The Gatch Brothers

[Steve]

(01-22-2021 01:29 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(01-22-2021 11:58 AM)Steve Wrote:  Roger,
By the way, who is "Dr. Neal"?

Steve, here is what I think this may be a reference to:

In Gideon Welles' diary it says:

"The President had been carried across the street from the theatre, to the house of a Mr. Peterson. We entered by ascending a flight of steps above the basement and passing through a long hall to the rear, where the President lay extended on a bed, breathing heavily. Several surgeons were present, at least six, I should think more. Among them I was glad to observe Dr. Hall, who, however, soon left. I inquired of Dr. H., as I entered, the true condition of the President. He replied the President was dead to all intents, although he might live three hours or perhaps longer."

So who is Dr. Hall? Kees Vandenberg, who lives in the Netherlands, did an amazing amount of research on the topic of Lincoln's doctors, and he wrote:

"James Crowdhill Hall (1805 -1880 – in some accounts “Neal Hall” and J. C. Hall); M.D.; University of Pennsylvania, 1827; he was at AL’s deathbed for only a (very) short moment, but in his opinion AL’s true condition was that “the president was dead to all intents, although he might live three hours or perhaps longer".

So I am thinking "Dr. Neal" was actually "Dr. Hall."

I know it's a little weird replying to this thread years later, but the answer to this question just hit me. "Dr. Neal" is Dr. Charles Leale. It's a newspaper/reporters' mistake! I checked and Leale's name doesn't appear in the Evening Star article on the 15th where "Dr Neal" first appears. Reprints of this article in other newspapers sometimes removed the comma between Neal and Hall. That could account for later writers giving Dr. Hall the first name Neal.