President Lincoln's Assassination  and Death Bed Details by Surgeon Dr. Charles Leale Below is the original handwritten four page manuscript on onionskin paper from Dr. Charles Leale describing the events of April 14th, 1865 at Ford's Theater and the night that followed after the assassination of the President.  The letter is dated Nov. 3, 1866 and is in response to a request by John H. Littlefield for details of those two days.  He apparently used this information in engraving "Death Bed of Lincoln", published in 1868 and shown above. On the evening of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln attended a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.  Sometime between ten and ten-thirty, John Wilkes Booth - one of the most popular actors in the country - slipped unnoticed into the Presidential box and, standing four feet away from the President, discharged the bullet from a single-shot derringer into the back of Lincoln’s head. The short-barreled pocket pistol shot a round lead ball at a very low muzzle velocity — about that, say, of today’s air guns. It was enough, however, to render Lincoln unconscious and paralyzed. As Booth escaped from the theater, a young Army surgeon, Charles Leale, made his way through the audience to Lincoln’s side. He determined that the wound was mortal, and ordered the stricken President carried across the street to a neighboring boarding house. More on Dr. Leale:  https://www.civilwarprofiles.com/charles-a-leale-the-first-doctor-to-aid-lincoln-following-the-assassination/   Hon. John H. Littlefield, 670 Fulton Street Brooklyn, New York   Dear Mr. Littlefield, In accordance with your request, please find a brief statement of the last hours of President Lincoln.  I sincerely hope that you will meet with perfect success.   Very Truly Yours, Charles A. Leale November 30, 1865 Page 1     Page 2     Page 3     Page 4 Page 1 After Persident Lincoln had been fatally wounded, it was fortunate for the nation that Mrs. Lincoln was able so soon to secure the services of an experienced young Army surgeon, who by his prompt and efficient action prevented the immediate death of the president, and prolonged his lifge for eight hours at a time when the sympathy for the dying martyr overcame much of the malice of the enemies of our country. These eight hours gave the Cabinet Officers time to carefully consider the duties they so faithfully performed in continuing in office, unbroken by a single day as president of the United States.  I allude to Dr. Charles A. Leale, who was then stationed in Washington in charge of the ward containing the wounded officers and was executive officer of Armory Square Hospital.  He was the first surgeon to reach the President after he was shot, and at the special request of Mrs. Lincoln took charge of him.  Explained the fatal extent of his injury and did all possible to restore the feeble heart’s action and by the immediate application of his knowledge of gunshot wounds soon overcame the shock and relieved the brain pressure,  Page 2 Thereby preventing the death of the President in the theatre.  In response to many inquiries Dr. Leale then said that the wound was mortal, and that recovery was impossible.  As soon as Mr. Lincoln had partially recovered from the shock, Dr. Leale began his removal from the scene of the tragedy to a place of safety.  Dr. Leale carried the head and shoulders of the President, and with the assistance of others, reached the streets, where the surging excited populace crowded forward and obstructed the exit from the theatre.  He called out three times, “Guards, clear the passage!” and with the assistance of a captain present who reported for duty.  Almost immediately two lines of soldiers, with drawn swords, bayonets, pistols and other weapons, stood in the position of present arms and cleared a space about five feet wide across the street, through which the bleeding form of the prostrate president was carried, amid the most profound and solemn silence.  Page 3 Not a voice was heard, or a shout from the soldiers as their beloved Commander in Chief who so often had visited and comforted them in weary camp life and hospital sickness, was now borne, insensible and dying, to a place of quiet, to a bed in the nearest house.  Dr. Leale was several times asked if he would take Mr. Lincoln to the White House, and each time said “no”, inasmuch as death would probably occur before reaching it.  After placing the President in bed, Dr. Leale again found it necessary to remove the coagulation from the opening in the cranium, where oozing of blood relieved the brain pressure and breathing was re-established, this is repeated on several occasions and when Dr. Stone and the Surgeon General arrived Dr. Leale explained the good effects which followed these reliefs from brain pressure, and the operation was continued at intervals during the night.  Page 4 During the course of the night there were present Dr. R.K. Stone, Surgeon General J.K. Barnes, Assistant Surgeon General C. Crane, Dr. C.S. Taft, Dr. A.F.A. King and others (in the picture).  Mrs. Lincoln was attended by Mrs. Senator Dixon who on her last visit to her husband was carried from the room in a fainting condition.  The protracted death struggle lasted until twenty minutes past seven o’clock on the morning of April 15, 1865.  At the moment of dissolution Dr. Leale held the right hand of the martyr and closed his eyelids in death, after which the few remaining knelt down around the lifeless form of the patriot and hero, while the Rev. Dr. Gurley earnestly supplicated to God in behalf of the distracted family and our afflicted and sorrowing country. “What a scene for memory and history.”   Dr. Charles Leale letter concerning General Grant 605 Madison Avenue New York, July 27 1885   Major General W.S. Hancock, US Army Commander in Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion United States of America:   Sir, I have the honor to accept the appointment in the Medical Department of the Loyal Legion to attend the funeral of our late beloved and honored New York State Commander, General U. S. Grant and await your orders   Very respectfully Your Obedient Servant Charles A. Leale, MD President of the New York Count Medical Association and Companion of this ?MCLL U.S.A.   Other Lincoln assassination connections on this website: On April 14, 1865, the assassin John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln during a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC.  After the President passed away on the following morning, his body was placed in a temporary coffin covered with an American flag, and returned by hearse to the White House, accompanied by a cavalry escort.  At the White House, an autopsy was performed by Army Surgeons Edward Curtis and Joseph Janvier Woodward.  Also in attendance were Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes and a few military officers, medical men and friends. Edward Curtis, M.D. was a pathologist at the Army Medical Museum. He was commissioned assistant surgeon and saw field service with the Army of the Potomac, and with General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley.  Returning to the Army museum in the fall of 1864 he assisted with the autopsy on the body of President Lincoln, April 15, 1865