Video: 'The tragic death of President James Garfield'
(Monday, September 19, 1901, 10:35 p.m. local time; during the Assassination of James A. Garfield) — James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States, died tonight in Elberon, New Jersey, of a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, following sepsis and bronchial pneumonia, all complications from gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin on July 2, 1881.
Garfield, 49, was the second American president to be assassinated (after Lincoln in 1865).
Vice President Chester A. Arthur was at his home in New York City when word came tonight that Garfield had died. After first getting the news, Arthur said “I hope—my God, I do hope it is a mistake.” But confirmation by telegram came soon after (Arthur would be inaugurated early in the morning on Sept. 20, 1881).
Garfield, on his way to his alma mater Williams College, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech before beginning his summer vacation, was shot 79 days ago at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station on the southwest corner of Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.
Video: 'The Assassination of James Garfield'
As Garfield entered the station’s waiting room, Charles J. Guiteau, an attorney with a history of mental illness, stepped forward and shot the President at point-blank range from behind. Garfield cried out, “My God, what is that?” flinging up his arms. Guiteau fired again, and Garfield collapsed.
The first bullet grazed the President’s shoulder, and the other struck him in the back, passing the first lumbar vertebra but missing the spinal cord before coming to rest behind his pancreas.
Guiteau put his pistol back in his pocket and turned to leave via a cab that he had waiting for him outside the station, but he apprehended by policeman Patrick Kearney, who was entering the station after hearing the gunfire.
Video: 'The Assassination of James Garfield'
Guiteau’s apparent motive was revenge against Garfield for an imagined political debt, and getting Arthur elevated to president.
Garfield, who had no bodyguard or security detail, was carried to an upstairs floor of the train station, conscious but in shock. One bullet remained lodged in his body, but doctors could not find it.
Garfield was then carried back to the White House, and doctors told him that he would not survive the night; nevertheless, he remained conscious and alert.
The next morning, his vital signs were good and doctors began to hope for recovery. A long vigil began, and Garfield’s doctors issued regular bulletins that the American public followed closely throughout the summer of 1881 until his death.
