Civil War Washington

CASE 441.—Private William Crawford. Co. B, 2d Pennsylvania Cavalry, aged 40 years, had his right leg shattered near the knee by a fragment of shell, at the battle of Spottsylvania​, May 12, 1864. The soft parts were much torn, and the popliteal artery was divided. Amputation was May 12, 1864 performed near the middle of the thigh by Surgeon Charles Bower, 6th Pennsylvania Reserves. The patient was sent to Washington, and admitted, on July 16th, to Lincoln Hospital. He was in an exhausted condition and had no appetite. He utterly refused to take bark or stimulants of any description. The tongue and fauces were covered with aphthæ. There was diarrhœa, from which, in a chronic form, the patient had long suffered. He died on July 27, 1864. There was extreme emaciation. At the autopsy but slight lesions were found in the viscera, except the great intestine, which was studded with ulcers. The necrosed extremity of the femur slightly protruded from the wound. This was the end of a very large, loose sequestrum, invested by a fragile involucrum. The specimen in the Army Medical Museum, No. 2890, Surgical Section, consists of the stump of the right femur, with a very large sequestrum in process of separation and a partial involucrum formed.