James Garfield (1831-1881) was the 20th President of the United States, serving from March to September 1881. He was born in a log cabin in Ohio, and he grew up in poverty, working on a farm to help support his family.

Garfield attended Williams College in Massachusetts, and he later became a professor of classics and mathematics at Hiram College in Ohio. He was also a preacher in the Disciples of Christ church.

Garfield served in the Union Army during the Civil War, rising to the rank of major general. After the war, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he became known for his support of civil rights and education.

In 1880, Garfield was nominated as the Republican candidate for President, and he won the election by a narrow margin. His presidency was short-lived, however, as he was shot by an assassin just four months into his term. Garfield struggled to recover from his wounds, but he eventually died of infection 11 weeks later.

His assassin, Charles Guiteau, shot him in the back and the arm. The location of the shooting is now the site of the National Gallery of the Art in Washington D.C. Guiteau was arrested and held for trial. Much like Charles Manson, he attracted many fans who came to see him. The guards even allowed him to hold a New Years Eve ball that hundreds attended to wish him well. In his words, “They don’t, any of them, wish to see me hung. Everybody was very glad to see me. They all expressed the opinion without one dissenting voice that I would be acquitted.”

Men would come to shake his hand, women brought their children to meet him and he even put out a call for a wife who should be “a nice Christian lady under 30 years of age.”

Guiteau claimed he was told to kill the president by God and that he wasn’t actually the one to kill him. This was partly true as the doctor who cared for the President used his unwashed, dirty hands and fingers to remove the bullet from his abdomen, most likely causing the infection that ultimately killed him.

Guiteau would be hung but before he was he read a poem called, :I am going to the Lordy”

President Garfield was shot on the National Mall. The site only got a plaque in 2018.