The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Report of First Doctor to Reach Shot Lincoln Found

From the June 5, 2012, Yahoo! News, AP .

Dr. Charles Leale was the first doctor to reach Lincoln after the assassination in Ford's Theater and found him paralyzed, comatose and leaning against his wife.  He ordered brandy and water brought in immediately according to a newly found report written just hours after the president's death. 

It was discovered in a box in the National Archives late in May.

The Army surgeon was sitting just 40 feet away from the President's box and saw assassin John Wilkes Booth jump to the stage with a dagger.  His first thought was that Lincoln had been stabbed.

"I commenced to examine his head and soon passed my finger over a large firm clot of blood situated about one inch below the superior curved line of the occipital bone.  The coagula I easily removed and passed my little finger of my left hand through the perfectly smooth opening made by the ball."

Historians believe his account was packed in a box and stored in the Archive and not seen for 147 years.

This is a first draft of the tragedy.  Dr, Leale basically saved Lincoln's life at that moment, but the president died later from the wound.

Kind of Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark at the End.  --Old Secesh

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