Researchers Discover Doctor's Notes From Lincoln Assassination

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Jun 5, 2012 10:20PM

Researchers stumbled on the first-person account of the 23-year-old surgeon who was first to come to the aid of President Abraham Lincoln after John Wilkes Booth shot him. In perfect cursive handwriting, Dr. Charles A. Leale describes in detail what he saw and what he did on the evening Lincoln died in a document researchers call "a first draft of history."

“You have that sort of immediate (account). It’s very clinical. It’s very, sort of, matter of fact. It’s not infused with a lot of flowery language,” said Daniel W. Stowell, director of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln group. “I’m sure he was, in some ways, still in shock, or processing the fact that here a President of the United States had been assassinated.”

The report begins:

Having been the first of our profession who arrived to the assistance of our late President, and having been requested by Mrs. Lincoln to do what I could for him I assumed the charge until the Surgeon General and Dr. Stone his family physician arrived, which was about 20 minutes after we had placed him in bed in the house of Mrs. Peterson opposite the theatre, and as I remained with him until his death, I humbly submit the following brief account.

The papers were found in a box at the National Archives. History fans can read the full 21-page report plus dozens of other original documents on the Papers of Lincoln website.