Ambushed!: The Assassination Plot Against President Garfield by Gail Jarrow

 

Last week, I read Ambushed!: The Assassination Plot Against President Garfield by Gail Jarrow. This nonfiction book is about the assassination and death of President James Garfield. The book begins by summarizing the lives of and relationship between James Abram Garfield and Charles Guiteau, the man who would assassinate him. Just months after Garfield was elected president, Guiteau began stalking him, and on July 2, 1881, Guiteau shot Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. Garfield didn't die until eighty days later, though. The doctors made mistakes in diagnosing where the bullet was in Garfield's body and used treatments that were becoming outdated, including probing for the bullet with their unwashed fingers. Because of these mistakes, Garfield suffered a slow and painful death. Afterwards, Guiteau was tried in court, found guilty, and hung almost a year later.

I lived in Mentor, Ohio, for four years of my life, so I've long been interested in President Garfield because it was also his home. I knew he was assassinated, but I didn't realize how early it was in his presidency, although I was aware that he didn't die right away. I was also definitely interested in learning if he really could have survived. I thought this book was fascinating because it went into the details of the issues in Garfield's treatment by his doctors. I never realized how slow American doctors were in adopting sanitation methods even though there had been research by European doctors at the time. It was devastating how much Garfield suffered from when he was shot to the moment he passed away. It seems like he really would have had a better chance of survival if his doctors had simply washed their hands and used tools that were sanitized. I truly found that heartbreaking as I read the book. I was also disturbed by Guiteau throughout the book, how he was deluded into thinking that he was deserving of a job in Garfield's administration and that assassinating Garfield would actually unite the Republican party, which was divided at the time. I was almost actually glad that justice was served in his case. All and all, this book was riveting and anyone interested in medical mysteries should read it.