Civil War Washington

CASE 5.—Private Carlos E. Lawrence, Co. E, 57th North Carolina Regiment, aged 34 years, was wounded at Rappahannock Station, November 7th, 1863, by a conoidal ball, which entered one inch to the right of the spinous process of the sixth dorsal vertebra, passed forward and lodged one inch inside of the right nipple. On the 9th, he was admitted to Armory Square Hospital. The patient, whose constitution was not naturally strong, was extremely debilitated and much enfeebled from the effects of the wound, which was much swollen and highly inflamed. On the 10th, the ball was excised by Acting Assistant Surgeon D. W. C. Van Slyck. The patient's system failed to respond to the most thorough and stimulating treatment, and he continued to sink, and died on November 16th, 1863, from asthenia. The missile, somewhat roughened near the apex, was forwarded to the Army Medical Museum, with a minute of the case, by Surgeon D. W. Bliss, U. S. V., and is represented in the wood-cut adjoining (FIG. 278).