Charles Sabin Taft

Charles Sabin Taft was a bystander physician who was pressed into service during the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln's assassination

On April 14, 1865, Taft was in the audience watching the play, Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., where President Lincoln was attending. Taft had a good view of the Lincolns in the box. He observed that Mrs. Lincoln, "often called his attention to some humorous stituation on the stage. She seemed to take great pleasure in witnessing his enjoyment".

When Lincoln was shot, Taft was either the second or third physician to get to the President after the shooting. Due to the assassin having barricaded the entrance to the President's box, he was boosted up from the main floor of the theatre.