The first doctor into Lincoln's box wrote two accounts of the night, one in 1865 and one in 1909, and they record what the first doctor to reach Lincoln saw and did.
Charles A. Leale was an assistant surgeon of the U.S. Volunteers, the Union's wartime army (the army of the United States side in the Civil War), working at the Armory Square army hospital in Washington, D.C., who was in the audience at Ford's Theatre on 14 April 1865 [1].
When the actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln, Leale ran to the President's box. The door had been fastened shut from the inside to stop anyone following the attacker; he was let in once it was opened. He took charge of Lincoln until the Surgeon General and Lincoln's family doctor arrived, and stayed with him through the night until his death the next morning.
His 1865 report says he first thought Lincoln had been stabbed, then found a bullet hole in the back of the head and put his little finger into it; when he took his finger out, blood oozed and Lincoln breathed more easily. Two other doctors, Charles Taft and Albert King, agreed the wound was fatal, and Lincoln was carried to the nearest house. In 1909 he gave a speech to the New York branch of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a society that army officers founded on 15 April 1865, the day Lincoln died. In it he added that Major Henry Rathbone, a guest in the box, came to him holding his cut arm, and that a quick look showed Rathbone was in no immediate danger.
His timings do not match other witnesses: he says the attacker jumped to the stage about a minute after the shot, while Rathbone swore it was no more than thirty seconds, and he gives the time of death as 7:20 a.m. where Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War (the cabinet member in charge of the Army), wrote 7:22. Rathbone's wound appears in the 1909 speech but not in the 1865 report as it has been printed.
[Report #200] WHO. 'by Chl. A. Leale, Asst. Surgeon US Vol. Executive Officer, Armory Square U.S.A. Hosp[ita]l. Washington D. C.' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org) In 1909 he described his post as 'Surgeon in charge of the Wounded Commissioned Officers' Ward at the United States Army General Hospital, Armory Square, Washington, District of Columbia' (
gutenberg.org)
THE 1865 REPORT. The Remembering Lincoln site dates the National Archives copy 'Document from May. 1, 1865' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org); the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association: 'Presented below is the complete text of the copy of Leale's 1865 report housed in the Surgeon General's records.' (
quod.lib.umich.edu) 'Having been the first of our profession who arrived to the assistance of our late President, and having been requested by Mrs. Lincoln to do what I could for him I assumed the charge until the Surgeon General and Dr. Stone, his family physician arrived, which was about 20 minutes after we had placed him in bed in the house of Mr. Peterson opposite the theatre, and as I remained with him until his death' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org). 'I arrived at Ford's Theatre about 8 1/2 P.M. April 14/65 and procured a seat in the dress circle about 40 feet from the Presidents Box.' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org) 'about half past ten, when the report of a pistol was distinctly heard and about a minute after a man of low stature with black hair and eyes, was seen leaping to the stage' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org). 'I immediately ran to the President's box and as soon as the door was opened was admitted' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org). 'Supposing that he had been stabbed there' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org); then '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.' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org) 'As soon as I removed my finger a slight oozing of blood followed and his breathing became more regular and less stertorous.' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org) 'we agreed to have him removed to the nearest house' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org). 'At 7.20 A.M. he breathed his last' (
rememberinglincoln.fords.org)
THE 1909 ADDRESS. 'ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States at the regular meeting, February, 1909' (
gutenberg.org). 'The door of the box had been securely fastened on the inside to prevent anyone following the assassin before he had accomplished his cruel object and made his escape.' (
gutenberg.org) 'The obstruction was with difficulty removed and I was the first to be admitted to the box.' (
gutenberg.org) 'Major Rathbone had bravely fought the assassin; his arm had been severely wounded and was bleeding. He came to me holding his wounded arm in the hand of the other, beseeching me to attend to his wound.' (
gutenberg.org) 'an almost instantaneous glance revealed the fact that he was in no immediate danger' (
gutenberg.org). 'The protracted struggle ceased at twenty minutes past seven o'clock on the morning of April 15, 1865, and I announced that the President was dead.' (
gutenberg.org)
OTHERS IN THE BOX. Army staff-ride guide: 'Initially, Leale assumed Lincoln had been stabbed because Booth had held a bloody knife above his head' (
history.army.mil); 'Almost instantly, Dr. Leale recognized that the wound was mortal. Army doctor Charles S. Taft, who had been lifted up into the presidential box by audience members, concurred, as did another physician, Dr. Albert F. A. King.' (
history.army.mil)
HELD. Shot to leap: about a minute (Leale, 1865) against not over thirty seconds (Rathbone, 17 April, 'did not exceed thirty seconds' (
hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu)): both held. Death at 7.20 (Leale) or 7.22 (Stanton): both held. The wound of Rathbone: in the 1909 address; not found in the 1865 report as transcribed (Oct 2026).
THE OCTOBER 2026 RESEARCH REPORT SAID Rathbone cried "I am bleeding to death!" and that Leale "arrested the hemorrhage by digital compression"; neither is in the 1865 report or the 1909 address, which says one glance showed Rathbone in no immediate danger.