Webisode recalls Lincoln funeral procession in Phila.

No one in Philadelphia had seen such an outpouring of grief, not since the deaths of Ben Franklin and George Washington. A melancholy settled over the city. The only sounds were the clanging of bells and distant booming of cannons.

Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession drew more than 300,000 people, nearly the city's entire population, during its two-day stop in Philadelphia. Double lines stretched from Independence Hall, where he lay in state, all the way to the Schuylkill.

The remarkable moment, 144 years ago this week, has been captured in an unusual webisode that has been released as part of efforts to produce a documentary film series on Philadelphia's history.

The five-minute film clip is one of eight - focusing on colorful people, places, and events - that will be placed online between now and June, when executive producers Sam Katz and Mark Moskowitz expect to finish the documentary's pilot episode.

Katz, a Philadelphia businessman and former mayoral candidate, sees the airing of the webisodes (at historyofphilly.com) and pilot as a way of whetting the public's appetite for the film project, which covers more than four centuries of history.

The eight-hour documentary will be edited into various lengths for television, the Internet, and the classroom. It has been funded so far by foundations and individual donations.

"We want people who see the webisodes to say, 'I want to see more,' " said Katz, an investment banker who lives in the city's West Mount Airy section. "This one [on Lincoln's funeral] has an emotional impact, and we were not looking to build emotional content in the webisodes.

"They are supposed to be sidebars," providing details usually left on the cutting-room floor as part of the editing process.

But this slice of history - in the bicentennial year of Lincoln's birth - proved to be so much more. Katz and his son, Philip Katz, were enthralled by the story of Philadelphia's farewell, as told by Gettysburg College history professor Allen Guelzo.

"We were talking to him about the Sanitary Fair of 1864," a city event, attended by Lincoln, that raised money for wounded Union troops, said Philip Katz. "But we ended up also talking about Lincoln's other trips to Philadelphia - including the funeral. We got an answer to a question we didn't ask."

Lincoln visited Philadelphia more than any other city during his presidency. He had spoken as president-elect at Independence Hall and was awed by the history of the place. It seemed appropriate that he return - one last time - to the city that had supported him so strongly during the Civil War.

"There was a parade of citizens, soldiers, all of them conveying Lincoln's casket to Independence Hall," said Guelzo, whose baritone voice runs through the webisode. "And there Lincoln lay in state for two days [April 22 and 23] beneath the statue of George Washington."

A young African American woman, Emilie Davis, joined the throngs that came to pay their respects. In her diary, quoted in the video, she wrote: "It was the grandest funeral I ever saw. The coffin and hearse was beautiful."

The film clip is illustrated with period photos and images from the April 14 assassination at Ford's Theatre to Lincoln's long train ride home to Springfield, Ill. Many images were manipulated to create moving pictures with a depth of field.

A Union officer is shown rushing toward assassin John Wilkes Booth as smoke rises from the Philadelphia Derringer that he'd just fired at Lincoln's head. Mourners gather along railroad tracks, with heads uncovered, as Lincoln's funeral train passes. And more crowds watch as the hearse passes on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia.

"On Monday, April 24, at 1 a.m., after resting in Independence Hall for more than 30 hours, the dust that accumulated on the dead president's face was wiped away," the webisode narrator says. "His coffin was closed."

Other webisodes, to be released in coming weeks, focus on Philadelphia's volunteer firefighters, baseball, the emerging influence of the railroads, the Sanitary Fair, the civil-rights movement, Fairmount Park, dance theater, and major signature buildings.

This summer, Sam Katz plans to hold screenings of the pilot and webisodes at churches, schools, museums, and historical societies. The pilot, running about 24 minutes, covers the period from 1864, the year before the end of the Civil War, to 1876, just before the opening of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

The webisodes will also be available on the Web sites of local historical and cultural institutions as well as Twitter, Blip.tv, YouTube and Facebook.

"Philadelphians think the city's history is the Declaration of Independence, the Revolution, then Mayor Joe Clark was elected," said Sam Katz. "There is a big hole in the public's memory, and the only one way to fill it is one story at a time."