The president was laid diagonally across a bed too short for his six-foot, four-inch frame and never regained consciousness.
The vigil at the Petersen's house took place in a small back bedroom that could only accommodate a few mourners; contemporary images exaggerated the size of the chamber.
The Death of Lincoln, Alonzo Chappel, 1865 (CHS 1971.177).
She sent for Elizabeth Keckly, her dressmaker and confidante, but the messenger went to the wrong address and returned without Keckly. Another friend who arrived to comfort Mary described the appearance of "Miss Harris, whose dress was splattered with blood, as was Mrs. Lincoln's." (KNOX n.p.) Clara Harris later wrote:Poor Mrs. Lincoln all through that dreadful night would look at me with horror and scream, Oh! My husband's blood, my dear husband's blood -- which it was not, though I did not know it at the time. The President's wound did not bleed externally at all. The brain was instantly suffused. (HOLZER 15)
Blood and brain tissue oozed from Lincoln's head wound, and his doctors supported his head to encourage the discharge.
The pillows were saturated with blood, and there was a red pool on the floor beneath his bed. (SHEA 69) Lincoln's physicians continually probed the bullet hole to keep the opening free of clotted blood, "which, if allowed to form and remain for a short time, produced signs of increased brain compression, the breathing becoming profoundly stertorous and intermittent, the pulse more feeble and irregular." (LATTIMER 32-33)
Towels were laid over the red pillow stains whenever Mrs. Lincoln entered the room.
At three in the morning Lincoln's breathing became labored; Mary shrieked and fell to the floor. Secretary Stanton ordered, "Take that woman out and do not let her in again." (LATTIMER 32) At dawn, the president's heavy breathing slowed, then stopped.
