Apr 25, 2015 2 min read

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Statehouse is preparing for its part in 150th anniversary commemorations nationwide of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

After the Civil War president was shot and killed April 15, 1865, his body was carried across the country for viewing by mourners. It reached Ohio April 29 of that year, attracting some 50,000 people.

Ohio marks the anniversary of that event Wednesday with a Civil War encampment and changing-of-the-guard throughout the day, an exhibit of historical photographs from the Library of Congress and a presentation by the National Parks Service at 6 p.m.

The structure was adorned as it was at the time, with black bunting wrapping the columns and a sign correctly portraying a famous misquote displayed at the time: “With malice to no one, with charity for all.”

What Lincoln actually had said, during his second inaugural address six weeks before his death, was “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

The reason the speech was misquoted is not known.

A group of Civil War re-enactors – the 1st Ohio Light Artillery, Battery A – is making possible the event. They will be on site from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, providing an honor guard for a replica of Lincoln’s casket from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Statehouse Rotunda, where the slain president lay in state.

The exhibit of photo reproductions tells the story of Lincoln’s assassination and the men and women named as conspirators in his murder and their fate. It is recommended for mature audiences.