Breaking a leg

[Dave Taylor]

Yesterday, before I went to the opening of the Port Royal Museum of American History, I attended services at Enon Baptist Church in Supply, VA. This was my second visit to the church that holds the bodies of the Garrett family in their cemetery. The congregation is quite small (15 attendees yesterday) but they have been very helpful to me in gaining knowledge about the Garretts for my March presentation at the Surratt Society Conference. I had the chance to chat with the Reverend for quite a bit yesterday and listened to an ironic story.

A few days after my initial visit to the church, the Reverend and members of the church were doing a clean up of the road leading to the church. The pastor told me that the grass had just been mowed, turning what was once single pieces of garbage into several pieces of garbage confetti. While making his way out of a ditch after picking up some pieces, the pastor fell awkwardly. Upon getting up he felt a pain in his ankle and knew that he had sprained it. When he got home, he wrapped it with an Ace bandage and made his way to his next appointment which happened to be a funeral. He said it was painful but he could still walk on it. After the funeral at home, he unwrapped it and found it had swollen considerably. The next day, when the swelling had not gone down, he went to see a doctor. An X-ray revealed that he did not sprain his ankle as he had thought, but rather he broke his left fibula right above the ankle. He was given a splint to wear for a week, and then spent six weeks in a cast. This last Sunday was the first since the incident that he has preached standing up. He currently has an air cast.

The reverend was amused when I told him that he broke his leg in the exact same place as John Wilkes Booth. I still haven't picked a side (box jump or horse fall) regarding how Booth broke his leg, but I think the fact that this 81 year old man could continue on with his duties with only minor pain before realizing his leg was broken definitely gives credence to the idea that Booth could have escaped Ford's Theatre and even mounted a horse, with his leg broken in the same way.

Have any of you broken your fibula or know of someone who has? Did they notice it was broken right away or thought it was a sprained ankle too?

[Gene C]

Dave, That's a cool story

[Jim Garrett]

Hey Dave: Great point. I have not broken my leg, but I have been kicked in the shin by a horse and was unable to remount the beast wothout assistance. It brings up interesting thoughts. Please tell us more on the opening of the Port Royal Museum!

[Dave Taylor]

Jim, you silly man. If you followed my blog via e-mail you would already know about it: http://boothiebarn.com/2012/11/18/the-po...n-history/

[Jim Page]

Dave, a couple of years ago, after a staff lunch, I tripped on a buckled pavement in downtown DC and that caused stress fractures in my left elbow, the edge of my left hand and just above my left thumb. There was no alcohol served at this lunch, may I say!

I not only went back to the office after the injury and finished the day, but had every intention to play guitar at a party after work. To see whether I could play after the injury, I tried some leads on my office guitar, and it was only then that I realized my left hand just wasn't working correctly.

A couple of my associates insisted that I go to GW Hospital and I ended up with my arm in a plaster-and-steel cast from my elbow to the tips of my fingers.

After that incident, I have often wondered whether Booth might not have incurred a stress fracture in his leap from the theater box, and then, when his horse stumbled, broken the fibula more completely along the path of the stress fracture.

--Jim

[Jim Garrett]

Jim: Your scenerio has been one that has bounced around and certainly has some traction.

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(11-19-2012 04:49 PM)Dave Taylor Wrote:  Jim, you silly man. If you followed my blog via e-mail you would already know about it: http://boothiebarn.com/2012/11/18/the-po...n-history/

Day late and a dollar short. Great job covering the museum on Boothiebarn.com

[L Verge]

Just one question, Jim, about your having to have assistance to get back on the horse: Are you a skilled rider? Booth was, and he was also super-charged with adrenaline.

[LincolnMan]

Wow, that's a great story.

[wsanto]

I am not an historian and haven't researched the subject of Booth's horse falling on him during his escape to any large degree. But I have read Kauffman's contention that this was the mechanism of injury for the broken fibula and not the leap to the stage. Kauffman's evidence seems to be the story Herold relayed to Lloyd and Mudd that night and possibly evidence the animal was injured or marred by the fall. Of course he discounts Booth's own claim in his diary that he broke his leg during his leap to the stage.

It seems to me that Herold would have made up any story besides admitting that Booth broke it during his landing on the stage as he lept from the private boxes having just assassinated the President.

As relayed in the story provided by the OP, the injury in its acute stage would not be terribly limiting as the fibula is not a weight bearing bone under normal circumstances. With his adreniline at top level during his initial escape out of Washington, Booth probably didn't even know he was injured until he slowed his ride and began to feel the throb of injury as the swelling in his leg increased inside his boot.

I would think that a horse falling on you as you are the rider would possibly break your fibula but also result in other injuries--potential bruised ribs, shoulder sprains, hand and wrist sprains, crush injury to soft tissue in legs and flank, concussion, etc. I don't know of any evidence that Booth was suffering from any other injuries during his escape.

[JMadonna]

(11-19-2012 07:32 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Just one question, Jim, about your having to have assistance to get back on the horse: Are you a skilled rider? Booth was, and he was also super-charged with adrenaline.

Depends upon which leg is broken. The leg Booth broke was the one that was used to mount the horse. Could he have put his full weight on that broken leg to hoist himself into the saddle of a very skittish horse and at the same time kick the other one at Johnny Peanuts? Adrenaline is no substitute for structural integrity.

[Laurie Verge]

wsanto, I love you! I once asked Mr. Kauffman if there was any mention of heavy bruising to Booth's leg. I would think that something like a horse rolling on you would cause something more than a small bone to snap. I don't remember getting any answer.

BTW: I don't believe that there was any mention made to Lloyd about Booth having had his horse fall on him or having a broken leg. All that was said was the order to get "those things" and also to report that the President (and others) had likely been killed.

Jerry, I don't think that it had anything to do with it being his left leg. Adrenaline was pushing him; he was an excellent horseman; and his fracture was not that severe. Has anyone considered that his break became more severe once he was on the horse and galloping?

[Gene C]

Booth did complain of back pain (at Mudd's?) this could be caused by a fall (off the stage or off the horse) and for riding a horse for a long time. He may have been an experienced rider, but he had been in the saddle for several hours. Not an normal every day occurence for him. Remember he was also traveling down a dirt road at night with limiited visability.
Ever try to run at night in the dark?

[Jim Garrett]

(11-20-2012 09:33 AM)JMadonna Wrote:  

(11-19-2012 07:32 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Just one question, Jim, about your having to have assistance to get back on the horse: Are you a skilled rider? Booth was, and he was also super-charged with adrenaline.

Depends upon which leg is broken. The leg Booth broke was the one that was used to mount the horse. Could he have put his full weight on that broken leg to hoist himself into the saddle of a very skittish horse and at the same time kick the other one at Johnny Peanuts? Adrenaline is no substitute for structural integrity.

For Laurie and Jerry:

I grew up riding horses. I stopped riding about at about 45 due to a serious neck injury. Until a few years ago, we usually had between 4 and six horses. We are now down to one. When mounting a horse, you put your left leg in the left stirrup, put all your weight onto that leg and push down on the left leg and swing your body and right leg up and onto the horse. I was kicked in the left shin about 4 inches above the ankle. I was lucky, the kicking horse did not have shoes on, because if it did, it would have probably broken my leg. As it was, it put a pretty good gash in my leg.

Dave brings up a very good comparison that I had not thought about with the preacher from Enon. Jerry also brings up adrenalin, another valid point.

However, the break suffered by JWB was in a location that if you were unseated from your horse, with your foot stuck in the stirrup, you could have a high probability of a very comparable injury.

[wsanto]

Quote:When mounting a horse, you put your left leg in the left stirrup, put all your weight onto that leg and push down on the left leg and swing your body and right leg up and onto the horse.

Do you always approach a horse from the horse's left side? If you approached the horse from the horse's right, wouldn't you put your right foot in the stirrup and throw your left leg over the horse?

Does it matter if your right handed or left handed as to which side you would mount a horse? Would a skilled horseman mount from the side that is most convenient?

Is there evidence that Booth definitely approached the horse from the left as he exited Ford's Theatre?

Sorry a lot of questions.

[Gene C]

Quote:Do you always approach a horse from the horse's left side? If you approached the horse from the horse's right, wouldn't you put your right foot in the stirrup and throw your left leg over the horse?

Yes always from the left. BettyO wrote a while back about the riding style at this time. It was a little different than how we ride horses now. I can't remember under what topic she wrote it though. Betty, if your out there listening.....