James A Garfield
About James A Garfield
The twentieth President who was shot by an assassin just four months after taking office and died 80 days later. Garfield was a brilliant scholar who could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other simultaneously. His shooting by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker, led to civil service reform. Alexander Graham Bell tried to find the bullet with a metal detector but failed. Garfields slow death from infection, caused by doctors probing the wound with unwashed hands, demonstrated the need for antiseptic medicine. He was the second president assassinated.
Related Leaders
George Washington
The first President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutiona...
John Adams
The first Vice President and second President of the United States. Adams was a leading advocate for independe...
Thomas Jefferson
The primary author of the Declaration of Independence and third President. Jeffersons presidency saw the Louis...
James Madison
The Father of the Constitution and fourth President. Madison was the principal architect of the US Constitutio...