Dr. Charles Leale, the first doctor in the presidential box on the evening of April 14, 1865, said at the outset that the wound was fatal and there was no hope.
The president’s strong body took almost nine hours to shut down.
His friends and family stood by helplessly in a small back room of a Tenth Street boardinghouse while doctors ministered to him.
Later, Robert Todd Lincoln told his cousin Kate Helms that he thought the interminable agony of the night would never end.