Charles Burleigh Purvis very successful at Howard, and was credited with keeping the medical department running during the financial panic of 1873. He attended President Garfield after he was shot by an assassin on July 2, 1881. This made him the first black physician to attend to a sitting president. Later in 1881 he was appointed by President Chester Arthur to Surgeon-in-Charge at the Freedmen's hospital. Purvis was surgeon-in-charge at the Freedmen's Hospital from October 1, 1881, to 1894, and in that role was the first black person to head a hospital under civilian authority. In a letter from 1908, Purvis stated he
The Fifth Assassin The Fifth Assassin The Fifth Assassin is a novel written by Brad Meltzer which follows the adventures of archivist Beecher White as he discovers a connection linking the four successful presidential assassins with a modern-day killer who is recreating their crimes. According to WorldCat, the book is in 1887 libraries More than two-dozen would-be assassins have targeted Presidents of the United States. Only four were successful: John Wilkes Booth, Charles J. Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, and Lee Harvey Oswald. Archivist Beecher White - hero of the #1 New York Times bestseller "The Inner Circle" - uncovers a new assassin in Washington,