Civil War Washington

CASE.—Private Louis W——, Co. K, 10th Vermont Volunteers, aged 33 years, was wounded at the battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia, June 1st, 1864, by a conoidal musket ball, which entered the frontal bone above the nasal eminence, carried away both sinuses and a portion of the left orbital plate, destroyed the left eye, and escaped near the angle of the left ramus of the lower jaw. He was conveyed to Washington, and admitted, on the 9th, into the Lincoln Hospital. Death occurred June 16th, 1864. At the autopsy, an opening was found in the frontal sinus, measuring three-fourths by half an inch, through which a grayish slough, involving the brain, and exhaling a gangrenous odor, was observed. Upon the removal of the frontal portion of the calvarium to a level with the orbital region, a fragment of the wall of the sinus was found, adherent to the dura mater, beneath which membrane extravasation of venous blood existed. There was also a general enlargement of the veins of the cerebrum. The optic commissure and nerve were found lacerated, and the tuber cinereum in a sloughing condition. Some twelve ounces of venous blood exuded from the meningeal vein, especially from several points along the falx cerebri and falx cerebelli. The heart was fatty on the right side, but the lungs and other organs were perfectly sound. The pathological specimen is No. 2574, Sect. I, A. M. M., and was contributed, with its history, by Surgeon J. C. McKee, U. S. A.