Civil War Washington

CASE.—Private Albert Silsbee, Co. D, 86th New York Volunteers, aged 18 years, was wounded at Beverly Ford, Virginia, June 9th, 1863. While lying on his left side, his head being toward the enemy, the missile, probably a buckshot, entered just anteriorly to the tragus of the ear, making a wound having an incised appearance, and lodged somewhere near the ramus of the jaw. He was admitted, on the next day, to Lincoln Hospital, Washington, where water dressings were applied. The ball could not be discovered. There was no wound of the mouth or fauces, but considerable swelling of the right cheek, with lividity about the right eye; both eyes were slightly injected and felt sore. The patient had no bad symptoms after admission, and, as he was not suffering inconvenience from the ball, operative interference was thought unjustifiable. He was transferred, on June 16th, to West's Buildings Hospital, Baltimore, whence he was returned to duty on June 27th, 1863. He is not a pensioner. The history of this case was reported from Lincoln Hospital by Medical Cadet J. N. Hyde, U. S. A., from West's Buildings Hospital by Surgeon T. H. Bache, U. S. A. The concealment of the ball under the petrous bone, perhaps, or in the pterygoid fossa, or behind the ramus of the lower jaw, was esteemed very remarkable, and the aspect of the entrance wound was unusual. Surgeon J. H. Brinton, U. S. V., therefore, had a careful drawing made, in color, of the wound, by Hospital Steward Stauch. This is accurately copied in the right-hand or upper figure of the chromo-lithograph. It is unlikely, but not impossible, that the missile fell out before the patient's admission to hospital.