(Saturday, August 8, 1885, 8:06 a.m. local time) — More than one million people witnessed the funeral procession of former President Ulysses S. Grant (who had died July 23, 1885) today in New York City.

The column of mourners who accompanied Grant was seven miles long. Grant’s pallbearers were Civil War Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan, who had fought for the Union, and Simon Bolivar Buckner and Joseph Johnston, who had fought for the Confederacy.

Placed in a “temporary” tomb in Riverside Park, Grant’s body stayed there for nearly 12 years, while supporters raised money for the construction of a permanent resting place.