1849, in Nashville, Tennessee Age at death: 53 Cause of death: Undetermined, possibly cholera Final words: "I love you, Sarah, for all eternity, I love you."

Admission to State Capitol: Free Despite being one of the younger presidents, Democrat James Polk was eager to fulfill his promise to retire at the end of his first term. A workaholic, he spent much of his presidency consumed by the war with Mexico. He wrote in his diary of the prospect, "I am sure I shall be a happier man in my retirement than I have been during the four years I have filled the highest office in the gift of my countrymen."

Polk purchased a Nashville home, which he dubbed Polk Place and set about organizing his political papers and remodeling the home to his tastes. He had been retired from the presidency for only three months when he went on a tour of the southern states. He made the mistake of stopping in New Orleans, where a cholera epidemic had recently broken out. Polk became sick shortly thereafter. He quickly grew weaker and died on June 15, 1849, at the age of fifty-three. The prevailing feeling at the time was that the arduous duties of the presidency may have weakened Polk's const.i.tution, leaving him vulnerable to infection and unable to fight off the disease.

James Polk was immediately buried in a common cemetery with thirty-two other victims of the cholera epidemic. Local officials believed that the quick disposal of bodies would prevent spread of the disease. Polk was later given the honors accorded a former president and was laid to rest at Polk Place.

Polk's wife Sarah lived at Polk Place for forty-two more years. A proper Victorian widow, she wore black the entire time. When she died in 1891, she was buried alongside him. Despite Polk's specific instructions that their home should be given to the state of Tennessee, Polk Place was demolished after Sarah's death. The bodies of James and Sarah Polk were moved to the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville in 1893.

Polk's third and final resting place Touring James K. Polk's Tomb at the Tennessee State Capitol James K. Polk's grave is located on the grounds of the state capitol building in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The capitol is open 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The grounds are also open on weekends. Limited street parking is available in the area. There is no admission fee.

From I-40: Exit on Broadway (exit 209A from I-40W; exit 209B from I-40E), going toward downtown. Turn left on Fifth Avenue and go three blocks. The museum is on the left between Union and Deaderick Streets.

Sarah Polk, who lived forty-two years after her husband's death, was buried beside him in 1891. The bodies of James and Sarah Polk were moved to the state capitol grounds two years later.

For additional information Tennessee State Capitol Charlotte Avenue and 7th Avenue, North Nashville, TN 37243 Phone: (615) 741-2692 www.tnmuseum.org "On his deathbed, Polk sought baptism into the Methodist Church..."-Richard Norton Smith For many men, retirement provides a whole new lease on life. In Polk's case, it was a very short lease indeed. Never blessed with robust health, in the spring of 1849, the former president came down with a debilitating illness. "My bowels were affected and the shaking of the Boat had become inconvenient to me," he acknowledged outside Memphis, where one doctor ruled out cholera. In fact, some believe Polk was afflicted with chronic diarrhea, a frequent complaint in the unsanitary nineteenth century. On his deathbed, Polk sought baptism into the Methodist Church-thus defying his mother, who had arrived, minister in tow, in hope of making her dying son a Presbyterian.A personal note: As it happens, my Harvard roommate is a Polk descendant. I won't lower the intellectual or other standards of the present volume by quoting our ribald exchanges concerning the final hours of his distinguished ancestor; suffice it to say I learned as a soph.o.m.ore where soph.o.m.oric humor gets its name.-RNS[image]Polk's grave on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol

Zachary Taylor Buried: Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky Twelfth President - 1849-1850 Born: November 24, 1784, in Orange County, Virginia Died: 10:35 p.m. on July 9, 1850, in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

Age at death: 65 Cause of death: Cholera Final words: "I am sorry that I am about to leave my friends."

Admission to Zachary Taylor National Cemetery: Free The hero of the Mexican War known as "Old Rough and Ready," Zachary Taylor was the first president to die in office while Congress was in session. He had served a little over a year, much of it consumed by sectional issues. Though a slaveholder himself, Taylor opposed secession and the extension of slavery into new territories. He did not live to see the conflict resolved. On the Fourth of July, 1850, Taylor attended groundbreaking ceremonies for the Was.h.i.+ngton Monument in sweltering heat. Upon returning to the White House, he devoured a large bowl of fruit and some cold milk. He became severely ill later that day. A doctor diagnosed cholera, an inflammation of the stomach and intestines, the result of having eaten food that had not been properly refrigerated. The president was given drugs and improved slightly. By July 8, however, his condition worsened. Doctors blistered his skin and bled his veins in the hope of freeing his body from infection. Taylor himself sensed their efforts were futile. That evening he reportedly said, "I am about to die. I expect the summons very soon. I have tried to discharge my duties faithfully. I regret nothing, but I am sorry that I am about to leave my friends." He died at 10:35 p.m. in his bed at the White House. His wife Peggy became hysterical and forbid the embalming of his body. She also prevented the molding of a death mask, but finally permitted an artist to draw the president in death.

Gary Peak, former director of the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, points to list of Mexican War battles in which "Old Rough and Ready" fought. This final granite marker to Taylor has a misspelling. The last entry should read Buena Vista.

The ceremonies honoring the president were extensive. Taylor's body lay in state for public viewing in the East Room of the White House until funeral services were held there on July 13. More than one hundred carriages joined the funeral procession as his body was taken to Congressional Cemetery in Was.h.i.+ngton. His favorite horse, "Old Whitey," accompanied the cortege. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were among the pallbearers. In October of that year, his remains were moved to a family cemetery, now the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.

Touring the Tomb at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery Zachary Taylor National Cemetery is located in Louisville, Kentucky. The cemetery office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but the gates to the cemetery are open sunrise to sunset. Admission is free.

To reach the cemetery: Take U.S. Route 64 to Route 264 East. From Route 264, take the Route 42/Brownsboro Road exit. At the exit, take a left onto U.S. Route 42 West/Brownsboro Road and follow the signs to Zachary Taylor National Cemetery.

The cemetery contains only one main road which leads directly from the cemetery entrance to Taylor's gravesite.

For additional information Zachary Taylor National Cemetery 4701 Brownsboro Road Louisville, KY 40207 Phone: (502) 893-3852 www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/ZacharyTaylor.asp "For a few days the country's twelfth president was back in the headlines..."-Richard Norton Smith For Zachary Taylor, eternal rest was anything but. It was bad enough that "Old Rough and Ready" suffered an agonizing death from cholera in July 1850. Margaret Taylor had her husband's casket opened three times before interment in order that she might gaze upon his lifeless features. The pattern repeated itself 141 years later, when a prospective academic biographer, persuaded that Taylor may have been poisoned by his political enemies, obtained permission to remove the general's mortal remains from the mausoleum in which they had rested just outside Louisville, Kentucky since early in this century. Oliver Stone, it appeared, had no monopoly on conspiracy theories. For a few days the country's twelfth president was back in the headlines, a perfect USA Today story, lacking only a front page poll and graphic of Taylor astride "Old Whitey," his Mexican War mount. All glory is fleeting, however: when tests for a.r.s.enic proved negative, Taylor returned to Louisville and the obscurity that has enshrouded him since death.-RNS[image]Zachary Taylor National Cemetery is the final resting place for hundreds of military veterans

Millard Fillmore Buried: Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York Thirteenth President - 1850-1853 Born: January 7, 1800, in Cayuga County, New York Died: 11:10 p.m. on March 8, 1874, in Buffalo, New York Age at death: 74 Cause of death: Stroke Final words: "The nourishment is palatable."

Admission to Forest Lawn Cemetery: Free Best known for being one of the least known presidents, Millard Fillmore was the last Whig to win the White House. The most notable achievement of his administration was the Compromise of 1850, which delayed civil war over the slavery issue. On a more personal level, the book-loving Fillmore and wife Abigail (his former school teacher) wrangled Congressional funds to establish a White House library. The two ama.s.sed the home's first permanent collection during Fillmore's single term as president.

Sadly, Abigail caught a cold at the inauguration of her husband's successor, Franklin Pierce, and died several weeks later. Millard Fillmore soon remarried and traveled widely in Europe with his second wife Caroline, with the hope that a milder climate would benefit her chronic health problems. He retained an interest in public affairs, and was even nominated to the presidency again in 1856 by the American-or Know-Nothing-Party, but was unsuccessful. He remained in good health into his later years, saying, "My health is perfect. I eat, drink and sleep as well as ever, and take a deep but silent interest in public affairs, and if Mrs. Fillmore's health can be restored, I should feel that I was in the enjoyment of an earthly paradise."

Sign marking Millard Fillmore's grave While trying to shave on the morning of February 13, 1874, the seventy-four-year-old Fillmore lost all sensation in the left side of his body. He had just suffered his first stroke. He regained partial use of his left side until he was stricken with a second stroke later that month. This time his throat muscles were severely affected, limiting his ability to swallow. Shortly before his death, in response to a doctor's question about the food he was given, Fillmore responded with his last words, "The nourishment is palatable." On March 8, Fillmore fell unconscious and died. At the announcement of his death, President Ulysses S. Grant issued a proclamation honoring the former president and flags in Fillmore's hometown of Buffalo were lowered to half mast.

Millard Fillmore's funeral was held the following Thursday, March 12. His body was kept in a rosewood coffin in the west room of the family home on Niagara Square, where a private service was held for family and close friends. At his head was a crown of camellias and rosebuds; a wreath and two large crosses lay on the coffin's lid. After the private service, Fillmore's body was borne into the hea.r.s.e by Company D of the Buffalo City Guards. The cortege then traveled to St. Paul's Cathedral where the body lay in state in the vestibule for viewing by thousands of mourners. Delegations from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives came to pay their respects, as did Buffalo's mayor. The New York Times New York Times reported, "Although much emaciated, Mr. Fillmore's face bore the courtly appearance so characteristic of him in life." reported, "Although much emaciated, Mr. Fillmore's face bore the courtly appearance so characteristic of him in life."

Following a brief and solemn service, the City Guards, the National Guard, and the U.S. Infantry led the flag-covered hea.r.s.e and a long line of carriages to Fillmore's final resting place. Local businesses were closed and the procession route was lined with mourners. Prior to his death, Millard Fillmore had chosen his burial site at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo. Also buried at the site are his two wives, Abigail and Caroline, both of his children, and the mother of his first wife.

Touring Millard Fillmore's Tomb at Forest Lawn Cemetery Forest Lawn Cemetery is located in Buffalo, New York. The cemetery is open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. from April through October and from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. the rest of the year. Admission is free.

To reach the cemetery from the north: From Route 190 South, take exit N-11 to Route 198 East. Take the Delaware Avenue exit, and turn right on to Delaware Avenue. Turn left into the cemetery gates at the corner of Delavan Avenue and Delaware Avenue.

From the south: Take I-190 North. Take the Church Street exit and turn right onto Church Street. Take a left onto Route 384. Continue on Route 384 through the roundabout. Turn right onto Delaware Avenue.

The cemetery is located at 1411 Delaware Avenue. After entering through the gates near the administration building, follow the paths heading north (parallel to Delaware Avenue) to the cemetery's section F. On the right is a sign directing you to Millard Fillmore's grave in section F.

For additional information Forest Lawn Cemetery 1411 Delaware Avenue Buffalo, NY 14209 Phone: (716) 885-1600 Fax: (716) 881-6482 www.forest-lawn.com

Buffalo, New York Fillmore's tall obelisk is surrounded by the graves of his two wives, children, and mother-in-law "...Fillmore had himself become something of a historic site."-Richard Norton Smith[image]Gateway to Forest Lawn Cemetery, the thirteenth president's chosen resting placeIn his declining years, Fillmore busied himself with numerous civic organizations benefiting his cherished Buffalo. None held more appeal for him than the Buffalo Historical Society, which was only appropriate since, by then, Fillmore had himself become something of a historic site. With true Chamber of Commerce gusto, he predicted, "Buffalo...is destined by its position to be what Alexandria and Venice were."Any man who could see Babylon in nineteenth-century Buffalo was a natural born optimist and therefore a soft touch for every sort of worthy cause involving the solicitation of funds. Having chaired a campaign to erect a suitable Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a commemorative task uncompleted at the time of his death, Fillmore would not have been surprised to learn how many years it would take before the people of Buffalo placed his own statue before their City Hall on Niagara Square. But it is not the magnet that attracts the attention of Fillmore cultists today. That honor belongs to the pink granite obelisk at Forest Lawn Cemetery where, each year, a small crowd gathers to mark Fillmore's birthday and to mock his obscure place in presidential annals.-RNS

Franklin Pierce Buried: Old North Cemetery, Concord, New Hamps.h.i.+re Fourteenth President - 1853-1857 Born: November 23, 1804, in Hillsboro, New Hamps.h.i.+re Died: 4:40 a.m. on October 8, 1869, in Concord, New Hamps.h.i.+re Age at death: 64 Cause of death: Stomach inflammation Final words: Unknown Admission to Old North Cemetery: Free Franklin Pierce was the only presidential candidate to have his campaign biography penned by a literary immortal, in this case Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both native New Englanders, the two men were college cla.s.smates and lifelong friends.

Labeled by many historians as one of our less successful presidents, Franklin Pierce lost the nomination for a second term to James Buchanan in 1856. He was among the first presidents to enjoy financial stability after leaving the White House. Nonetheless, his twelve-year retirement was not a happy one. Since the eve of Pierce's inauguration, when their son Bennie was killed in a train accident, both Pierce and his wife Jane battled depression. Already p.r.o.ne to heavy drinking, Pierce's problem grew worse after returning home to Concord, New Hamps.h.i.+re. Hoping to stave off melancholy, Franklin and Jane Pierce spent some time in Europe and the Bahamas, but with little improvement.

Pierce's gravestone Upon his return to Concord in 1860, Pierce spoke sympathetically of the Confederacy. Although he stopped shy of supporting secession, he was branded a traitor and was ostracized for the rest of his life. When Jane died of tuberculosis in 1863, the former president was truly alone.

By the summer of 1869, Pierce was suffering from dropsy, an acc.u.mulation of fluids in his body. He died of the disease at 4:40 a.m. on October 8, 1869, at the age of sixty-four. News of his poor health had been telegraphed frequently across the country, so his death came as no surprise.

Despite his unpopularity in his home state, Franklin Pierce was given the standard honors for a former president. For three days, his body, resting in a coffin covered in black cloth, lay in state with a large floral cross suspended overhead in Doric Hall at the New Hamps.h.i.+re State Capitol.

On October 11 twelve pallbearers, all fellow members of the state bar, carried the casket to St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Concord. A procession of local citizens and public school students followed the cortege. At the mayor's request, all local businesses closed for the duration of the funeral service. On order from President Grant, public buildings in Was.h.i.+ngton were draped in mourning. Flags were lowered to half mast in cities across the country, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard fired a thirty-one-gun salute in Pierce's honor.

Dr. John Splaine, C-SPAN's consulting historian, points to the historic marker at the Old North Cemetery He was buried in Concord's Old North Cemetery alongside his wife and their three children. In 1914, after much debate, the state of New Hamps.h.i.+re erected a bronze statue of Pierce on the capitol grounds and in 1946 finally placed a granite memorial at his grave.

Touring Franklin Pierce's Tomb at the Old North Cemetery The Old North Cemetery is located in Concord, New Hamps.h.i.+re.

From Concord State Capitol: From the capitol, drive north on Main Street to Park Street. Turn left onto Park Street. Drive 0.2 miles to State Street. Continue on State Street for another 0.7 miles until you reach Old North Cemetery. Parking is available on State Street. Inside the Old North Cemetery, walk straight ahead for approximately seventy-five feet. From that point, walk ten feet to the right to President Pierce's grave. The Old North Cemetery is open every day during daylight hours. Admission is free.

Franklin Pierce outlived his wife and three children. They are buried with him in the Old North Cemetery.

For Additional Information New Hamps.h.i.+re Historical Society 30 Park Street Concord, NH 03301 Phone: (603) 856-0641 www.nhhistory.org

City of Concord 41 Green Street Concord, NH 03301 Phone: (603) 225-8570 www.onconcord.com "...there is undoubtedly a tragic quality to America's fourteenth president."-Richard Norton Smith Though hardly a figure of Shakespearian dimensions, there is undoubtedly a tragic quality to America's fourteenth president. The youngest ever to hold that office when he was sworn in 1853, whatever chance he had for success was crushed, along with his eleven-year-old son, Bennie, killed a few weeks earlier in a horrible train wreck as his parents looked on. For Bennie's mother, Jane, a strict Calvinist who blamed her husband's political ambitions for the loss of their child, the White House was a well-furnished purgatory. Her death in December 1863, wounded Pierce's spirit, while the pa.s.sing of his dearest friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the following spring, dramatized the political ostracism caused by Pierce's pro-southern record in office. At Hawthorne's funeral the former president was excluded from the ranks of pallbearers, which included the likes of Emerson, Longfellow, and Whittier. Instead, Pierce remained behind the other mourners in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, to scatter a few blossoms into the open grave.When his own casket was borne into Saint Paul's in October 1869, the ceremonies were formalistic, the grief contained. Concord's farewell to its "Man Who Might Have Been" recalled nothing so much as Longfellow's lyric written for Hawthorne's obsequies."How beautiful it was, that one bright day In the long week of rain!

Though all its splendor could not chase away The omnipresent pain."-RNS

James Buchanan Buried: Woodward Hill Cemetery, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Fifteenth President - 1857-1861 Born: April 23, 1791, in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania Died: 8:30 a.m. on June 1, 1868, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania Age at death: 77 Cause of death: Pneumonia Final words: "Oh Lord, G.o.d Almighty, as Thou wilt."

Admission to Woodward Hill Cemetery: Free James Buchanan is known as our only bachelor president. Less familiar is the story of Buchanan's early romance with a young woman named Anne Coleman. She died suddenly in 1819, shortly after they had quarreled. Buchanan suffered when rumors of suicide circulated, along with claims that he was only interested in her money. He declared that his happiness would be "buried with her in the grave" and that the cause of their breakup would be revealed in a letter released after his death.

It's said that Buchanan first ran for Congress in 1820 to escape his grief and the gossip mills in his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. However, rumormongering has followed him into the modern age. Buchanan's choice of a Was.h.i.+ngton roommate-flamboyant fellow senator William Rufus DeVane King-has led to speculation about his personal life. Lacking a wife to handle White House social duties, Buchanan asked his niece, Harriet Lane, to serve as his first lady when he won the presidency in 1856.

The inscription on Buchanan's grave Weary of the slavery issue, he declined to seek a second term and left the White House for his Wheatland estate, where he received a hero's welcome and settled into a quiet retirement. He lived just seven more years. In his final days, Buchanan suffered from rheumatism and dysentery. These maladies left him susceptible to infection. In May of 1868, Buchanan contracted pneumonia. Sensing that the end was near, he did not leave his bedroom. James Buchanan died alone on June 1, 1868, at the age of seventy-seven.

The city of Lancaster held a public meeting in his honor. His body lay on view in the main hall at Wheatland. Mourners and curiosity seekers found the former president dressed in his typical white tie and high collar s.h.i.+rt. A two-and-a-half mile funeral parade followed, with bands, 125 carriages, and thousands of onlookers.

Historic marker at Woodward Hill Cemetery Two days before his death Buchanan gave final instructions to Hiram Swarr, the executor of his estate. First, he wanted a simple obelisk for his tomb. Second, the letter explaining his broken engagement was to be burned, unopened. Both orders were obeyed. He was buried at Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster, where a white marble monument stands today.

Touring James Buchanan's Tomb at Woodward Hill Cemetery Woodward Hill Cemetery is located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is open daily during the daylight hours. Admission is free.

From Philadelphia: Take the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) West to exit 21. Drive south on Highway 222. Highway 222 turns into Prince Street. From Prince Street turn left onto Hager Street. On reaching Queen Street turn right.

From Harrisburg: Take Highway 283 east to the Harrisburg Pike exit. Take Harrisburg Pike west into the city of Lancaster. Harrisburg Pike turns into Harrisburg Avenue. Turn left onto Prince Street until reaching Hager Street; then turn left onto Queen Street.

To find Buchanan's grave, bear to the right after entering the cemetery gates. Climb up the small hill and head toward the red brick church. President Buchanan's gravesite is located to the left of the church.

Also buried at Woodward Hill is Frederick Muhlenberg, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789-1791 and 1793-1795.

For additional information Woodward Hill Cemetery South Queen Street Lancaster, PA 17602

Lancaster County Historical Society 230 North President Avenue Lancaster, PA 17603 Phone: (717) 392-4633 www.lancasterhistory.org "Buchanan proved no more successful as a prophet than a president."-Richard Norton SmithBefore going to work as a screenwriter for the Weinstein brothers, Shakespeare observed that, "the evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones." The sentiment applies with unmistakable force to James Buchanan, the sine qua non of executive enfeeblement. The swashbuckling Theodore Roosevelt liked nothing better than to contrast "Buchanan presidents" and "Lincoln presidents," leaving no doubt as to in which camp he belonged. Reproached for his conduct on the eve of Fort Sumter, Buchanan in retirement wrote a self-serving memoir, selected a burial spot in Lancaster's Woodward Hills Cemetery, and composed an inscription for his white marble tombstone. "I have no regret for any public act of my life, and history will vindicate my memory," he told those gathered around his sickbed in June 1868. Buchanan proved no more successful as a prophet than a president.-RNS[image]James Buchanan's gravesite

Abraham Lincoln Buried: Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois Sixteenth President - 1861-1865 Born: February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky Died: 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865, in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

Age at death: 56 Cause of death: Gunshot wound to the head Final words: Unknown Admission to Oak Ridge Cemetery: Free In his 1858 bid for an Illinois Senate seat, Abraham Lincoln engaged in a series of seven debates with inc.u.mbent Democrat Stephen Douglas. The frontier lawyer lost that election, but the fame he gained allowed him to face Douglas again in the 1860 presidential race. Lincoln won the White House, inheriting a nation bitterly divided over the slavery issue.

The Civil War began just one month into Lincoln's first term and became the defining event of his administration. Sectional differences cast the industrial North against those in the South who favored states' rights. Eleven southern states seceded from the Union and formed their own Confederate government, laying the groundwork for the b.l.o.o.d.y clash that began in April 1861. Lincoln was determined to save the Union above all else.

Lincoln's final resting place at Oak Ridge Cemetery Lincoln's 1862 Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation granted freedom to slaves in the seceding states. Despite considerable losses on the battlefields, the war continued to rage for three more years. The conflict officially ended with the surrender of the Confederacy on April 9, 1865, shortly after Lincoln's second inauguration.

For many, the hostilities lived on. Unable to accept the South's defeat, an actor named John Wilkes Booth plotted against the Union government, conspiring to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward. The scheme took a more violent turn when Booth decided that Lincoln must die. He went to Ford's Theatre in Was.h.i.+ngton on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, where Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd were attending a performance of the comedy Our American Cousin Our American Cousin. Booth entered the presidential box when the policeman on guard stepped away from his post. Approaching from behind, he shot Lincoln once in the back of the head. Laughter and applause from the audience nearly drowned out the sound of the fatal gunshot. Booth jumped over the balcony and landed on the stage, where he yelled "Sic semper tyrannis!" before running out of the theater. A distraught Mary Todd Lincoln cried out, "They have shot the President!" as a doctor raced to the mortally injured man.

The president was taken to a boarding house across the street from the theater, but never regained consciousness. He died on April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m., the first American president to die at the hands of an a.s.sa.s.sin. A grief-stricken Secretary of War Edwin Stanton p.r.o.nounced him dead with the famous line, "Now he belongs to the ages."

A funeral carriage brought Lincoln's body back to the White House. Doctors performed an autopsy and undertakers prepared his body for burial. Lincoln was dressed in the same black suit he had worn just weeks before for his second inaugural.

Funeral arrangements were extensive. The White House was heavily draped in black and church bells tolled throughout the city. Government offices and businesses closed. Lincoln's body lay in state first at the Capitol rotunda in Was.h.i.+ngton, then in cities across the country. Inconsolable, Mary Todd Lincoln refused to join in the national funeral services.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans lined the 1700-mile route as a train carried Lincoln's body back home to Springfield, Illinois. The "Lincoln Special," as it was known, retraced the path the president traveled on his way to the White House in 1861. Its stops included Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago. When Lincoln's body arrived in Springfield after two weeks on display, his discolored features so distressed spectators that an undertaker was called in to conceal the decay.

After a public viewing at the Illinois State Capitol, the martyred president's remains were taken for burial at Oak Ridge Cemetery. His mahogany coffin was interred together with that of his beloved son Willie, who had died in the White House at the age of eleven. Mary Todd Lincoln was buried with them in the family tomb when she died in 1882.

John Wilkes Booth was captured twelve days after the a.s.sa.s.sination and died as a result of the struggle. Historians are uncertain whether he was wounded by his pursuers or by his own hand. Four of his co-conspirators were found guilty and hanged for their roles in the scheme.

Touring Abraham Lincoln's Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery The Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site is located at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. It is open Labor Day through February, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (closed Sunday and Monday), and March through October, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. It is closed on major holidays. Admission is free.

From the South: Take I-55 North to the Sixth Street exit. Follow Sixth Street through downtown Springfield. Take a left onto North Grand Avenue. From North Grand Avenue, take a right onto Monument Avenue to reach Oak Ridge Cemetery.

From the North: Take I-55 South to the Sherman exit. From the exit, follow Business Route 55 (Veterans Parkway). Take a left onto J David Jones Parkway. Go approximately one mile, then take a left into Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Lincoln's tomb is clearly visible from the cemetery's main road.

The receiving vault where Lincoln's body was first held For additional information Site Manager Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site Oak Ridge Cemetery 1500 Monument Avenue Springfield, IL 62702 Phone: (217) 782-2717 www.illinois.h.i.+story.org "Over the next quarter century, Springfield's city fathers buried and reburied their most famous citizen."-Richard Norton SmithThe most revered of presidents has suffered posthumous indignities that Jeb Stuart wouldn't wish on his worst Yankee enemy. To begin with, there was Lincoln's funeral, which at twenty days was prolonged even by the lugubrious standards of the day. Too prostrate with grief to accompany her husband's remains to Illinois, Mary Lincoln found solace by quarreling with her Springfield neighbors, whose plan to entomb Lincoln in a downtown city lot she loudly vetoed. She insisted that Lincoln be interred in rural Oak Ridge Cemetery, a parklike setting modeled after such recently consecrated beauty spots as Boston's Mount Auburn and Brooklyn's Greenwood.Alternatively, Mrs. Lincoln would consign her husband to the bas.e.m.e.nt crypt in the Capitol that had originally been reserved for George Was.h.i.+ngton.In defense of the much maligned widow, there is something about a funeral that brings out the worst in people-within hours of John F. Kennedy's a.s.sa.s.sination, an Iowa congressman and self-proclaimed watchdog of the treasury named H.R. Gross questioned the cost of placing an eternal flame over Arlington's Section 45, Grave S-45.Anyway, with Mary holding all the cards, the Lincoln Monument a.s.sociation quickly folded. Its members may have entertained second thoughts after a band of would-be bodys.n.a.t.c.hers broke into the Lincoln tomb on election night, 1876. The conspirators planned to hide the presidential remains in an Indiana sand dune pending the release of their leader, who was in jail on counterfeiting charges. The intruders nearly succeeded in extricating the Great Emanc.i.p.ator's coffin before being surprised by agents who had infiltrated the gang.[image] This simple tombstone marks the second place Lincoln's body was interred This simple tombstone marks the second place Lincoln's body was interredOver the next quarter century, Springfield's city fathers buried and reburied their most famous citizen.At one point Lincoln's casket was concealed under construction materials, leaving admirers to pay homage before an empty tomb. In September 1901, a small group a.s.sembled at Oak Ridge; among those in attendance was a thirteen-year-old boy named Fleetwood Lindley, who had been hastily summoned to the scene by his father. A pungent odor filled the tomb as a blowtorch-wielding plumber removed the section of Lincoln's green lead casket above the president's head and shoulders. Young Lindley crowded forward with the others to get a better look.What they saw, thirty-six years after the fact, was the handiwork of a Philadelphia undertaker, who had used white chalk to disguise the decomposing corpse during its cross-country rail journey.Notwithstanding this macabre cosmetic touch, Lincoln's features were plainly recognizable to the boy. To be sure, the presidential eyebrows had vanished and yellow mold and small red spots, the latter guessed to be remnants of an American flag, disfigured the black broadcloth suit in which Lincoln had taken his second inauguration oath in March 1865. But the figure in the coffin was unmistakably Abraham Lincoln. His ident.i.ty established and the crowd's curiosity gratified, Lincoln was lowered for the final time into a cage of steel bars and smothered under ten feet of Portland cement. Before his death in 1963, Fleetwood Lindley claimed distinction as the last living person to have gazed upon the features of Abraham Lincoln.-RNS

Andrew Johnson Buried: Andrew Johnson National Cemetery, Greeneville, Tennessee Seventeenth President - 1865-1869 Born: December 29, 1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina Died: 2:30 a.m. on July 31, 1875, in Carter County, Tennessee Age at death: 66 Cause of death: Stroke Final words: Unknown Admission to Andrew Johnson National Cemetery: Free Even after winning the presidency, Andrew Johnson viewed himself as a common man. Born into poverty, Johnson opened his own tailor shop when he was seventeen. The next year he met and married Eliza McCardle, who taught him to read and write. Although he had no formal schooling, Johnson worked his way up through elective offices in his home state of Tennessee and in the U.S. Congress. In 1865, he became vice president under Abraham Lincoln.

Thrust into the presidency upon Lincoln's a.s.sa.s.sination, Andrew Johnson served a single term largely occupied with the reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. The first president to be impeached, he was acquitted in the Senate by just one vote. Andrew Johnson was not renominated by his party for a second term, but he was welcomed home with honors to Greeneville, Tennessee. He remained active in Democratic Party politics, campaigning on behalf of other candidates and even seeking further elective office himself. In 1874, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, the only former president to serve there.

Andrew Johnson's tomb A cholera epidemic devastated much of the southern United States in 1873. Andrew Johnson caught the disease and recovered, but never fully regained his strength. In June of that year, sensing he was failing, he wrote, "I have performed my duty to my G.o.d, my country, and my family. I have nothing to fear in approaching death. To me it is the mere shadow of G.o.d's protecting wing."

On July 28, 1875, Johnson and his wife were visiting their daughter in Carter County, Tennessee, when he suffered a stroke that left his right side paralyzed. He regained consciousness the next day, but refused to seek the treatment of a doctor or the comfort of a minister. The following day he suffered a second stroke which left him unable to speak. Surrounded by family, Johnson died at his daughter's home on July 31, 1875. His body was placed in a simple pine casket packed with ice to counter the sun's sweltering rays. A public forum was held that evening in Nashville for citizens to express their condolences.

Johnson's body was taken to lie in state at the Greeneville courthouse on August 2. The town, including Johnson's old tailor shop, was draped in black. At his request, Johnson's body was wrapped in the American flag, his head rested on a copy of the Const.i.tution. His body had already begun to decompose in the extreme heat, so the casket remained closed. Tennessee Governor James Porter was among the dignitaries who paid their respects. In cities across the country, federal offices were closed and flags were flown at half mast in Johnson's honor.

The next day under cloudy skies, five thousand people and a small honor guard escorted the casket to his gravesite where a simple Masonic funeral service was held. Andrew Johnson was buried on top of a hill on land he owned in Greeneville. He chose the site himself, marking it with a seedling reportedly taken from a willow tree near Napoleon's St. Helena deathbed. His wife Eliza was buried beside him when she died six months later.

Touring the Tomb at the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site Andrew Johnson's gravesite is part of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greeneville, Tennessee. The site is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Admission to the gravesite is free, and includes a guided tour of the homestead. Visitors under age eighteen or over sixty-one are admitted to the homestead for free.

To reach the site from the north: Take Interstate 81 South to exit 36, then Route 172 South to Greeneville. Follow the signs to the visitors center, located at the corner of College and Depot Streets in Greeneville.

From the south: Take Interstate 81 North to exit 23, then Route 11E north to Greeneville. Follow the signs to the visitor center, located at the corner of College and Depot Streets in Greeneville.

To reach the cemetery from the visitor's center, go north on College Street to McKee Street. Turn east on McKee Street. Take McKee Street to Main Street. From Main Street, head south two blocks, and turn left on Monument Avenue. The cemetery is at the top of Monument Avenue.

At the cemetery entrance, turn right. Take the road up the hill. President Johnson's gravesite is located on top of the hill and is designated with a large, white landmark.

This plaque at the Andrew Johnson National Historic site tells the story of Johnson's funeral For additional information Andrew Johnson National Historic Site 121 Monument Avenue Greeneville, TN 37743 Phone: (423) 638-3551 Fax: (423) 638-9194 www.nps.gov/anjo/ "To admirers, he was 'the Old Commoner,' to critics, a hopeless relic..."-Richard Norton Smith The president who proposed Restoration instead of Reconstruction was himself restored to his pre-war place in the Senate by fellow Tennesseeans, most of whom shared his racial and economic views. To admirers, he was "the Old Commoner," to critics, a hopeless relic who single-handedly thwarted the cause of racial justice while squandering the moral high ground purchased with northern blood. "Pillow my head with the Const.i.tution of my country," Johnson directed his executors. "Let the flag of the Nation be my winding sheet." His wishes were carried out to the letter.On the eve of his funeral, Johnson's old tailor shop in Greeneville was festooned in mourning cloth. So was the Court House where thousands of plain people-his const.i.tuency of the dispossessed-came to pay their respects to the workingman's president. Today his grave is marked by a marble shaft atop which perches an American eagle. A[image] Andrew Johnson selected the spot where his marble tomb now stands Andrew Johnson selected the spot where his marble tomb now standsbillowing stone flag drapes part of the monument. The words of the Const.i.tution are carved into its side, above the simple, generous tribute, even more debatable than most such graveyard summations: "His faith in the people never wavered."-RNS