doctors at lincoln's bedside

[loetar44]

(09-08-2014 12:26 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Kees, there is no mention of Ashbel Woodward in Reck's book. Also, there is no mention of Joseph Janvier Woodward at the deathbed.

In the December 2003 edition of Fred Hatch's Journal of the Lincoln Assassination the author includes Dr. Ashbel Woodward (1804-1885) in the list of attending doctors. Fred writes that Dr. Ashbel Woodward "was born in Wellington, Connecticut, and graduated from Bowdoin College medical department in 1829. He received an honorary M.D. from Yale in 1854. Volunteering to serve in the war, he served in the 26th army corps."

Thanks Roger. so the list I put together seems to be okay: Ashbel Woodward was attending at the Petersen House; Janvier Woodward was at the autopsy in the White House; Dr. William H. Ford was never at AL's bedside and Dr. Charles M. Ford was.

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(09-08-2014 01:30 AM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  [Nine men were present for the autopsy: Barnes, Crane, Stone, Taft, Notson, Gen. Rucker of the Army’s Quartermaster Dept., Lincoln’s friend Orville H. Browning and the doctors]// quote

kees, that is an EXHAUSTIVE amount of research and typing...thanks! I know that there were military as well as civilian observers to AL's autopsy, but I am a little startled that Orville Browning agreed to observe. He and Lincoln were good friends going way back to the Springfield years. I don't know how Browning was able to sit and watch his friend the president be sawed open and mutilated like that!

The only thing I know is that Dr. Leale declined an invitation to be present at the autopsy. He was a young physician of 23, and his experience through the night was probably all that he cared to endure. Why Lincoln’s friend Orville H. Browning was present and did not decline, I’ve no clue.