Title: B——, George W.

Source text: Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes, United States Army, The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861–65.), Part 1, Volume 2 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870), 161.

Keywords:on special wounds and injuries of the headwounds and injuries of the headgunshot woundsgunshot contusions of the cranial bonesgunshot fractures of both tables of the skullgunshot fractures of both tables of the cranium without depressioninjury to bone slight, not recognized until after deathviolent pain in head near wound, chills, deliriumcircular depressed fracture of external table of left parietal bone behind coronal sutureinsensibility of right side of bodyautopsy performedcanister shot tore scalp over left parietal bone behind coronal sutureviolent pain in headpurulent liquid between dura mater and cranium

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e11298

TEI/XML: med.d1e11298.xml


CASE.—Private George W. B——, Co. A, 10th Pennsylvania Reserves, was wounded at the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, December 13th, 1862, by a canister shot which tore the scalp for an inch in extent over the left parietal bone, just behind the coronal suture. He was conveyed to Washington, D. C., and next day was admitted into the Stanton Hospital. The injury was regarded as slight, there being no evidence that the bone or structures beneath were seriously involved. With the exception of a slight headache, the case progressed well until the morning of the 22d, when he was seized with violent pain in the head in the vicinity of the wound. He became restless and painfully sensitive to sound. On the evening of the 23d, and again on the morning of the 24th, chills supervened, attended with delirium. A few hours later insensibility of the right side of the body was noticed. A blister was applied over the nucha, and free purgations produced by cathartics. In the afternoon the patient was rational, and full sensibility in the body was restored. The chills being regarded of a malarious​ character, liberal doses of quinine were administered, and none occurred after the 25th of the month. On the 30th he fell into a semi-comatose state, and death ensued on the 4th of January, 1863, no convulsions having occurred at any time. The autopsy revealed a circular depression of the external table of the left parietal bone, just behind the coronal suture, half an inch in diameter, the surrounding bone being cribriform. The inner table was found irregularly fissured and depressed half a line. About an ounce and a half of a sanguine, purulent liquid had collected between the dura mater and the cranium. The brain itself, however, appeared healthy. The pathological specimen is No. 628, Sect. I, A. M. M., and was contributed, with the history, by Surgeon John A. Lidell, U. S V. It is quite remarkable to observe that several of the fragments of the vitreous plate are very firmly re-united, the patient having survived the injury only twenty-three days.