Charles Augustus Leale, Abraham Lincoln, and the Physician We Are Slowly Losing (opens in new tab)

by at When Abraham Lincoln was shot, America saw more than just the loss of a President. Something quieter happened that night, but it was just as important. People saw the kind of doctor that society once truly respected. Doctor Charles Augustus Leale was just 23 years of age when he walked into Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. He had finished medical school only weeks before and was assigned to the theater because the President would be there.1 By the end of that night, his name was foreve...