Courtesy of Discover magazine: After 147 years, the doctor’s original account of the Abraham Lincoln assassination has been found by a researcher looking through the National Archives for other undiscovered writings by or about Lincoln. On April 14, 1865, Dr. Charles Leale, an army surgeon, was sitting near the president when he was shot. According to Discover magazine, the doctor was the first on the scene and he provided a first-hand account of what he did and saw:
“When I reached the President he was in a state of general paralysis, his eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous. I placed my finger on his right radial pulse but could perceive no movement of the artery. As two gentlemen now arrived, I requested them to assist me to place him in a recumbent position, and as I held his head and shoulders, while doing this my hand came in contact with a clot of blood near his left shoulder.”
You can find the entire 22-page, handwritten letter here.
