"I grasped Mrs. Lincoln's outstretched hand in mine while she cried piteously to me, 'Oh, Doctor! Is he dead? Can he recover? Will you take charge of him? Do what you can for him. Oh, my poor husband!'"
A young Union Army Doctor, attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865, is a witness to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He is the first doctor to reach the President's side in an attempt to save his life. Dr. Charles Augustus Leale details every moment of the tragedy, from forcing open the door of the Presidential box, his words with Mrs. Lincoln, his decision to move the president from the theater, to the final moments of President Lincoln's life. This remarkable first-person, true narrative places the listener in the middle of the tragedy, from beginning to end. It has been lost and forgotten for over a hundred years and was recently rediscovered and made public.
