The Garfield Assassination Altered American History, But Is Woefully Forgotten Today
A newly installed historical marker recognizes the site where Charles Guiteau shot the president in 1881
By Kenneth D. Ackerman
March 2, 2018 | Updated: November 19, 2018
Update, November 19, 2018: After a year of deliberations, the National Mall and Memorial Parks and James A. Garfield National Historic Site unveiled two waysides today on the National Mall, on what would have been Garfield's 187th birthday. The dual markers contextualize the shooting of the 20th president by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station on July 2, 1881, and also interpret Garfield's lasting legacy. The markers are positioned on the National Mall nearest to the south entrance of the National Gallery of Art's West Building, which is where the railroad station once stood. Read how the campaign to create a historical marker got started:
When President James A. Garfield was shot in the back by an assassin on July 2, 1881, the news electrified the country. Garfield was entering the Washington, D.C. train station, headed for summer vacation, when the attack came. Charles Guiteau, the 40-year old assassin—a lawyer, former bill collector, salesman, preacher, divorcee and political hanger-on who’d failed at most things in his life—had stalked the president for weeks. On this morning, he waited inside the train station until President Garfield entered the room, walking in arm-in-arm with his friend, Secretary of State James G. Blaine. Guiteau stepped behind the president and fired two bullets. One grazed Garfield’s arm, and the other hit him square in the back, knocking him to the ground.
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/garfield-assassination-altered-american-history-woefully-forgotten-today-180968319/#srkW6tvKx0Ict2Yc.99
