Special thanks to Jerry Beatty and the Warren County Iowa Historical Society
for the use of photos and information from the publication
"Warren County, Iowa & The Civil War" Which was published in 2015
Pvt. B.F. Speer
Benjamin Franklin Speer was born in Princeton, Missouri, on Feb 25th, 1845, he was the son of Joseph and Dorothy (Collier)Speer. His mother died when he was four years of age and Benjamin took up the responsibilities of helping his father on the family farm. But when the American civil war broke out, Ben who at the time was only sixteen years old, enlisted in the army on September 04th of 1861, in Company D, of the 7th Missouri State Militia. He served in the 7th for approximately eight months, then in August of 1862 he again enlisted in Co, G, 27th Missouri and served in this regiment until the end of the war. Ben was with the regiment at the siege of Vicksburg Mississippi. He became disabled {sic]and sent to Jefferson Barracks, 12 miles south of St. Louis and then to the Marine Hospital in St. Louis. After his release from the, hospital, Benjamin was assigned to Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio, he was then assigned to the infamous Camp Douglas, at Chicago where he guarded Confederate prisoners of war.
Soldier B.F. Speer Guarded Abraham Lincoln's Body.
During Benjamin's time as a camp guard. President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. A few days later was honored to have been chosen as one of the soldiers who be tasked with protecting President Lincolns body while it was in Chicago.
Monday May 1st, 1865
The funeral train arrived in Chicago on May 1st, 1865. The arrival and presence of the train was said to be both a pageant and very solemn experience and it was estimated that nearly thirty-six thousand people turned out to greet and honor President Lincoln. After the body was taken off the train and carried to the court house, where he lay in state. Benjamin was stationed at the front end of the casket, where he stood two-hour watches with three other soldiers. Their assignment was to keep the endless stream of grieving people moving in an orderly manner. The next day, while the casket was placed into the hearse, in preparation for the return to the train depot, Speer and the three other guards, took their positions at the four corners of the hearse and stood at "arms rest, at the reverse" with the muzzle resting on the toes of their right foot, with their chins resting on their hands, on the butt of their rifles. As the casket was placed on the hearse, Speer continued in the position, and then right wheeled to March in escort of the hearse until the procession of a "Colored boy" [sic] who took the horse by its bridle and walked it too the train depot, where it was loaded and taken to it's final destination in Springfield Illinois. Benjamin then returned to Camp Douglas, where he served, until sent to Cairo Illinois where he was honorably discharged on August 1st of 1865.
After the War
After the war, Benjamin worked six years on a farm near Decatur Illinois and then returned home to Princeton where he cut railroad ties and did other construction work. He joined the Grand Army of the Republic, and later married Martha Moore at Goshen Missouri, they had five children, then in 1913 they moved to Indianola Iowa
Source: Sally J. Speer, Indianola Iowa.
The attack on Fort Sumter officially signaled the beginning of the war.
Stereograph shows cannon shells, rocks, debris, and
gabion reinforcement retaining walls inside Fort Sumter.
Engine "Nashville" of the Lincoln Funeral Train
Photo shows a Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad engine, with a
portrait of Abraham Lincoln mounted on the front. The engine was one of several used to
carry Lincoln's body from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill.
-Library of Congress
Lincoln funeral car on the old tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad by
Lake Michigan, Chicago, 1865
Funeral service of President Lincoln at Chicago, Illinois, May 1.
Removing the coffin from the funeral train to the catafalque
Assassination of the president Abraham Lincoln : Emordung des Präsidenten Abraham Lincoln. L'assassinat du président Abraham Lincoln
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