Charles Augustus Leale (26 March 1842-13 June 1932) was a Union Army surgeon who treated Abraham Lincoln after his fatal wounding in April 1865.
Biography[]
Charles Augustus Leale was born in New York City, New York in 1842, and he served as a medical cadet in the US Army during the American Civil War. In April 1865, six weeks after graduating from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York, Leale took command of the Wounded Commissioned Officers' Ward at the United States Army General Hospital in Armory Square in Washington DC. He attended the 14 April 1865 Ford's Theatre performance where President Abraham Lincoln was shot, and Leale rushed to Lincoln's box and briefly examined Henry Rathbone before searching for Lincoln's wounds and assessing that Lincoln's wound was mortal. Leale accompanied Lincoln to the Petersen House across the street and cared for him until his death at 7:22 AM on 15 April. Leale went on to study cholera in Europe, and he retired in 1928 and died in 1932, one of the last surviving attendees of Lincoln's assassination.