Laying Down Lincoln is the story of Harry Cattell as he struggles with the task of embalming Abraham Lincoln and the many trials he faced during the Civil War. The series begins in 1861 when a less cynical Cattell quits medical school to volunteer for the Union Army to perform his patriotic duty, his trials of life as a soldier, and witnessing some of the reasons why Americans felt compelled to serve in the Civil War. As the series continues events prompt Cattell to join his Southern stepfather's undertaking firm, and as the war unfolds, Cattell embalms young Willie Lincoln, operates out of the Confederate capital at Richmond, develops a rivalry with Dr. Thomas Holmes--the father of modern embalming--and he is dealt a devastating blow at the battle of Gettysburg. Then in the spring of 1865, he travels on the Lincoln Funeral Train and witnesses city after city strive to outdo the previous in its display of grief for the slain President. As Cattell journeys through the Civil War and ultimately toward Springfield, Illinois with the body of Abraham Lincoln, will opposing sympathies tear apart not only the country but also his family? Will he lose himself in a cutthroat profession that profits from the slaughter? Is it possible to honorably lay Lincoln to rest amidst the fractured national milieu? It is all to discover in the Laying Lincoln Down series.
