Title: Carlen, Charles

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), 458.

Keywords:wounds and injuries of the spineoperationsremoval of fragments of vertebræfractured third lumbar vertebraparalysis of lower extremitiesparalysis of bladderneuralgia of muscles of back, neck, and headdysuria

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e18978

TEI/XML: med.d1e18978.xml


CASE.—Private Charles Carlen, Co. I, 3d Pennsylvania Reserves, aged 24 years, was wounded in the back at Bull Run, August 30, 1862, by a musket ball, which fractured the third lumbar vertebra, and lodged. On August 31st, he was admitted from the field to Ascension Hospital, Washington. Some paralysis of the lower extremities and the bladder followed the injury, but the bowels remained normal. The patient was admitted to the Episcopal Hospital, Philadelphia, on November 12th, 1862, and on December 5th a small piece of bone was removed. Several pieces of bone are reported to have come away at previous times. The patient complained of pain in the back of the neck; the ball remained within the wound. By December 13th, there was no change in the patient's condition. He was discharged the service on February 9th, 1863, and pensioned. His pension was increased on September 4th, 1865. A communication from Pension Examiner T. B. Reed, dated September 16th, 1865, states that the ball has not been extracted. The pensioner suffers from stiffness and neuralgia of the muscles of the back of the neck and head, and from dysuria. His disability is rated three-fourths.