Vitals

Michael Shannon as James A. Garfield, Ohio farmer-turned-20th President of the United States

Washington, D.C., Summer 1881

Series: Death by Lightning
Episode: “Destiny of the Republic” (Episode 4)
Streaming Date: November 6, 2025
Director: Matt Ross
Creator: Mike Makowsky
Costume Designer: Michael Wilkinson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

President James Garfield died 145 years ago today, more than two months after he was shot on July 2, 1881 by Charles Guiteau—the culminating incident of last year’s excellent miniseries Death by Lightning, starring Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen as Garfield and Guiteau, respectively. Adapted from Candace Millard’s book Destiny of the Republic, the four-part series takes its title from Garfield’s own stated sentiment regarding the unlikelihood of preventing political murder: “Assassination could be no more guarded against than death by lightning,” which Shannon’s Garfield responds in the third episode when his wife Lucretia (Betty Gilpin) and secretary Joe Brown (Archie Fisher) urge stricter security measures given the president’s fondness for meeting with the public.

A decade after they last shared the screen playing opposing sides of the law on Boardwalk Empire, Shannon reunites with Shea Whigham as the Republican Stalwart presidential hopeful Roscoe Conkling. When Conkling demands “show me a better man!” while nominating Ulysses S. Grant at the 1880 RNC, the camera cuts to the modest Garfield sitting at a nearby table: a better man than most, indeed, as the reluctant candidate would advocate for civil rights and civil service reforms during his brief executive tenure, reinforcing my theory that the best world leaders are those who don’t actually want the job.

Contrasting Garfield’s portrayal of the earnest Garfield, Macfadyen continues his perfect streak of playing offputtingly obsequious Midwesterners—this time not a right-wing news media executive but a mentally unstable lawyer who shoots a president. Death by Lightning neatly contrasts the personalities of both men, born only ten years apart to poor Midwestern families (“and he’s left-handed, too!” Guiteau excitedly tells a prostitute in the second episode) but deeply different in their attitudes and demeanor. As opposed to Guiteau with his delusions of grandeur and self-importance, Garfield’s quiet leadership would have been a strong asset for the country had Guiteau not shot him just four months into his presidential term.

The series depicts the assassination just as it must have felt to Garfield: coming out of nowhere, disrupting the otherwise mundane activity of walking through the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station as he approaches a train to visit his ailing wife in New Jersey. After the .44-caliber bullet enters Garfield’s back, he receives instant care on the scene from Dr. Charles Purvis (Shaun Parkes), who thus became the first Black physician to attend a sitting President of the United States. Dr. Purvis attempts to prevent the unsterilized treatment Garfield then receives from Dr. Willard Bliss (Željko Ivanek), whom history remembers as a pseudo-ballistics expert whose methods may have contributed to Garfield’s eventual death of septic infection  eleven weeks later on September 19, 1881.

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What’d He Wear?

Costume designer Michael Wilkinson and head tailor Neuhaard Pierrick refined Michael Shannon’s wardrobe as James Garfield to be characteristically modest, distinguishing him from his Gilded Age successor Chester Arthur (Nick Offerman) or the peacocking Roscoe Conkling. In fact, Garfield’s clothing presents as a more cared-for alternative of Charles Guiteau’s threadbare duds.

In Destiny of the Republic, author Candace Millard draws on historical sources to describe the actual Garfield’s attire when he was shot: a gray summer suit with jacket and waistcoat, a shirt and collar, tie, and hat. The series departs slightly here, placing Garfield in his usual heavy black wool frock coat with its velvet collar—which would have undoubtedly been stifling on a hot July afternoon in Washington, D.C., where temperatures reached a reported high of 84°F that day.

Garfield’s formal knee-length black frock coat is tailored from tightly woven worsted wool in a double-breasted configuration, its peak lapels accented with broad silk half-facings and a plush black velvet collar. Narrow black silk braid follows the lapel edges and continues as a recurring trim throughout the coat, outlining the breast pocket and hip-pocket flaps. The right lapel is additionally detailed with a row of decorative buttonholes, a vestige of earlier coats designed to button higher across the chest.

The coat has six cloth-covered buttons arranged in two columns over the midsection, with the lowest pair positioned along the waist seam. The requisite rear tails descend from to this waist seam, where they are decorated with two cloth-covered vestigial buttons.

Garfield wears a black top hat covered in lustrous silk plush, its subtly tapered crown wrapped with a wide grosgrain band and flat bow, while black binding finishes the curled brim. Also known as “hatters’ plush”, silk plush was the characteristic high-quality top hat construction of this period, having largely displaced the earlier beaver-fur top hat during the 19th century. This plush had an extremely fine, dense nap that was carefully brushed and finished to produce a glassy, almost metallic sheen.

Garfield wears a high-fastening waistcoat crafted from a warm gray heavily ribbed woolen twill ands tyled with four welted pockets. Six cloth-covered buttons fasten up the front from the straight-cut bottom to the short notch lapels, completing the era-appropraite effect that covers all but the more formal, stiffer white portions of his shirt: collar, bib, and cuffs. He ties his black silk cravat into a broad, flat bow beneath the detachable wing collar.

As detailed in earlier posts about productions set during the 19th century, men’s garments were typically designed for little to be seen beyond coats and waistcoats, collars and ties, and trousers. However, the desperation to treat Garfield’s wound immediately after his shooting in Death by Lightning provides the opportunity to look at the unique period-informed details of Shannon’s costume in more depth.

Garfield’s white cotton shirt is patterned with sets of taupe double stripes, alternating between dark and muted intensity. The plain white bib-style bosom is textured with horizontal ribs, fastened with five round silver-framed pearl studs up the front to the neckband, which holds his detachable wing collar in place with a gold-finished stud. The body of the shirt has white two-hole buttons up the front placket, with a dangling shirt-to-trousers fastening tab which does… exactly that, buttoning inside of the trouser waistband to keep the shirt neatly in place. The squared single cuffs match the bib, each fastened with a large, round gold-framed onyx link that overlap like barrel cuffs rather than meeting edge-to-edge like French cuffs.

Garfield maintains the formality of his frock coat with cashmere-striped trousers made from a tightly woven woolen twill with black and gray stripes, the latter alternating between pin- and bar-stripe width. Styled with on-seam side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms, these flat-front trousers have an appropriately long rise, held up by suspenders (braces) in a similar color scheme. These cloth suspenders are striped in black-and-gray, with silver-toned hardware connecting to black leather hooks that fasten to two buttons along the inside of the front waistband and two more outside the notches flanking the fish-mouth rear. A cinch-back strap with a gunmetal-toned sliding buckle can adjust the waist fit.

Garfield wears black calfskin leather cap-toe button boots, a popular men’s style through the Victorian and Edwardian eras that functioned just as their name suggests with front- or side-positioned panels that close with a series of buttons. He wears them with plain black socks that effectively continue the leg-line between his trousers into his ankle-high boots.

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What to Imbibe

True to history, President Garfield is presented as only a light drinker on screen but the series provides guidance for those looking for an alcoholic accompaniment. In the second episode, Chester Arthur takes a long swig of Lagavulin single malt Scotch from a bottle commandeered during his corrupt tenure as the Port of New York customs collector. While this would certainly be aligned with Arthur’s habitual indulgences, it’s also a fun Easter egg for those aware of Nick Offerman’s real-life passion for this peaty Islay whisky, to the extent that the actor collaborated with the Lagavulin distillery on a signature blend carrying his name.

Despite his relative temperance, Garfield reportedly drank 25-year-old whiskey as part of his medical treatment after he was shot, as Thomas Donaldson wrote to former President Rutherford B. Hayes on August 28, 1881:

I told them at the White House that there were two reasons why Garfield would not die: first, He is an Ohio man, and none die in office; second, I supplied the whiskey used, 25 years old, and no person was ever known to die while using this whiskey!

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How to Get the Look

President Garfield’s outfit for Death by Lightning‘s depiction of his assassination models many of the often-unseen details of early 1880s-era menswear, zeroing in on the dignified daywear of a top hat, frock coat, odd waistcoat, cravat, and button boots.

• Black worsted wool knee-length frock coat with velvet-collared and half silk-faced peak lapels, cloth-covered 6×3-button double-breasted front, silk-braided welted breast pocket, straight hip pockets with silk-edged flaps, silk-ringed cuffs, and rear tails with two cloth-covered vestigial waist buttons
• Gray woolen twill high-fastening single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with short notch lapels, four welted pockets, and straight-cut bottom
• Black-and-gray cashmere-striped woolen twill flat-front trousers with on-seam side pockets, fish-mouth rear notch and cinch-back strap, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White (with alternating sets of taupe double stripes) cotton old-fashioned dress shirt with white horizontal-ribbed front bosom, front placket with trouser fastening tab, and white horizontal-ribbed single cuffs
  • White detachable wing collar
  • Gold-finished neck stud
  • Gold-trimmed round onyx cuff links
• Black silk bow-cravat
• Black-on-gray striped cloth suspenders with silver-toned hardware and black leather hooks
• Black calfskin leather side-button boots
• Black dress socks
• Black silk plush top hat with black grosgrain band and edge trim

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series, which debuted on Netflix in November 2025.

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The Quote

Garfield: What are my chances, you think?
Dr. Purvis: They’re not good. I’d put you at a one in 100.
Garfield: Well, then we’ll take that chance and make good use of it.