Dr. Robert Stone's autopsy report:
The point of entrance is one inch to the left of the longitudinal sinus and opening into the lateral sinus. The ball is flattened, convex on both sides and evidently moulded by hand in a Derringer (sic) pistol mould as indicated by the ridged surface left by the nippers in clipping off the neck. The orbital plates of both orbits were the seats of comminuted fracture; the fragments being forced inward, and the dura mater covering them remaining uninjured. The double fracture was decided to have been caused by Contre coup. The plug of bone driven in from the occipital bone, was found in the track of the ball about three inches from the external wound, proving the correctness of the opinion advanced by the Surgeon General and Dr. Stone as to its nature, at the exploration of the wound before death.
The calvarium was removed, the brain exposed, and sliced down to the track of the ball, which was plainly indicated by a line of coagulated blood extending from the external wound in the occipital bone, obliquely across from the left to right through the brain to the anterior lobe of the cerebrum, immediately behind the right orbit. The surface on the right hemisphere was covered with coagulated blood. After removing the brain from the cranium the ball dropped from its lodgement in the anterior lobe. The small piece of the ball, evidently cut off in its passage through the occipital bone, was previously taken out of the track of the ball, about 4 inches from the external wound. The hole made through the occipital bone was as cleanly cut as if done with a punch. |
Dr. Edward Curtis's sleeve cuff stained with Lincoln's blood during the autopsy Endorsed envelope
When Dr. Curtis returned home from the autopsy and was changing his clothes, he found a few drops of Lincoln's blood had stained the cuffs of his shirt. His wife cut the cuffs from the shirt and sealed them in an envelope. Dr. Curtis endorsed in his handwriting the following:
Shirt sleeves soiled with the blood of
President Abraham Lincoln at the autopsy
on his body April 15, 1865.
Edward Curtis, Asst. Surg. U.S.A.
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Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes (back row, second from right) Dr. Edward Curtis (back row, far right) Dr. Joseph Janvier Woodward (front row, far right)
NMHM 22599
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Lincoln's case history in “The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion,” (Washington, D.C., 1870) Vol. VIII, p. 305-306
The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion
CASE.-A. L-----, aged 56 years, was shot in the head, at Washington, on the evening of April 14th, 1865, by a large round ball, from a Derringer pistol, in the hands of an assassin. Dr. Charles A. Leale being close at hand, went instantly to the wounded man, whom he found "in a profoundly comatose condition,"… the breathing "exceedingly stertorous." No pulsation was perceptible at the right wrist. When the head was examined, "I passed my fingers over a large firm clot of blood,…[that] I easily removed, and passed the little finger of my left hand through the perfectly smooth opening made by the ball, and found that it had entered the encephalon. As soon as I removed my finger, a slight oozing of blood followed, and his breathing became more regular and less stertorous." After the administration of a small quantity of brandy and water,…the patient was removed to a neighboring house... His clothing was removed, and he was placed in bed. His extremities were cold. He was covered with warmed blankets, and bottles of hot water were applied to the lower extremities. It was now about eleven o'clock at night, the wound having been inflicted about half past ten. His family physician, Dr. Robert H. Stone, and Surgeon General Barnes, and Assistant Surgeon General Crane, arrived presently;... The Surgeon General accordingly kept the external wound open by means of a silver probe, until, a Nelaton's probe being brought, he made an exploration of the course of the ball. A splinter obstructed the track at the depth of about two and a half inches. An inch and a half further on the bulb came in contact with a foreign body, which proved to be the disc from the occipital forced out by the ball; passing beyond this the ball was detected, at a distance of over six inches from the entrance wound….it was decided that no attempt should be made to remove it or the foreign bodies, further than to keep the opening free from coagula, which, when allowed to form and remain for a very short time, would produce signs of increased compression, the breathing becoming profoundly stertorous and intermittent, and the pulse more feeble and irregular. The protracted death-struggle ceased at twenty minutes past seven o'clock on the morning of April 15th, 1865.
NMHM 29719
Chronology of Hours After the Shooting
“Medical and Surgical Reporter,” 12: 452-454, 1865.
“Lincoln's Last Hour”
Written by Charles A. Leale, M.D. to commemorate the centennial of Lincoln's birth. February, 1909.
NMHM 53-7572
(Read the entire Leale pamphlet here.) |
