Looking for Abraham Lincoln

[Jim Garrett]

There are accounts that Lincoln bled very little in the beginning. The clot is mentioned by Dr. Leale. I think the idea of a small amount of blood may be relative to an Army surgeon, who while only serving a few short weeks, probably saw his share of wounds bleeding profusely so by Leale standards, it may have bleed little compared to what Leale had previously witnessed.

Lincoln was wearing a black suit of clothes consisting of trousers, vest and frock coat. He was also wearing his custom made Brooks Bros. overcoat at the time of the shooting. Much of the overcoat's left shoulder, upper left back, and left sleeve has been cut away into small square swatches for souvenirs. Why was this one area cut away? For the blood on the fabric. As everyone knows, bloody souvenirs are much better than non-bloody souvenirs, and that is the area that Lincoln would have bled onto.

The rest of his clothing is relatively free of blood. Why? Because he was wearing his overcoat! The exception is his trousers. While the NPS has never conducted tests to analyse stains, there is one stain on the inside of the left pants leg in the area near the knee. The low lighting in the display case at Ford's makes it almost impossible to see unless you are specifically looking for it, but it is there.