Abraham Lincoln is remembered as the Great Emancipator, author of the Gettysburg Address and his untimely death, assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. President Lincoln, in life, was very interested in spiritualism. Abraham Lincoln and the Paranormal He attended séances in the White House and had premonitions of his death. He is one of the White House haunters.
Lincoln’s Ghostly Appearances
Richard Winer and Nancy Osborne, Haunted Houses (Bantam Books, 1979) wrote about Abraham Lincoln’s ghostly appearances. He has been seen at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The fort was built in the 1600s and played a key role during the Civil War. His ghost has been seen pacing about his Springfield, Illinois grave. Many people have seen his ghost in the White House including:
- Grace Coolidge, wife of President Calvin, was the first to see his ghost. It was in the Oval Office and he was looking out of a window beyond the Potomac River. Poet Carl Sandburg did not see Lincoln there, but strongly sensed his presence by that window.
- This haunting appearance actually happened during Lincoln’s lifetime. When Chaplain E. C. Bolles, Union Army arrived to meet Lincoln, he saw him at the window, gazing across the Potomac. He wrote about this and commented that he never saw such a mournful face and he had seen many others who were grieving. The President was not in the room at the time.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis also have felt his presence in the White House. FDR’s dog, Fala, sensed something and would bark with excitement for no reason. It was believed that he sensed the ghost.
- President Harry Truman heard his footsteps. One night, he heard rappings at his door, but no one was there when he opened it. He noted that the servants swore they saw his apparition.
- The Reverend Norman Vincent Peale said an actor heard Lincoln’s pleas for help and saw Lincoln on the floor, as if in prayer. He refused to name the man.
- Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands saw his ghost when she, as FDR’s guest, stayed in the Lincoln Room overnight, according to Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits (Facts on File Inc., 1992). She heard someone walking in the hall, then a rap on the door. When she opened the door, she saw Lincoln wearing a top hat. At least one person witnessed Lincoln sitting on the bed, donning his boots.
Lincoln's Phantom Funeral Train
A train took Lincoln’s body to Springfield, Illinois, for interment. It took a circuitous route and traveled through New York that April of 1865. Each April since then, a phantom train is said to travel the same route. It leaves from the District of Columbia, travels through New York State toward Springfield, but does not arrive there.
Around midnight, the air above the tracks is sharp and cutting, but at each side, the air is warmer and calm. There are two versions of the spectral train. According to one version, there are two trains. One tugs several cars, draped in black, including a military car from which the sounds of mournful music emanate. The second pulls only one flatbed car bearing the Lincoln’s coffin. It is said timepieces stop while the train is passing by.
