Mary's Carriage Accident

[L Verge]

I just finished the chapter in The Mary Lincoln Enigma that discusses the carriage accident. It occurred on July 2, 1863, while Mary was traveling on Rock Creek Road from the Soldiers' Home to the White House. The driver's seat became detached, and he was thrown to the ground. Mary jumped from the carriage when she realized that the horses were running off.

The accident occurred near Mount Pleasant Army Hospital where the road bent into Fourteenth Street. A little past that was Carver Army Hospital - just about where Mary hit the ground. Help rushed to her immediately. She was personally cared for by a Dr. Judson C. Nelson, a surgeon with the Seventy-Sixth Regiment of New York Volunteers, who was on temporary assignment to the U.S. General Hospital Department in Washington. From what Wayne Temple, the author of this portion of the book says, the name of this doctor has just recently been discovered because a newspaper reporter of the day erroneously printed his first name as his last.

Mrs. Lincoln suffered bruises and a severe cut to the back of her head, but was treated at Carver. Dr. Nelson then drove her personally back to the White House. All this was going on while the President was monitoring the horrors of the Battle of Gettysburg. Mary's wound (spelled it right this time, Roger) became infected and had to be lanced on July 9 to release the large amount of pus that had built up.

By July 20, the First Lady was sufficiently healed to desert Washington and head for the White Mountains of New Hampshire. All of this information is in a great chapter of this new book. It is entitled "I Am So Fond of Sightseeing." After reading this chapter, I can only say that the current First Lady has nothing on Mary Lincoln's love of travel. Thank god, Mary did not have an Air Force jet at her disposal.