The gun used to shot President Garfield used to be in the Walter Reed medical museum. The Army had a Garfield exhibit there in 2006.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060803/news_1c03garfield.html
"August 3, 2006
WASHINGTON – Three vertebrae, removed from the body of President James A. Garfield, sit on a stretch of blue satin. A red plastic probe running through them marks the path of his assassin's bullet, fired on July 2, 1881.
A probe indicates the path of the second bullet that passed through the vertebrae of President James Garfield in 1881. A new exhibit examines Garfield's fate at the (dirty) hands of physicians of the time.
The vertebrae form the centerpiece of a new exhibit, commemorating the 125th anniversary of Garfield's assassination. The exhibit also features photographs and other images that tell the story of the shooting and its aftermath, in which Garfield lingered on his deathbed for 80 days. Located at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the exhibit opened July 2 and will close, 80 days later, on Sept. 19.
Garfield was waiting at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, about to leave for New England, when he was shot twice by the assassin, Charles J. Guiteau.
The first bullet grazed Garfield's arm, said Lenore Barbian, anatomical collections curator for the museum. But the second struck him in the right side of the back and lodged deep in the body.
“No one expected Garfield to live through the night,” Barbian said.
As the display makes clear, the second bullet pierced Garfield's first lumbar vertebra, crossing from right to left."
The Army Medical Museum is a great place. Was a patient at WRGH in 1969-70. Spent a lot of time in the Medical Museum. Asked a lot of questions and saw a lot of stuff not on display, including John Wilkes Booth's broken leg.
