Lewis Hanback papers, 1861-1896

Lieutenant Lewis Hanback, 27th Illinois Infantry.

Public domain

Engine "Nashville" of the Lincoln funeral train

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Location: Boston Public Library, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston, Mass.
Background: Lewis Hanback was born in Winchester, Scott County, Ill., on March 27, 1839; taught school in Morgan County, Ill., in 1860 and 1861; during the Civil War enlisted as a private in the Illinois Volunteer Infantry and was promoted to brigade inspector; studied law in Albany, N.Y.; returned to Illinois and from there moved to Topeka, Kansas; was admitted to the bar in 1865 and practiced; elected justice of the peace in 1867; probate judge of Shawnee County 1868-1872; assistant chief clerk of the State house of representatives; assistant secretary of the State senate in 1877; assistant United States district attorney of Kansas 1877-1879; elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1887); resumed the practice of law; died in Kansas City, Kansas, September 7, 1897.
Contents: Letters from Hanback to his wife, Hester Ann (Cooper) Hanback, Bibles, photos, ephemera, and other items, chiefly relating to his activities with Company K, 27th Illinois Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. Includes account of Lincoln's body lying in state at Albany, N.Y., and the departure of the funeral train; document signed by President Hayes; and Muriel Culp Barbe's book entitled A Union Forever (1949), partially based on Hanback's letters.