Charles Sabin Taft
Encyclopedia
Charles Sabin Taft, M.D. was a bystander physician who was pressed into service during the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
.
, at Ford's Theatre
in Washington, D.C.
, when Lincoln was shot. Taft was either the second or third physician to get to the President after the shooting. Due to the assassin
having barricaded the entrance to the President's box, he was boosted up from the main floor of the theatre.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
.
Lincoln's assassination
On April 14, 1865, Taft was in the audience watching the play, Our American CousinOur American Cousin
Our American Cousin is an 1858 play in three acts by English playwright Tom Taylor. The play is a farce whose plot is based on the introduction of an awkward, boorish but honest American, Asa Trenchard, to his aristocratic English relatives when he goes to England to claim the family estate...
, at Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a historic theater in Washington, D.C., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, when Lincoln was shot. Taft was either the second or third physician to get to the President after the shooting. Due to the assassin
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
having barricaded the entrance to the President's box, he was boosted up from the main floor of the theatre.
See also
- Anderson Ruffin AbbottAnderson Ruffin AbbottAnderson Ruffin Abbott, M.D. was the first Black Canadian to be a licensed physician. His career included participation in the American Civil War and attending the death bed of Abraham Lincoln.-Early life:...
- Joseph K. BarnesJoseph BarnesJoseph K. Barnes, M.D. was an American physician and the 12th Surgeon General of the United States Army .-Career and early life:...
- Julia Taft BayneJulia Taft BayneJulia Taft Bayne was an American author who wrote a memoir of the Lincoln White House entitled Tad Lincoln's Father.A daughter of Horatio Nelson Taft, an attorney and examiner in the U.S. Patent Office, Julia Bayne lived in Washington D.C. as a child and young woman...
- Charles H. CraneCharles H. CraneCharles Henry Crane B.A. M.A. M.D. was an American physician and the 13th Surgeon General of the United States Army . He was the son of Colonel Ichabod B. Crane...
- Albert Freeman Africanus KingAlbert Freeman Africanus KingAlbert Freeman Africanus King was a bystander physician who was pressed into service during the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In addition, King was one of the earliest to suggest the connection between mosquitos and malaria....
- Charles Augustus LealeCharles LealeDr. Charles Augustus Leale M.D. was a surgeon in the Union Army during the American Civil War.He was the first doctor to be admitted into the presidential box at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865 after John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head with a Philadelphia...
Sources
- Kunhardt, Dorothy MeserveDorothy KunhardtDorothy Kunhardt was an American children's-book author, best known for the baby book Pat the Bunny. She was also a historian and writer about the life of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln....
, and Kunhardt Jr., Phillip B. Twenty Days: A Narrative in Text and Pictures of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Twenty Days and Nights That Followed. New York: Castle Books, 1965.