Genetic Lincoln

[Steve Whitlock]

(05-08-2020 05:14 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(05-07-2020 09:44 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  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."

Roger,

I've struggled with the Gatch account of events as well; however, his memorial makes a good point:

Dr Charles Davenport Gatch

Birth: 1841
Clermont County
Ohio, USA
Death: Oct. 27, 1870
Milford
Clermont County
Ohio, USA

Doctor for Clermont County, Ohio. The son of Lewis and Maria (Newton) Gatch, he was interested in medicine and became a doctor. In March 1865, he was home on furlough from the regiment, when his brother, Captain Oliver Cross Gatch, returned home after being a prisoner of the Confederates for 17 months. His brother had been ordered to Washington DC for further assignment following his furlough, so Charles decided to accompany his brother to Washington DC. [a family account says they went to Washington to collect 2 years back-pay] The two men arrived on the morning of April 14, 1865, and decided to attend a theater play that evening. They were in Ford's Theater and observed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln that evening. With the end of the war, Charles Gatch was released from future military service, and he returned to his home in Ohio, where he became the principal physician of Milford, Ohio. A member of the Clermont County Medical Association, he was appointed to the Clermont County Board of Health on June 10, 1867. He resided in Clermont County until his death three years later.
[bio by Kit and Morgan Benson]

Elected to membership in the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine in 1858. Served in the Civil War. Attended the same play as Lincoln, possibly attended to him after he was shot (jury is still out on that one), but was definitely at his death-bed according to the Washington Evening Star published 15 Apr 1865.

Family links:
Parents:
Lewis Gatch (1784 - 1868)
Maria H. Newton Gatch (____ - 1849)

Siblings:
John Newton Gatch (1813 - 1891)*
Nicholas Gatch (1816 - 1875)*
Benjamin Franklin Gatch (1821 - 1869)*
Harriet E. Gatch Lindsay (1826 - 1894)*
Henry Clay Gatch (1829 - 1868)*
James D Gatch (1831 - 1907)*
Oliver Cross Gatch (1836 - 1914)*
Charles Davenport Gatch (1841 - 1870)

*Calculated relationship

Burial:
Milford Cemetery
Milford
Clermont County
Ohio, USA

Maintained by: 5chandlers
Originally Created by: Kit and Morgan Benson
Record added: Oct 21, 2007
Find A Grave Memorial# 22344618

- Old Coot
Added: Apr. 14, 2014
Thank you for your service to our country during the Civil War. Rest in peace, doctor; you are not forgotten.
- Kit and Morgan Benson
Added: Oct. 21, 2007
*********************
"Elected to membership in the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine in 1858. Served in the Civil War. Attended the same play as Lincoln, possibly attended to him after he was shot (jury is still out on that one), but was definitely at his death-bed according to the Washington Evening Star published 15 Apr 1865."

That Washington Evening Star article is one of the ones I posted, and it has no mention of Drs Leale, King or Taft in attendance. I can't imagine a military doctor, such as Dr. C. D. Gatch, in attendance and not responding to a call for doctors, especially when he knew it was the president.

Perhaps Dr. Leale, fresh out of medical school, age 23, got to Mr. Lincoln quicker, but at some point surely Dr. Gatch participated. Why else would he be present at the time of Abe's death, according to the Washington Evening Star. With Mr. Lincoln shot on the 14th, dying on the 15th, and the Star account on the 15th the news should have been pretty fresh.

Perhaps Dr. Leale was relieved by more experienced doctors, and left after doing what he could. That list of people seems to suggest random folks weren't just wandering in off the street. Dr. Gatch must have been involved. I can't just dismiss his account as it does establish he was present at the time of Lincoln's death. That's independent corroboration.