Eyewitness Account of Dr. Robert King Stone, President Lincoln's Family
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Social Education 71(2), pp. 99–104 ©2007 National Council for the Social Studies Teaching with Documents Eyewitness Account of Dr. Robert King Stone, President Lincoln’s Family Physician Stacey Bredhoff On April 14, 1865, at approximately 10:20 p.m., John Wilkes Booth, a prominent however, never regained consciousness. American actor, snuck up behind President Abraham Lincoln as he watched a play All the doctors in attendance knew that from the presidential box at Ford’s Theater and shot him in the back of the head at the wound was fatal. Only Mrs. Lincoln, point-blank range. Booth jumped from the balcony onto the stage and, brandishing stunned and inconsolable, maintained a dagger in his hand, fled into the night. hope for his recovery. The president died the following morning at 7:22 a.m. Charles Leale, a young doctor who The entourage carried Lincoln up the As Lincoln clung to life throughout was in the audience, rushed to the bal- stairs, through the doorway, and into a the night, his assassin was making his cony to attend the president. He found small back bedroom. way out of the District of Columbia and Lincoln unconscious, but still seated At 6 feet 4 inches tall, Lincoln was into the Maryland countryside. Pursued upright in his rocking chair. Having seen too tall for the bed; so it was pulled away by Union soldiers for 12 days through Booth holding a knife, Leale initially from the wall, and he was laid diagonally southern Maryland and Virginia, Booth thought the president had been stabbed across it. Doctors, military officers, gov- died of a gunshot wound on April 26 and began looking for a knife wound. He ernment officials, and well wishers began after refusing to surrender to Federal laid the president on the floor to better to fill the room. The president’s family troops. examine him. Finally, he discovered the physician, Robert King Stone, was sum- The murder of Abraham Lincoln was bullet wound in the back of Lincoln’s moned. Leale, the 23-year-old doctor part of a larger conspiracy that included a head. As more and more people filled who had received his medical degree simultaneous attack on Secretary of State the cramped balcony of the theater, Leale, only 6 weeks earlier, remained in charge William H. Seward and the possible tar- and another doctor who had joined him, of the case until Stone arrived. geting of Vice President Andrew Johnson. decided that they should take the presi- President Lincoln was 56 years old. Johnson, who assumed the presidency dent to a house nearby where he could be The burdens of the presidency during after Lincoln’s death, considered the more thoroughly examined and treated. the Civil War had aged him. Yet, when crime a military one and ordered that the Lincoln was too seriously wounded to be he was undressed to be examined and eight accused conspirators be tried before taken back to the White House. treated, the doctors and others present a military commission. The tribunal Six men carried the president down saw that he had the toned body of an ath- convened at the old penitentiary on the the theater stairs and out into the street lete. That he lived for many hours after grounds of the Washington Arsenal, the without a specific destination in mind. being shot—a fact that amazed many of site presently occupied by Fort McNair Henry Safford, a boarder in William the doctors—was attributed to his physi- in Washington, D.C. Petersen’s house, located directly across cal strength. The commission convened for the first from the theater, heard the commotion, For treatment, the doctors kept the time on May 8 and sealed the verdicts on and as he watched the soldiers carrying wound clear, as a means of regulating June 30. Of the eight defendants, three the president somewhat aimlessly in the his breathing, which was monitored were sentenced to life in prison, one was street, beckoned them to come inside. throughout the night. The president, sentenced to six years in prison, and four M ARCH 2 0 0 7 99 Dr. Robert King Stone, photograph from the Mathew Brady Abraham Lincoln, photograph from the Mathew Brady Collection, Collection, ca. 1861-65, National Archives, Records of the Office of ca. 1861-65, National Archives, Records of the Office of the Chief the Chief Signal Officer [111-B-5927] Signal Officer [111-B-3658] were condemned to death. Members of the commission heard Excerpts from Dr. Stone’s testimony: from more than 350 witnesses, whose testimonies were recorded “I was sent for by Mrs. Lincoln immediately after the assas- verbatim in shorthand by court reporters. Transcriptions of each sination. I arrived there in a very few moments and found witness’s statement, written out in longhand, were provided to that the President had been removed from the theatre lawyers for both the prosecution and defense. to the house of a gentleman living directly opposite the Of the 14 doctors who attended to President Lincoln on theatre, had been carried into the back room of the resi- the night of his assassination, Dr. Stone is the only one who dence, and was there placed upon a bed. I found a number presented testimony on Lincoln’s condition. A witness for the of gentlemen, citizens, around him, and among others prosecution, Stone was questioned by the government’s lead two assistant Surgeons of the Army who had brought prosecutor, Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt. Transcribed, him over from the theatre and had attended to him. They Stone’s testimony is six pages long. Three pages of the original immediately gave over the case to my care, knowing my transcription are reproduced here. relations to the family. I proceeded then to examine him, and instantly found that the president had received a Note about the document: Dr. Stone’s statement is preserved by the gunshot wound in the back part of the left side of his National Archives among the investigation and trial papers relating to the assassination of President Lincoln, in Records of the Office of the Judge head, into which I carried immediately my finger. I at once Advocate General (Army), Record Group 153. informed those around that the case was a hopeless one; that the President would die; that there was no positive The original transcription of Dr. Stone’s testimony is part of a major traveling limit to the duration of his life; that his vital tenacity was exhibition, titled “Eyewitness: American Originals from the National Archives.” very strong, and he would resist as long as any man could, It will be on view at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum through but that death certainly would soon close the scene. I April 29, 2007. For more information about the exhibition and for a full itiner- ary go to www.archives.gov. remained with him doing whatever was in my power, assisted by my friends, to aid him, but of course, nothing could be done; and he died the next morning at about For further reading: half past seven o’clock…” Kauffman, Michael W.American Brutus—John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. New York: Random House, 2004. S OCIAL E DUCATION 100 M ARCH 2 0 0 7 101 S OCIAL E DUCATION 102 M ARCH 2 0 0 7 103 2007 TeaCHING SUGGestIons SUMMER Lee Ann Potter 1. Ask students what they know about gest that they also explore the Ford’s INSTITUTES the death of President Abraham Theater website at www.nps.gov/foth, Lincoln. List their responses on the and the Petersen House website at for Educators board. Next, ask them where they www.nps.gov/archive/foth/hwld.htm. got their information. Ask students to speculate how at Yale much of the information contained 2. Distribute copies of the featured in the article and on the websites document (three pages) to students. was available to the general public Spend time at Yale University learning about: Invite one student to read it aloud on the morning of April 15, 1865. If while the others follow along. Lead a your community existed at the time Fulbright-Hays Group Projects class discussion about the document of the assassination and had a local Abroad Program in Ghana using the following questions: What newspaper, encourage students July 8-August 19 type of document is it? Who created to conduct research into how the the document and for what purpose? assassination was covered in your World War II in Europe* Under what circumstances was it cre- local press. Or, invite students to pre- July 6-12 ated? Who was the intended audi- tend that it is 1865 and that they are ence? How does information from reporters for various newspapers, in the document confirm or conflict both the North and South, and assign A Search for Long, Healthy, with other information you had them to write a 500- to 1000-word and Creative Lives: Human about Lincoln’s death? article about the assassination. Development in Latin America July 9-14 3. Ask students to recall a significant 5. Share Walt Whitman’s poem “Oh event that they personally witnessed Captain, My Captain” with students. Metropolis: City Living from and to write down 10 details about Ask them to describe the emo- Timbuktu to Tashkent* that event. They may wish to describe tions that the poem prompts and July 9-14 other people who were there, the explain that the poem was written weather, what they were wearing, the by Whitman in response to Lincoln’s *Programs include an optional travel component location, time of day, or other infor- death.