Civil War Washington

CASE 599.—Sergeant Henry J. Moore, Co. F, 7th Maine, aged 24 years, received, May 12, 1864, a shot wound of the left knee joint, at the battle of Spottsylvania​. Surgeon F. M. Everleth, 7th Maine,¹ practised a primary total excision on the morning of the reception of the injury "by making an anterior incision across just below the joint, curving up over the external condyle, and joining at right angles an incision extending over the internal condyle; one inch and a half of the femur, with a conoidal ball implanted, was removed by sawing squarely through the condyles, and the articular surface of the tibia was removed, being bruised. No ligatures were required. The specimen was sent to the Museum at Washington with an account of the case." The patient was admitted May 24, 1864, to the Third Division Hospital, at Alexandria, with the left lower extremity in a fracture box, the wound being partially closed by sutures and discharging little pus. The patient was prostrated by the fatigues of transportation, and he died of exhaustion May 26, 1864.

¹ At the date of the publication of this case in Circular No. 6, S. G. O., 1865, p. 59, the operator's name and the date of the excision were unknown; but these particulars were communicated in a letter to Assistant Surgeon General C. H. CRANE, dated Waldoboro, Maine, March 26, 1868, by Dr. F. M. EVEHLETH. The specimen, with the impacted ball in the condyles, and the account of the case, alluded to by Dr. EVERLETH, it has been impossible to trace in the Museum. See also CULBERTSON (H.), Excision of the Larger Joints of the Extremities, Prize Essay, in Trans. Am. Med. Assoc., Philadelphia, 1876. Supplement to Vol. XXVII, p. 184, Case 16.