Journal of Civil War Medicine
matter owning obedience to no laws but those
covering the physical and chemical forces of the
universe, and on the other hand, a living brain by
whose silent, subtle machinery a world may be ruled.
The weighing of the brain... gave approximate results
only, since there had been some loss of brain
substance, in consequence of the wound, during the
hours of life after the shooting. But the figures, as they
were, seemed to show that the brain weight was not
above the ordinary for a man of Lincoln's size."
Dr. Woodward's formal report of the autopsy, written
to the Surgeon General, is as follows:
Surgeon General's Office
Washington City D.C.
April 15, 1865
Brigadier General J.K. Barnes
Surgeon General U.S.A.
General:
I have the honor to report that in obedience to
your orders and aided by Assistant Surgeon E. Curtis,
U.S.A., I made in your presence at 12 o'clock this
morning an autopsy on the body of President
Abraham Lincoln, with the following results: The
eyelids and surrounding parts of the face were greatly
ecchymosed and the eyes somewhat protuberant from
effusion of blood into the orbits.
There was a gunshot wound of the head
around which the scalp was greatly thickened by
hemorrhage into its tissue. The ball entered through
the occipital bone about one inch to the left of the
median line and just above the left lateral sinus, which
it opened. It then penetrated the dura matter, passed
through the left posterior lobe of the cerebrum,
entered the left lateral ventricle and lodged in the
white matter of the cerebrum just above the anterior
portion of the left corpus striatum, where it was
found.
The wound in the occipital bone was quite
smooth, circular in shape, with bevelled edges. The
opening through the internal table being larger than
that through the external table. The track of the ball
was full of clotted blood and contained several little
fragments of bone with small pieces of the ball near
The Society of Civil War Surgeons, Inc.
Vol. 17, NO.
its external orifice. The brain around the track was
pultaceous and livid from capillary hemorrhage into
its substance. The ventricles of the brain were full of
clotted blood. A thick clot beneath the dura matter
coated the right cerebral lobe.
There was a smaller clot under the dura matter
of the left side. But little blood was found at the base
of the brain. Both the orbital plates of the frontal bone
were fractured and the fragments pushed upwards
toward the brain. The dura matter over these fractures
was uninjured. The orbits were gorged with blood. I
have the honor of being very respectfully your
obedient servant.
J.J. Woodward
Assistant Surgeon
U.S.A.
When the doctors had completed their autopsy,
undertaker Dr. Charles D. Brown of Brown and
Alexander began his work. With the help of an
assistant named Harry P. Cattell, Mr. Lincoln's blood
was drained through the jugular vein. A cut was then
made in the thigh and through it a chemical substance
was force-pumped which hardened the body like
marble. The undertakers then shaved the face, but they
left a tuft on the chin. The mouth was set in a very
slight smile, the eyebrows were arched, and the eyes
were closed. Later Mr. Lincoln's body was dressed for
the funeral and burial in the same black suit he had
worn to his Second Inauguration on March 4, 1865.
NOTE: The above article was taken from the web site
“Abraham Li ncol n’s As s assination” at
http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln.html
JOHN WILKES BOOTH'S AUTOPSY
Dr. Joseph K. Barnes and Dr. Joseph J. Woodward
The Doctors Who Performed the Autopsy
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Journal of Civil War Medicine
John Wilkes Booth died at about sunrise on
Wednesday, April 26, 1865, on the porch of Richard
Garrett's house near Port Royal, Virginia. Sergeant
Boston Corbett had shot him through the neck. As Dr.
Edward Steers, Jr. writes in The Escape & Capture of
John Wilkes Booth, "All the evidence to date suggests
that he (Corbett) was in the right position at the right
time, and he acted from the belief that he was doing
exactly what was expected of a soldier facing the
enemy." At about 8:30 A.M. Booth's remains were
sewn up in a horse blanket and placed on a wide plank
that served as a stretcher. An old market wagon was
obtained nearby, and the body was placed in the
wagon. Using the wagon the body was taken to Belle
Plain. There it was hoisted up the side and swung
upon the deck of a steamer named the John S. Ide and
transported up the Potomac River to Alexandria
where it was transferred to a government tugboat. The
The Society of Civil War Surgeons, Inc.
Vol. 17, NO. 2
tugboat carried the remains of Abraham Lincoln's
assassin to the Washington Navy Yard, and the corpse
was placed aboard the monitor Montauk at 1:45 A.M.
on Thursday, April 27.
Once aboard the Montauk Booth's remains
were laid out on an improvised bier (a rough
carpenter's bench). The horse blanket was removed,
and a tarpaulin was placed over the body. A number
of witnesses were called to identify the body. Below
is a sketch which appeared in Harper's Weekly on
May 13, 1865.
Within a short time, several people who knew
Booth personally positively identified the body which
was haggard from 12 days of riding, rowing, and
hiding in underbrush. One of these people was Dr.
John Frederick May. Some time prior to the
assassination, Dr. May had removed a large fibroid
tumor from Booth's neck. Dr. May found a scar from
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Journal of Civil War Medicine
his operation on the corpse's neck exactly where it
should have been. Booth's dentist, Dr. William
Merrill, who had filled two teeth for Booth shortly
before the assassination, pried open the corpse's
mouth and positively identified his fillings. Charles
Dawson, the clerk at the National Hotel where Booth
was staying, examined the remains, saying "I
distinctly recognize it as the body of J. Wilkes Booth -
first, from the general appearance, next, from the
India-ink letters, 'J.W.B.,' on his wrist, which I had
very frequently noticed, and then by a scar on the
neck. I also recognize the vest as that of J. Wilkes
Booth." (As a boy Booth had his initials indelibly
tattooed on the back of his left hand between his
thumb and forefinger.) Seaton Munroe, a prominent
Washington attorney who knew Booth, viewed the
body and said that he "was very familiar with his
(Booth's) face and distinctly recognize it." Alexander
Gardner, a well-known Washington photographer, and
his assistant, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, were also among
those called to the Montauk to identify Booth's corpse.
After photographing the body the plate and print were
taken directly to the War Department by government
detective James A. Wardell. This photo has never
surfaced.
For the actual statements regarding the
positive identification by Charles M. Collins, Charles
Dawson, Seaton Munroe, John Frederick May, and
William Wallach Crowninshield, please see pp. 121-
129 of The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by
Thomas R. Turner.
Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes and Dr.
Joseph Janvier Woodward performed John Wilkes
Booth's autopsy aboard the Montauk. On April 27,
1865, Dr. Barnes wrote the following account to
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton:
Sir,
I have the honor to report that in compliance
with your orders, assisted by Dr. Woodward, USA, I
made at 2 PM this day, a postmortem examination of
the body of J. Wilkes Booth, lying on board the
Monitor Montauk off the Navy Yard.
The left leg and foot were encased in an
appliance of splints and bandages, upon the removal
of which, a fracture of the fibula (small bone of the
The Society of Civil War Surgeons, Inc.
Vol. 17, NO. 2
leg) 3 inches above the ankle joint, accompanied by
considerable ecchymosis, was discovered.
The cause of death was a gun shot wound in
the neck - the ball entering just behind the sterno-
cleido muscle - 2 1/2 inches above the clavicle -
passing through the bony bridge of fourth and fifth
cervical vertebrae - severing the spinal chord (sic) and
passing out through the body of the sterno-cleido of
right side, 3 inches above the clavicle.
Paralysis of the entire body was immediate, and all the
horrors of consciousness of suffering and death must
have been present to the assassin during the two hours
he lingered.
Dr. Woodward wrote the following account of the
autopsy:
Case JWB: Was killed April 26, 1865, by a conoidal
pistol ball, fired at the distance of a few yards, from a
cavalry revolver. The missile perforated the base of
the right lamina of the 4th cervical vertebra, fracturing
it longitudinally and separating it by a fissure from the
spinous process, at the same time fracturing the 5th
vertebra through its pedicle, and involving that
transverse process. The projectile then transversed the
spinal canal almost horizontally but with a slight
inclination downward and backward, perforating the
cord which was found much torn and discolored with
blood (see Specimen 4087 Sect. I AMM). The ball
then shattered the bases of the left 4th and 5th
laminae, driving bony fragments among the muscles,
and made its exit at the left side of the neck, nearly
opposite the point of entrance. It avoided the 2nd and
3rd cervical nerves. These facts were determined at
autopsy which was made on April 28. Immediately
after the reception of the injury, there was very
general paralysis. The phrenic nerves performed their
function, but the respiration was diaphragmatic, of
course, labored and slow. Deglutition was
impracticable, and one or two attempts at articulation
were unintelligible. Death, from asphyxia, took place
about two hours after the reception of the injury.
Booth's third, fourth, and fifth cervical vertebrae,
which were removed during his autopsy, are housed
(not on public display) at the National Museum of
Health and Medicine at the Walter Reed Army
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Journal of Civil War Medicine
Medical Center. An additional fragment from Booth's
autopsy (tissue possibly cleaned off the cervical
vertebrae) is in a bottle in the Mutter Medical
Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
At Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's order Booth's
body was buried in the Old Penitentiary on the
Washington Arsenal grounds in what is now Ft.
Lesley J. McNair. It was taken there by boat. A grave
was dug beneath the prison floor, and the remains,
wrapped in an army blanket, were lowered in a gun
box into the hole and covered by a stone slab. The
sketch below is from Lafayette C. Baker's History of
the United States Secret Service.
In 1867 the body was exhumed and reburied in
a pine box in a locked storeroom in Warehouse I at
the prison. The corpse was again positively identified
in 1869 when Booth's remains were exhumed and
released by the government to the Booth family. At
that time an inquest was held at Harvey and Marr's
Parlor in Washington. It was noted that due to the
nature of Booth's wound and autopsy and a
generalized decaying of the remains, the skull had
become detached from the body.
Booth's corpse was then taken to Baltimore for
burial and was positively identified by many people
including John T. Ford, Henry Clay Ford, and several
members of the Booth family. The body was buried in
the Booth family plot in Green Mount Cemetery in
Baltimore on Saturday, June 26, 1869. John Wilkes
Booth's individual grave is unmarked at the request of
The Society of Civil War Surgeons, Inc.
Vol. 17, NO. 2
the Booth family. On p. 376 (note 27) of Stanley
Kimmel's The Mad Booths of Maryland, it states
"Henry W. Mears, a young man at the time of Wilkes'
burial, who became a Baltimore undertaker and
occupied the building formerly used by Weaver, later
recalled: "I saw the body of John Wilkes Booth
lowered into the grave, and for many years had charge
of the lot. While Edwin Booth was alive he evidenced
a desire to beautify it, and sent for me to arrange the
details. Each grave was discussed, but when that of
John Wilkes Booth attracted his attention he turned to
me and said, "Let it remain as it is -- unmarked."
In October 1994 a petition was filed in the
Circuit Court for Baltimore City to exhume John
Wilkes Booth’s remains from Green Mount Cemetery.
The petitioners were people who identified
themselves as Booth’s relatives. The cemetery argued
that its solemn duty was to protect the sanctity of
those interred unless there was overwhelming
evidence that the body buried there was not Booth’s.
Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan ruled that the evidence for
exhumation was insufficient. The Court of Special
Appeals in Annapolis upheld his 1996 decision.
SOURCES USED FOR THIS PAGE: Blood on the
Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by
Edward Steers, Jr., The Body in the Barn: The
Controversy Over the Death of John Wilkes Booth
compiled from articles in the Surratt Courier,
Kennedy and Lincoln: Medical and Ballistic
Comparisons of Their Assassinations by Dr. John K.
Lattimer, WHEN LINCOLN DIED: The
Assassination, The Funeral Journey, The Pursuit and
Trial of the Conspirators, The Complete Story in
Pictures and in the Words of His Day by Ralph
Borreson, The Web of Conspiracy by Theodore
Roscoe, The Escape & Capture of John Wilkes Booth
by Edward Steers, Jr., The Mad Booths of Maryland
by Stanley Kimmel, and American Gothic: The Story
of America's Legendary Theatrical Family - Junius,
Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth by Gene Smith. I also
consulted the article "Who is Buried in Booth's
Tomb?" by Joseph George, Jr. George's article was in
the Winter 1994 edition of the Lincoln Herald. The
picture of Dr. Joseph K. Barnes is from the National
Archives. The picture of Dr. Joseph J. Woodward is
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Journal of Civil War Medicine
from the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
The Harper's Weekly sketch of Booth's remains on the
Montauk came from page 184 of Ralph Borreson's
book cited above.
Thank you to the late Director of the Mutter
Museum, Gretchen Worden, for clarifying the nature
of the piece of John Wilkes Booth held by the
museum. She indicated in a letter to me what was
originally thought to be part of Booth's thorax is more
likely to be tissue that was possibly cleaned off the
cervical vertebrae. Her article entitled "Is It the Body
of John Wilkes Booth?" in the December 1994 edition
of Transactions & Studies of the College of
Physicians of Philadelphia is an outstanding source of
information regarding the topic of this web page.
Over the years several stories have circulated that
John Wilkes Booth did not die at Garrett's farm. Dr.
Blaine V. Houmes researched one of the more popular
of these stories. His research indicates that Booth
indeed lies buried with his family in Baltimore,
Maryland. Please see "John Wilkes Booth and the
Enid Mummy." Lincoln Herald, Vol. 106, No. 1,
Spring 2004, pp. 23-31.
NOTE: The above article was taken from the web site
“Ab rah am Li n coln’s Assassi nati on” at
http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln.html
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE
---------------------
ADAM HAYS, OF MADISON, INDIANA
Splint for Fractures
--------------
Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 7,
561, dated August 13, 1850; Reissued March 8,
1853, No. 232.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it know that I, Adam Hays, of Madison, in
the county of Jefferson and State of Indiana, have
invented a new and Improved Construction of Splints
for Treating Simple or Compound Fractures of the
Thigh and Leg, such as gunshot wounds or other
injuries or diseases which require that the limb or
The Society of Civil War Surgeons, Inc.
Vol. 17, NO. 2
limbs (if both require the treatment) should be kept
throughout the cure in a proper position, at the same
time affording the surgeon free access in dressing, as
often as may be necessary, without displacing or
allowing the parts to be displaced by the action of
muscles.
The nature of my invention is such as to
enable the surgeon to keep up permanent extension
and counter-extension throughout the treatment
necessary, so as to keep the parts in their proper
relative position, and at the same time, afford
opportunity for dressing, as often as may be necessary,
without making any displacement of parts and they
accomplish a most important object in the
management of such cases.
To enable others skilled in the art, to make and
use my invention, I will proceed to describe its
construction and operation.
I take the splint and dressing, such as has been
in public use and known as Physick’s improvement of
Dessault (see No. 1 in the drawings), or, in case both
limbs requre the treatment, Gibson’s improvement of
Hagedorn (see No. 2 in the drawings) which is also in
public use. Opposite the fracture, disease or injury, I
cut out a portion of the splint (see letter A in the
drawings Nos. 1 and 2) large enough to give the
surgeon free access to dress the parts as often as may
be necessary. The slide is cut one-fourth or third of an
inch larger on each side of its upper edge than the
lower. The upper and lower portions of the splint,
thus separated, I unite by a steel or iron brace of an
arched shape (see letter B in the drawings Nos. 1 and
2) so as to hold the two portions of the splint in their
proper places. The piece of the splint cut out, or a
similar one, may be converted into a slide (see letter
A Nos.1 and 2) to work in a groove on each end (see
letters C,D). The slide can be drawn out, at each
dressing, the brace keeping the limb firmly in a proper
position whilst the dressing is accomplished, the
extension and counter-extension being uniformly kept
up, no displacement can take place. After each
dressing the slide is to be returned to its proper place,
to give support to the parts by means of the slip,
placed in the loops at the upper end of the lower splint
and the lower end of the upper splint and the slide, the
whole is kept fixed. The slip is marked letter C and is
April/May/June 2013
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