Civil War Washington

CASE.—Private William H. Nims, Co. D, 61st New York Volunteers, was wounded June 17th, 1864, in front of Petersburg, and was admitted into the hospital of the 1st division, Second Corps, and thence sent to Columbian College Hospital, at Washington, June 22d, 1864. He was struck by a fragment of shell, which evacuated the humors of the right eye, and fractured the nasal bones and right superior maxilla. The treatment consisted in the removal of fragments of bone, and adjustment of the lacerated soft parts. On April 25th, 1865, there was a small fistula, communicating, probably, with a necrosed fragment of the spongy bones. Surgeon Thomas R. Crosby, U. S. V., who had directed the patient's treatment, had removed all accessible dead bone, had continued to keep the nasal canal pervious, and so coaptated the lacerated parts about the orbits as to secure a cicatrix, showing as little deformity as the gravity of the injury would permit one to hope for. A photograph of the patient was made at the Army Medical Museum (Vol. 1, p. 32, Surg. Series). The patient was discharged from service and pensioned April 26th, 1865. In 1867, Pension Examiner G. W. Avery, reported that this pensioner continued to suffer greatly and that the very unpleasant deformity induced by his wound, made it impracticable for him to obtain employment. Thus his mutilation was a doubly cruel one.