The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

therealdeal · October 2, 2010, 01:42 AM

I guess its possible the overwad was pulled out while the attending physician probed into the head wound, but probably doubtful that never came up I guess. I believe this was a mortal wound. I know the physician did some probing&this can cause issues, but booth was just too close for lincoln to survive. He definately had that firearm ready beforehand- its interesting booth was so efficient while his accomplices didn't get the job done. Seward surviving the stabs was miraculous in itself. Accounts of the time state that the Dr and others of importance thought this was a mortal wound from the get-go, but I am going to keep a lookout for the forensic evidence you speak of. As I eluded to in my above post, the historical evidence I learned growing up(and later saw on recent history channel specials) stated that the deringer was primitive by our standards but just too deadly for a direct shot that close. I don't think it would've been a good idea to leave the round in the President's head. To add even more speculation(if you can stand it), Mary and the others knew he was going to pass. They just tried to make him as comfortable as possible and do 'whatever they could do'. They had seen this type of thing before. I mean arm shots were killing people during the war unless an amputation was done. The people of the time thought it was ok to reuse blood-soaked, dirty bandages on people.

President Garfield died by assasination 16yrs later&it is said the extra, exhaustive searching for the round probably helped lead to his demise.

so when mckinley was shot in 1901, what did they do? they extraced the bullet that could be very easily removed and decided to leave the other one since they didn't want to do more harm. That ended up killing him, so they couldn't win. I have the President's book(not trying to be funny); it is Very good and goes into extreme detail of every president(maybe 50times better than a google search which shows a bunch of history). I can't remember the author(maybe adams); I'll try and look tomorrow and post

October 2, 2010, 01:42 AM	#20
therealdeal Senior Member Join Date: September 15, 2010 Posts: 627	I guess its possible the overwad was pulled out while the attending physician probed into the head wound, but probably doubtful that never came up I guess. I believe this was a mortal wound. I know the physician did some probing&this can cause issues, but booth was just too close for lincoln to survive. He definately had that firearm ready beforehand- its interesting booth was so efficient while his accomplices didn't get the job done. Seward surviving the stabs was miraculous in itself. Accounts of the time state that the Dr and others of importance thought this was a mortal wound from the get-go, but I am going to keep a lookout for the forensic evidence you speak of. As I eluded to in my above post, the historical evidence I learned growing up(and later saw on recent history channel specials) stated that the deringer was primitive by our standards but just too deadly for a direct shot that close. I don't think it would've been a good idea to leave the round in the President's head. To add even more speculation(if you can stand it), Mary and the others knew he was going to pass. They just tried to make him as comfortable as possible and do 'whatever they could do'. They had seen this type of thing before. I mean arm shots were killing people during the war unless an amputation was done. The people of the time thought it was ok to reuse blood-soaked, dirty bandages on people. President Garfield died by assasination 16yrs later&it is said the extra, exhaustive searching for the round probably helped lead to his demise. so when mckinley was shot in 1901, what did they do? they extraced the bullet that could be very easily removed and decided to leave the other one since they didn't want to do more harm. That ended up killing him, so they couldn't win. I have the President's book(not trying to be funny); it is Very good and goes into extreme detail of every president(maybe 50times better than a google search which shows a bunch of history). I can't remember the author(maybe adams); I'll try and look tomorrow and post __________________ NRA Distinguished Life Member "Abraham Lincoln freed all men, but Sam Colt made them all equal." (post Civil War slogan)