Genetic Lincoln

[RJNorton]

I've read other accounts that didn't include Dr. C. D. Gatch, and gave Dr. Charles Augustus Leale the responsibility for the mortal wound call, so I can't say with any certainty that the news articles supporting Dr. Gatch's assessment of Mr. Lincoln's wound are wholly accurate.

IMO, these other accounts are most likely the accurate ones. Overwhelmingly, historians feel it was Dr. Leale who said, "His wound is mortal; it is impossible for him to recover." Leale does not even mention Dr. Gatch being in the box; he only mentions Dr. King and Dr. Taft as the other physicians who were present. In his book on eyewitness accounts Tim Good writes of Gatch's reminiscence: "This is one of the more inaccurate of the eyewitness accounts."