Lincoln's wound

[Houmes]

(01-11-2015 01:16 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  In Jim Bishop's rather fanciful telling of the story in "The Day Lincoln Was Shot", President Lincoln felt a chill at the very minute John Wilkes Booth entered the theater. And that is when he stood to put on his overcoat.

In a 2007 Washington Post story, Lincoln's clothing was described during transport to the Park Service Museum Resource Center. The Ford's Theatre curator (at that time Gloria Swift) noted there was blood on both his frockcoat ("on the back") and his overcoat, as well as "the knees" of his pants. In his accounts of that night Dr. Leale wrote that during his exam of the president he felt a blood clot on Lincoln's left shoulder and was concerned about a stab wound, since he had seen Booth cross the stage with a dagger in his hand. After placing Lincoln on the floor Leale ordered Lincoln's left coat and shirt to be cut open down to the elbow. Finding no injury, he then felt Lincoln's scalp and discovered another blood clot. Removing the clot he found the bullet wound and probed it; when he removed his finger there was a "slight oozing of blood." Assume it took 5-10 minutes for Leale to enter the barricaded theatre box door, and that it takes (depending upon how big a wound is and whether it's venous or arterial origin) for blood--on average--about 11-13 seconds to coagulate. No other clots were mentioned, suggesting Lincoln's coat(s) had some soaking in areas but not sopping wet enough to form other clots. Plus how was it that the only stains on the pants were found on one or both knees? I suspect it was from jostling the president around on the floor, trying to partially disrobe him to find the wound and/or resuscitate him. Since Dr. Leale only felt a weak or nonexistant pulse when Lincoln was still in his chair (meaning a very low blood pressure) and only minimal blood oozing out after the bullet wound was opened, the blood may very well not have been the president's, but rather Rathbone's which was covering the floor. And that includes the gloves, if those stains really are blood.