Tour commemorates 160th anniversary of Gettysburg Address
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Nov. 3—INDIANAPOLIS — Nov. 19 marks the 160th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. To commemorate this momentous speech in American history, Westfield-based The Lincoln Special is initiating a statewide tour (referred to as "roadshows") of Indiana, tracing Lincoln's 1865 train route of his funeral train that began in Richmond, Indiana.
A total of 13 cities are included in these roadshows where Executive Director Chris Allen will be staging a free, hour-long forum that highlights Lincoln's life and legacy after his assassination at Ford's Theater.
"It's imperative to remind people in Lincoln's home state that his story didn't just end at Ford's Theater," Allen said. "Even in death, Lincoln's story continued on, only with us as authors. Every city and town in Indiana that Lincoln's funeral train stopped at shares an indelible connection to our nation's story."
Roadshows begin this Saturday, Nov. 4, at the world famous Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, with a subsequent stop in Richmond later that day at the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond at 2:30 p.m.
From Richmond, The Lincoln Special has stops planned the following Saturdays in Greenfield, Indianapolis, Lafayette, and Michigan City later this fall.
"Lincoln's Funeral Train acted as a zipper that brought hundreds of thousands of people together at this nation's most fractured point," Allen said. "His funeral train proved that even in death, this man [Lincoln] could unite people like nothing before or since."
Lincoln's remains arrived in his boyhood home state on April 29, 1865, just 21 days after his assassination at Ford's Theater in Washington.
"It wasn't just Lincoln's remains that came through here," Allen said. "It was everything Lincoln stood for, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment, and the Gettysburg Address that came through here."
Roadshows will focus on Lincoln's life and The Lincoln Special's plans for a major motion picture about the funeral train in Indiana.
All roadshows are free and open to the general public.
For more information, visit www.tearsandiron.com or call (317) 967-6190.
