GDG- I voted - No

[Bill and Glenna Jo Christen]

I voted "no" for now--waiting for more evidence.

I would like to see a high resolution scan to be sure of the ID.. At this
point I would assume that Lincoln scholars have agreed that Lincoln rode to
the ceremony on a horse. That would be the first thing that I would check.
There appears to be some sort of mounted military escort.
 
The figure in question does appear to be a man wearing a top hat. Lincoln's
top hats were no more taller than any other. The idea of a "trademark" top
hat is basically that he has not been photographed or described wearing any
other kind. This is similar to the Western Iron Brigade's "black hats" that
were nothing other than regular issue US Army dress hats. The unique thing
was that their brigade commander (General John Gibbon) insisted that they
be issued dress hats rather than fatigue caps--perhaps to make them look
more like US Regulars.
 
The statement about "white gloves" is hard to verify. One's skin without
gloves would also appear light in an image. I would also think that it
would be common for a civilian horseman to be wearing some sort of gloves
(even buff colored, but more likely black).
 
I think it is quite possible that this is Lincoln, but I would like to
_see_ a little more evidence.
 
In regard to the rarity: I would consider having 130 images of an 1860s
personality to not be that rare when most of the population probably had
but one or two images of themselves from that period. However, some
individual images at a particular place or time (such as Gettysburg in
November 1863) might be considered rare.

Bill Christen

> [Original Message]
> From: James Cameron <cameron2 at optonline.net>
> The most I can say is that it may possibly be Lincoln.  However. there
were 
> a number of mounted men in the procession wearing high top hats similar
to 
> Lincoln's.  Specifically, the parade Marshall's, who can be seen in 
> photographs of the crowd around the speaker's platform.  They can be 
> identified by the white sashes they wore.