Assassination Trivia

[RJNorton]

Reverdy Johnson and Thomas Ewing?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Very well done, Roger!
Reverdy Johnson received 11 votes for the Democratic nomination in 1868, and Thomas Ewing, Jr. 1 vote for the Democratic nomination in 1868 and 10 votes for the Democratic nomination in 1880!

[RJNorton]

Eva and Bill, I spent a good deal of time researching. I was looking at the wrong articles in Wikipedia. For example I studied the article entitled "1868 United States presidential election" rather than the article entitled "1868 Democratic National Convention." It was a very challenging question!

[RJNorton]

Thank you to Bill Binzel for sending this question!

One of the physicians who attended Lincoln after he was shot has something significant in common with one of the lawyers who represented Lincoln assassination conspirators in the military tribunal. Who were they and what do they share? (Hint: It has nothing to do with their military service.)

[Eva Elisabeth]

Family relation of some kind? Same place of birth/death or something like that?

[Steve]

Dr Albert King and John Clampitt both attended Columbian College.

[wpbinzel]

(01-17-2021 05:57 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Family relation of some kind? Same place of birth/death or something like that?

Family relation of some kind? No

Same place of birth/death or something like that? You are on the right track.

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(01-17-2021 11:25 AM)Steve Wrote:  Dr Albert King and John Clampitt both attended Columbian College.

That is a good one, Steve, and something I did not know. It would certainly qualify as a correct answer to the question, but I was looking for a different answer. Your "reward" for finding another answer is the information that neither King nor Clampitt are the individuals I have in mind.

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(01-17-2021 05:57 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Family relation of some kind? Same place of birth/death or something like that?

Eva - I think I have shared this one with you at some point.

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I know that at one point I shared this with Dave Taylor.

[Steve]

Dr. Charles Leale and Thomas Ewing Jr. both died in New York City and are buried in Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers.

[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.

[Steve]

(01-17-2021 04:48 PM)wpbinzel Wrote:  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.

Bill, do you have any idea who the "Naval Surgeon", who was described in Clara Harris' affidavit as climbing up into the box, may have been?



The obvious first thought would be Dr. Taft climbing into the box and Clara Harris could've easily been confused about the uniform. But both Dr. Taft's account at the time:

https://books.google.com/books?id=hbesCQ...ft&f=false

and Dr. Leale's contemporaneous accout:

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/262986...w=fulltext

say that Dr. Taft got there later after Dr. Leale was already treating the President.

Also Dr. Taft recalls people asking for water, indicating that Leale had already reached Lincoln before he started climbing up to the box.

However, the soldier Clara Harris helped into the box, Capt. Edwin Bedee, said the man climbing ahead of him into the box said he was a doctor. Bedee also said when he got into the box Lincoln was still in his chair and that he helped one of the doctors (presumably Leale) look for the wound by removing Lincoln's coat and vest. Now Bedee's account of what happened is from an 1897 account of his regiment written with let's call it a "very thick hagiographic glaze" :

https://archive.org/details/historyoftwe...6/mode/2up

but it generally matches Dr. Leale's contemporary account of the President's treatment when Dr. Leale first reached the President. So if Bedee climbed into the box before Dr. Taft, who was the doctor who climbed ahead of Bedee?

P.S. This isn't a trivia question, I want to know if you or anybody out there know or have heard about a Naval surgoen's account of climbing into the box.

[RJNorton]

The only doctor I can think of is Dr. George Brainard Todd, but Dr. Todd said he never made it inside the box. I am one of those folks who has questioned Clara Harris' recollections. Can she really be totally trusted? For example, she said Booth made a trial run (actually looking in the door of the box) about an hour before the assassination. No one else other than Clara made this assertation. Given all the eyewitness accounts in Good's book, I would think others would have also seen this alleged trial run if it really occurred. So I also wonder if she might have been confused about the naval surgeon. Just my opinion.

[Steve]

(01-18-2021 05:48 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  The only doctor I can think of is Dr. George Brainard Todd, but Dr. Todd said he never made it inside the box. I am one of those folks who has questioned Clara Harris' recollections. Can she really be totally trusted? For example, she said Booth made a trial run (actually looking in the door of the box) about an hour before the assassination. No one else other than Clara made this assertation. Given all the eyewitness accounts in Good's book, I would think others would have also seen this alleged trial run if it really occurred. So I also wonder if she might have been confused about the naval surgeon. Just my opinion.

I'm not saying there aren't problems with Clara's recollections, especially the ones she made years later. In the affidavit above, made a few days later, she says the soldier was wearing a Veterans Reserve Corp uniform - Bedee was in the 12th New Hampshire, not in the VRC. Maj. Rathbone called Lt. Crawford, who he ordered to guard the box, Col Crawford in his affidavit. So Clara possibly could've been mistaken about the Naval Surgeon uniform as well. It's just that even with the differing problems with Bedee and Clara Harris' accounts, they both seem to describe this other doctor besides Taft climbing up into the box.

Besides Dr. Todd, a Dr. Samuel A. Sabin also described being there in a letter to his wife written the following day:

https://archive.org/details/ninthnewyork...0/mode/2up

The way Dr. Sabin describes the wound to his wife sure makes it sound like he was treating Lincoln in the box. But he doesn't actually say he was admitted into the box - just that he saw the wound, after he ran to the box, and concluded there was no hope for the President. But maybe I'm being a little to lawyerly parsing Sabin's exact words to his wife.

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Just to clarify my above comment, Dr. Sabin describes running to the box, not climbing up to the box so he can't be the "mysterious Navy Surgeon" (for lack of a better description to call the individual).

[Steve Whitlock]

(01-18-2021 12:21 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(01-18-2021 05:48 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  The only doctor I can think of is Dr. George Brainard Todd, but Dr. Todd said he never made it inside the box. I am one of those folks who has questioned Clara Harris' recollections. Can she really be totally trusted? For example, she said Booth made a trial run (actually looking in the door of the box) about an hour before the assassination. No one else other than Clara made this assertation. Given all the eyewitness accounts in Good's book, I would think others would have also seen this alleged trial run if it really occurred. So I also wonder if she might have been confused about the naval surgeon. Just my opinion.

I'm not saying there aren't problems with Clara's recollections, especially the ones she made years later. In the affidavit above, made a few days later, she says the soldier was wearing a Veterans Reserve Corp uniform - Bedee was in the 12th New Hampshire, not in the VRC. Maj. Rathbone called Lt. Crawford, who he ordered to guard the box, Col Crawford in his affidavit. So Clara possibly could've been mistaken about the Naval Surgeon uniform as well. It's just that even with the differing problems with Bedee and Clara Harris' accounts, they both seem to describe this other doctor besides Taft climbing up into the box.

Besides Dr. Todd, a Dr. Samuel A. Sabin also described being there in a letter to his wife written the following day:

https://archive.org/details/ninthnewyork...0/mode/2up

The way Dr. Sabin describes the wound to his wife sure makes it sound like he was treating Lincoln in the box. But he doesn't actually say he was admitted into the box - just that he saw the wound, after he ran to the box, and concluded there was no hope for the President. But maybe I'm being a little to lawyerly parsing Sabin's exact words to his wife.

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Just to clarify my above comment, Dr. Sabin describes running to the box, not climbing up to the box so he can't be the "mysterious Navy Surgeon" (for lack of a better description to call the individual).

We discussed this previously in the Genetic Lincoln thread of the Symposium. I still think the "Navy Surgeon" was Army surgeon C. D. Gatch, who was in attendance with his brother at the play. Several sources name C. D.Gatch as being one of the doctors, and he was included in a painting with others in attendance when Lincoln died. The brothers also claimed that C. D. Gatch climbed up into Lincoln's box.

Unfortunately, my notes for the Gatch brothers may be lost, along with all my research, when my computer bit the dust, and nothing was backed up.

[wpbinzel]

Steve - That's a good question. I have always assumed that Clara was erroneously referencing Drs. Leale (not in uniform) and Taft (in uniform), but I have never attempted to verify or explain her deposition. I will check my files and notes to see if I can find anything that may be relevant.

[Steve]

(01-18-2021 02:02 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  We discussed this previously in the Genetic Lincoln thread of the Symposium. I still think the "Navy Surgeon" was Army surgeon C. D. Gatch, who was in attendance with his brother at the play. Several sources name C. D. Gatch as being one of the doctors, and he was included in a painting with others in attendance when Lincoln died. The brothers also claimed that C. D. Gatch climbed up into Lincoln's box.

Unfortunately, my notes for the Gatch brothers may be lost, along with all my research, when my computer bit the dust, and nothing was backed up.

I did a thorough search and, contrary to what Oliver Gatch said in his interviews in 1907 and 1909 (and what's on C. D. Gatch's FindAGrave page), no Dr. Charles Davenport Gatch served in any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces during the Civil War. As far as I can tell from draft registration, petitions, directories, and other documents of the like, C. D. Gatch remained in Ohio during the war. He did, however, work as a civilian contract surgeon at the hospital in nearby Camp Dennison some time during the war in addition to his private practice.

C.D. Gatch is listed as one of the physicians attending to President Lincoln at Peterson House in contemporary newspapers, including the Washington Evening Star on pg. 2 of its April 15, 1865 issue. So it appears true that C.D. accompanied Oliver to D.C. from Ohio and then treated the President at Peterson House; but Oliver's accounts of the assassination come off as "sketchy" when compared to Dr. Leale and Col. Rathbone's contemporary accounts. And why did Oliver claim that his brother had been an Army surgeon who served under Gen. Rosecrans?

According to Oliver Gatch's later newspaper accounts the brothers were seated in the dress circle not far from the President's box. That and C. D. Gatch not wearing a uniform rules him out as one of the individuals described in Clara's affidavit.