Civil War Washington

CASE.—Sergeant Daniel O'Shea, Co. K, 28th Massachusetts Volunteers, aged 29 years, strong and plethoric, received a penetrating wound of the thorax, by a musket ball through the third intercostal space, at Deep Bottom, Virginia, on July 27th, 1864. He had hæmoptysis, hurried respiration, anxiety of countenance, and sharp pain at the seat of injury. Simple dressings were applied at the field hospital of the 1st division of the Second Corps, and cool drinks, with a little morphia to quiet the harrassing​ cough, were prescribed. It was necessary to removed him by rail to City Point, whence he was sent to Washington by hospital steamer, and admitted to Lincoln Hospital on July 30th, 1864. Tonics, stimulants, expectorants, and arterial sedatives were administered; dry and wet cups and blisters were applied, and a nourishing diet was allowed. The patient died on the afternoon of August 11th, 1864, of pneumonia. At the autopsy, sixteen hours subsequently, a penetrating wound of the anterior surface of the upper lobe of the right lung was found; the heart weighed fifteen ounces and a half, and the cadaver was in such an advanced stage of decomposition that the dissection was not prosecuted farther. Acting Assistant Surgeon H. M. Dean reports the case.