Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

1 A Target on His Back 1

2 A Fever in the Blood 19

3 For Want of a Nail 45

4 A Lucky Shot? 63

5 A Story Too Good to Fact Check 69

6 Deathbed Vigil 79

7 We Traced the Wound 91

8 Ballistics: The Science of Lincoln's Gunshot Wound 101

9 Did Lincoln's Doctors Doom Him? 105

10 Embalming Lincoln 113

11 We Mourn a Father Slain 129

12 The Politics of Death 137

13 Binding Up the Nation's Wounds 145

14 Death Will Not Be Cheated 157

15 "Now He Belongs to the Ages" 167

16 There Will Be Blood 175

17 "Not So Black and Shiney as It Was Long Ago" 187

Notes 201

Bibliography 233

Index 251