Assassination Trivia

[L Verge]

There are two possible answers to this, I believe; and both are incorrect. A few sources erroneously identify the Dr. Abbott as Dr. Anderson Abbott, a Canadian man of color whom some believe to have been at Ford's Theatre. The real Dr. Abbott involved in the Lincoln death was Ezra Abbott. I can't confirm this, but I suspect that Dr. Anderson Abbott's color would have denied him entrance to Ford's Theatre in 1865. A Canadian member of the Surratt Society supplied an article on Dr. Anderson Abbott for our newsletter a number of years ago.

The second confusion may be that you are referring to Dr. Albert Freeman Africanus King, who might very well have been present. The only problem is that, despite his second and third names, Dr. King was a white man born in England. Interestingly, I have been told that he served as a doctor for both Confederate and Union forces.

Insert shameless publicity plug here: Next Saturday, February 7, at 4 pm, Surratt House will have a special program on African American Surgeons and Nurses During the Civil War - a story that has seldom been told in the past 150 years. The presenter is Jill Newmark from the National Museum of Health and Medicine.