Title: Freeman, W. A.
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), 433-434.
Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e18714
TEI/XML: med.d1e18714.xml
CASE.—Corporal W. A. Freeman, Co. B, 13th North Carolina Regiment, aged 24 years, was wounded at Williamsburg, Virginia, May 5th, 1862, by a musket ball, which entered two inches below the spine of the left scapula, passed upward and inward, and escaped midway between the spine of the right scapula and the right clavicle. He was admitted, on the 12th, to Cliffburn Hospital, Washington. A counter opening had been made in the track of the ball to the left of the vertebral column, and from this and the orifice of exit the discharge of pus was profuse. Digital examination through the counter opening showed a shattering of the spinous processes of two of the dorsal vertebrae, and the existence of a large abscess over the muscles to the right of the vertebrae. A free transverse incision was made over the spine, the splinters of bone removed, sharp projecting points; snipped off, and the carious portions gouged away. The cavity left was stuffed for two days with lint soaked in laudanum and subsequently with dry lint. The wound did very well. By July 3d, the wound had healed; the bullet holes were cicatrizing, and the cavity left by the operation was filling up with granulations. It was dressed lightly from the bottom with dry lint, the edges of the wound being approximated and supported by adhesive straps. By June 30th, the wounds had entirely healed. On July 11th, 1862, he was transferred to Old Capitol Prison .
