Civil War Washington

CASE.—Private John Lanyon, Co. E, 140th New York Volunteers, aged 35 years, was wounded at the battle of Spottsylvania​, Virginia, May 13th, 1864, by a conoidal musket ball, which entered the frontal bone to the right of the median line, near the coronal suture, and lodged beneath the scalp near the place of entrance, apparently without producing any fracture of the skull. He was rendered unconscious from the shock, and lay in a state of insensibility until the missile was extracted by the regimental surgeon, Henry C. Dean, five hours after the reception of the injury. The ball was much flattened and weighed an ounce. The patient was at once conveyed to the division hospital, suffering at the time great pain in the head and constant dizziness. Forty-eight hours later, to avoid capture by the advancing enemy, he started on foot for Fredericksburg, some eighteen miles distant, which he reached in twenty hours, greatly exhausted. He was obliged to lay for ten hours after his arrival exposed to the rain before he could be admitted into a temporary hospital. He remained there four days and was then sent to Washington, and admitted into the Campbell Hospital on May 24th, 1864. About June 1st, he received a furlough and visited Buffalo, New York, where he came, on June 6th, under the care of Acting Assistant Surgeon S. W. Wetmore, who discovered that the frontal bone was fractured. The wound at this time was discharging freely; but there being no cessation of the headache and dizziness, Dr. Wetmore, on the 4th of July, removed the fractured portion of the external as well as some pieces from the internal table. On July 20th, Lanyon returned to Washington; was sent to the Lovell Hospital, Portsmouth Grove, Rhode Island, on July 30th, and thence sent, on August 24th, to the hospital at Rochester, New York, where he was discharged from service on the 26th of December, 1864. He was able to follow his trade as a carpenter, but as late as June, 1866, he had not become entirely free from attacks of dizziness and neuralgic pain. A communication from the Commissioner of Pensions, dated July, 1868, states that Lanyon is a pensioner at $6 per month, his disability being rated at three-fourths and permanent. On May 21st, 1869, Pension Examining Surgeon Horatio N. Loomis reported that this pensioner complained of headache and dizziness and dimness of vision and occasional faintness; but that he was able to work moderately a great part of the time.