Charles Leale

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Charles Leale

Dr. Charles Augustus Leale (March 26, 1842 – June 13, 1932) was an American Civil War union army medical surgeon. He is most notable for the attention given to Abraham Lincoln shortly after he was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. He first saw Lincoln a few days before the play at Ford's Theatre and found Lincoln's face so interesting he wished to study it. Reading he would attend the theater, he finished duties early and sought a seat that would provide a good view of the president's face. The first doctor to reach Lincoln after the shooting, the twenty-three-year old was given by Mary Todd Lincoln the permission to attend her husband. Dr. Leale found the President had no pulse, performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, found the wound and removed the blood clot, which released pressure and allowed his patient to start breathing on his own. The doctor quickly assessed, "His wound is mortal; it is impossible for him to recover," and ordered that the president be removed from Ford's Theatre to the nearest bed. Lincoln was taken across Tenth Street to the Petersen House where he died at 7:22 the next morning, approximately nine hours after he was shot. This longer-than-expected duration was possible due to the good doctor's periodic removal of the wound's forming blood clots. Dr. Leale held Lincoln's hand most of the time; he was holding it when President Lincoln drew his last breath and afterwards said that he held the President's hand all night so that, if possible, he would know he was not alone. He would not talk about the event until a 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birth in 1909, when he was persuaded to give a speech on the event, because he had a duty to record it for posterity. 3 days later Leale killed himself with a gun.