Civil War Washington

CASE 1502.—Sergeant C. A. Winser, Co. A, 6th Wisconsin, aged 22 years, was wounded at Gravelly Run, March 31, 1865. Surgeon A. S. Coe, 147th New York, reported from a Fifth Corps hospital: "A wound of the right shoulder by a minié ball." On the same day the head of the humerus was excised by Surgeon John C. Hall, 6th Wisconsin, through a straight incision parallel to the axis of the arm. On April 3d, the patient was sent to Washington, and entered Columbian Hospital, and, May 4th, was transferred to Judiciary Square Hospital. Surgeon E. Griswold, U. S. V., reported: " * * Admitted with resection of right shoulder, performed on the field. * * On May 14th, the wound was attacked with erysipelas, which, in a few days, subsided." On June 13, 1865, this soldier came to the Army Medical Museum, and a photograph was made, which is copied in FIGURE 2 of PLATE XVIII, opposite page 544. There was "nearly complete cicatrization, and promise of a comparatively useful arm." He was dischargedJuly 16, 1865, and pensioned. Examiner J. Nichols, of Washington, July 20, 1865, reported: "Had resection of the head and two and a half inches of the shaft of the right humerus, with margin of glenoid cavity. Arm useless for labor." Examiner H. C. Taylor, of Chatauqua, New York, November 10, 1866, reported: "The wound not soundly healed; occasionally suppurates; is very painful. Arm nearly useless. I think amputation would be preferable under the circumstances." The "biennial" pension report of 1873, made by Examiner C. Hurd, of Ottawa, Illinois, elicited no new facts. This pensioner was paid June 4, 1874.