James Abram Garfield was the twentieth President of the United States. He had also served as a major general in the United States Army, and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Garfield was the second U.S. President to be assassinated — Abraham Lincoln was the first. Garfield had the second shortest presidency in U.S. history, after William Henry Harrison's. In office for six months and fifteen days, President Garfield, a Republican, served for less than four months before being shot and fatally wounded on July 2, 1881. He is the only member of the House of Representatives to have been in office when elected President.