Posted on 11/19/2017 7:31:50 AM PST by harpygoddess
Today is the anniversary of the birth of James A(bram) Garfield (1831-1881), 20th President of these United States, in Moreland Hills, Ohio. Born to a widowed farm wife, Garfield worked at a series of menial jobs but eventually attended Williams College, graduating in 1856.
He entered politics as a Republican and served in the Ohio State Senate until the outbreak of the Civil War, in which he saw combat as a Union major general. In 1862 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served in that body until 1880, after 1876 as Republican Leader of the House.
Noted as a skilled orator, Garfield supported the more radical aspects of Reconstruction, but later moderated his views and became known for his strong support in Congress for the gold standard and free trade. His four-month administration, characterized by party squabbles over federal jobs and political patronage, was cut short by his fatal wounding by a disappointed office-seeker in Washington in July 1881
On July 2, 1881, at 9:20 a.m., James A. Garfield was shot in the back as he walked with Secretary of State Blaine in Washington's Baltimore and Potomac train station. The proud President was preparing to leave for Williams Collegehe planned to introduce his two sons to his alma mater. The shots came from a .44 British Bulldog, which the assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, had purchased specifically because he thought it would look impressive in a museum. Garfield's doctors were unable to remove the bullet, which was lodged in the President's pancreas. On September 19, 1881, the President died of blood poisoning and complications from the shooting in his hospital rooms at Elberon, a village on the New Jersey shore, where his wife lay ill with malaria.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
The shot in the back was not fatal, not hitting any vital organs. The bullet lodged behind the pancreas.
"If they had just left him alone he almost certainly would have survived," Millard said. Within minutes, doctors converged on the fallen president, using their fingers to poke and prod his open wounds. "Twelve different doctors inserted unsterilized fingers and instruments in Garfield's back probing for this bullet," Millard recounted, "and the first examination took place on the train station floor. I mean, you can't imagine a more germ-infested environment."
Metal detector??...Could have located it with a compass.
It might have worked had Garfield not been laying on a mattress full of steel springs.
L
How do you do that?
LOL.
With a special lead-detecting compass of course. LOL
If you run a compass over a piece of metal, it will go crazy
The metal springs in the bed interfered and he couldn’t get good readings.
But there is such a thing as jacketed shells. Yes?? (Don't know much about guns do I.)
Garfield was certainly the smartest man to ever be President, and might have been a great one, but we’ll never know because his tenure was so short.
Need to buy a few
Thanks harpygoddess.
That was my thinking...
Only if it has some magnetic quality. And lead will never have that.
I did a “Take Back” a couple posts earlier.
Good luck with that. I’ve tried with limited success in the past.
Ummm, not that Ive ever made a mistake or miss-spoke, you understand.
Not me.
nope.
never...
A few years ago my Daughter gave me a book on Garfield’s assassination that covered 6 this in detail. Can’t recall the title but it was a good read and would make a good miniseries if held true to the book.
True.
Thousands of Americans die each year at the hands of doctors.
Any of these look familiar?
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