Auction of items from or relating to Dr. Leale

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An interesting factoid about Dr. Leale...

In April 1865, Dr. Charles A. Leale was a 23 year-old Union Army surgeon. Hoping to get a good look at President Abraham Lincoln, he bought a ticket to see Our American Cousin. Leale was the first physician to reach Lincoln after he was shot. He took charge, found the wound, pronounced it fatal, and removed the clot to relieve the pressure on Lincoln's brain. Because of Leale's quick action, Lincoln lived through the night (although he never regained consciousness). Leale remained at Lincoln's bedside until the end. Although outranked by summoned doctors (such as Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes), no senior physician overruled Dr. Leale's proscribed course of action. After his discharge from the army in 1866, he returned to his home town, where he had a successful medical practice. He died in 1932 at the age of 90.

Thomas Ewing, Jr. was born to a prominent Ohio political family and rose to the rank of Major General in the Union Army during the Civil War. His brother-in-law was William Tecumseh Sherman. Ewing was also a lawyer, and surprised his family and friends in May 1865, when he agreed to represent Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold and Edman Spangler, three of the Lincoln assassination conspirators being tried before a military tribunal. While Ewing's clients were found guilty, none were sentenced to be hanged. Ewing returned to Ohio, and served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He ran for governor of Ohio in 1879, but was defeated. Ewing then moved to New York City, and resumed the practice of law until 1896, when he was struck by a street car, and died of his injuries.

The doctor who was the first to reach the assassinated Lincoln, and the lawyer who represented and likely saved the lives of three of the Lincoln assassination conspirators, share something significant in common. Both are buried in Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers, NY.