Assassination Trivia

[wpbinzel]

(01-17-2021 03:33 PM)Steve Wrote:  Dr. Charles Leale and Thomas Ewing Jr. both died in New York City and are buried in Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers.

CORRECT!! Kudos! And extra kudos for finding TWO correct answers. I have been to Oakland Cemetery and will send photos of their graves to Roger to post.

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For those who may be relatively new to the Forum or to the subject:

In April 1865, Dr. Charles A. Leale was a 23 year-old Union Army surgeon. Hoping to get a look at President Abraham Lincoln, he bought a ticket to Our American Cousin playing at Ford's Theater on Good Friday. 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 other doctors who were summoned (such as Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes), no senior physician overruled Dr. Leale's diagnosis or prescribed course of action. After the Civil War, Leale returned to New York City and practiced medicine. Upon his death in 1932, at the age of 90, he was thought to be among the last of those who were present at Lincoln's death in the Petersen House 67 years earlier.

Thomas Ewing, Jr., was born to a prominent Ohio political family and rose to the rank of Major General while serving in the Union Army in the Civil War. Ewing was also a lawyer. Perhaps angered by Secretary of War Stanton's public rebuke of his brother-in-law, William Tecumseh Sherman, he agreed in May 1865 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 three clients were found guilty, none were sentenced to be hanged. Dr. Mudd escaped the noose by a single vote. Ewing worked against the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, and is given some credit for securing the decisive vote of his ally, Kansas Senator Edmund Ross, to acquit Johnson. Ewing returned to Ohio, and served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. After he was defeated in the 1879 election for Governor of Ohio, he moved to New York City and practiced law. In 1896, he was struck by a street car and died of his injuries.

As Steve pointed out, the first doctor to reach the assassinated Lincoln, and the lawyer who represented Lincoln assassination conspirators and likely saved the life of Dr. Mudd, are both buried in Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers, New York.