Looking for Abraham Lincoln

[RJNorton]

Here's an article about Abraham Lincoln in The Australian.

[LincolnMan]

The article mentions Lincoln's bloodstained suit at Fords. Was Lincoln's suit actually found to be bloodstained? Isn't this the suit that is not on display any longer?

[RJNorton]

Bill, I don't know the answer to your question, but your post made me think of a video that Richard Sloan alerted me to a few months ago. In the video Dr. James Cornelius says that Lincoln bled all the way down from the back of his left ear to his coat pocket where his gloves were located. Dr. Cornelius' version is different from what I had generally understood which was that Lincoln's wound actually bled very little.

[brtmchl]

I thought it bled very little also because it had clotted very quickly. But I guess with moving him around: to the floor to be examined, carried across the street to the Petersen House and Dr. Leale clearing the clot all the while, it could have bled alot more than I ever thought. I guess Dr. Leale's difficulty at first locating the entry wound and the desciption of the clot, just closed my mind off to the thought of heavier bleeding.

[RJNorton]

The degree of Lincoln's bleeding has been something of a mystery to me. Seaton Munroe saw Laura Keene afterwards and reported, "Her hair and dress were in disorder, and not only was her gown soaked with Lincoln’s blood, but her hands, ever her cheeks where her fingers had strayed were bedaubed with the sorry stains." If we are to believe Munroe, then Lincoln bled more than some books say. Of course, Munroe could have confused the blood with Rathbone's blood, if that's what it was.

[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.

[brtmchl]

Wasn't there also a blanket? I always see pictures of the rocking chair with a blanket. I would assume since his trousers had stains that the blanket and rocking chair would also.

Thanks Jim, I had forgotten about his BB Overcoat. I never gave much thought to the psyche of Dr. Leale in that way either.

Could they have also downplayed the blood at first to give the impression that it wasn't as severe as it actually was? The way that politicians and athletes do today. I remember accounts of Reagan walking into the hospital to show strength to the public. Leaders all over the world misrepresent the severity of their sicknesses. Although with so many witnesses I can imagine it would be very difficult to keep a lid on.

[Jim Garrett]

There was a shawl. The mention of the shawl seems pretty limited. I believe the evening of April 14th was chilly. Ford's was heated by a either seven or eight stoves around the building. Very inefficient and there was not one in the box. My guess is that they were not using the stoves that night anyway.

[L Verge]

I was always under the impression that head wounds do not bleed that profusely. What do our forum doctors say?

[Gene C]

Didn't they have to change the pillow covers on his bed frequently while he was dying?
The photo of his death bed, after they removed his body, shows a very bloody pillow.

[BettyO]

According to Twenty Days - towels were laid across the pillows - which they kept changing everytime Mary Lincoln came into the room. This was done so as not to distress her -

Here is the room with the bedstead showing the blood stained pillows and towel -





Detail of Towel laid across pillows -





Artifacts of the towel as well as pillow - courtesy Chicago Historical Society Site - Wet With Blood

http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblood/contents.htm



]

[L Verge]

Judging by the length of that pillow shown just above and in the Kunhardt book, it appears that the pillow was more likely a bolster -- or the Kunhardts misidentified it.

[BettyO]

You are correct, Laurie - that DOES look like a bolster.... Here is a supposed actual blood stained pillow which looks like one that was on the bed - Courtesy, Chicago Historical Society....

[Anita]

You are correct Laurie. It is a bolster.

There is a separate page on the Bloody Evidence site about it. It appears that there were two pillows under the bolster. They don't believe the orange stain is blood.
http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblo...illow2.htm

There's also an interesting NY Times article dated Feb. 9, 1913
http://tinyurl.com/n27rpjy. It shows a photo of the bolster and a bloody pillow belonging to George Rector and quotes Fred Petersen's first-hand account of Lincoln's final hours at the Petersen house.