page_title: Assassination of James A. Garfield
section_title: Treatment and death
hierarchical_section_title: Assassination of James A. Garfield / Assassination / Treatment and death
caption_attribution_description: Illustration related to Garfield/Guiteau
context_page_description: The assassination of James Abram Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, began when he was shot at 9:30 am on July 2, 1881, less than four months into his term as president. Garfield died 79 days later on September 19, 1881. He was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., and died in Elberon, New Jersey. Guiteau's motive was revenge against Garfield for an imagined political debt.
context_section_description: Garfield 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. Robert Lincoln was deeply upset, thinking back to the assassination of his father, Abraham Lincoln, sixteen years earlier; he said, "How many hours of sorrow I have passed in this town."
  Garfield was 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. His condition fluctuated; fevers came and went, he struggled to keep down solid food, and he spent most of the summer eating only liquids.
  Navy engineers rigged up an early version of the modern air conditioner in an effort to relieve him from the heat of a Washington summer. Fans blew air over a large box of ice and into the President's sickroom, and the device worked well enough to lower the temperature 20 degrees (Fahrenheit). Doctors continued to probe Garfield's wound with dirty, unsterilized fingers and instruments, attempting to find the bullet, and Alexander Graham Bell devised a metal detector specifically to find it. He was unsuccessful, partly because Garfield's metal bed frame made the instrument malfunction, and partly because self-appointed chief physician Doctor Willard Bliss allowed Bell to use the device only on Garfield's right side, where Bliss insisted the bullet had lodged. Bell's subsequent tests indicated that his metal detector was in good working order and that he would have found the bullet had he been allowed to use the device on Garfield's left side.
  On July 29, Garfield met with his Cabinet for the only time during his illness; the members were under strict instruction from the doctors not to discuss anything upsetting. Garfield became increasingly ill over a period of several weeks due to infection, which caused his heart to weaken. He remained bedridden in the White House with fevers and extreme pains. His weight dropped from 210 pounds (95 kilograms) to 130 pounds (58 kilograms) as his inability to keep down and digest food took its toll. Nutrient enemas were given in an attempt to extend his life because he could not digest food. Sepsis and infection set in, and the president suffered from hallucinations for a time. Pus-filled abscesses spread all over his body as the infections raged.
  Garfield's condition weakened and exacerbated under the oppressive summer weather in Washington. On September 6, Garfield was taken by train to Elboron (then part of Long Branch) at the Jersey Shore, where volunteers built a spur line, overnight, from the station to the Francklyn Cottage, a seaside mansion given over to his use.  The intent was to help the President escape the Washington heat and humidity, in the vain hope that the fresh air and quiet might aid his recovery. He was propped up in bed before a window with a view of the beach and ocean. (All that remains that is related to Garfield's last trip to New Jersey is a small out-building now referred to as "The Garfield Tea House", constructed from the ties used for the emergency spur, with a piece of the rail as the ridge pole. It now rests on the Long Branch Historical Museum grounds.)  New infections set in, as well as spasms of angina. He died of a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, following sepsis and bronchial pneumonia at 10:35 pm on Monday, September 19, 1881 in Elberon, New Jersey, two months before his 50th birthday. During the 79 days between his shooting and death, Garfield's only official act was to sign a request for the extradition of a forger who had escaped and was apprehended after he fled to Canada.
  Most historians and medical experts now believe that Garfield probably would have survived his wound had the doctors been more capable. However, most American doctors of the day did not believe in anti-sepsis measures or the nee
caption: Doctors discuss Garfield's wounds
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