Civil War Washington

CASE 69.—Private S. S. Chase, Co. L, 1st Maine Cavalry, aged 43 years, was wounded at Stony Creek, October 27, 1864, and admitted to the field hospital of the 2d division, Cavalry Corps, where Surgeon F. LeMoyne, 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry, noted: "Shot flesh wound of both legs." The patient was moved to City Point on the following day, and on November14th he was transferred to Washington. Surgeon D. W. Bliss, U. S. V., made the following report: "He was admitted to Armory Square Hospital with wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The first ball entered the thigh posteriorly, about the junction of the middle and upper thirds, passing inward and a little downward, and emerging on the inner side of the thigh; the second ball entered the left leg on the posterior aspect, about the middle, and passed directly forward, emerging on the inner side, one and a half or two inches from point of entrance. The patient had an unhealthy appearance and was considerably emaciated when admitted, the wounds discharging a very thin and offensive matter, not very profusely. On November 26th, pyæmia became developed; patient had several violent chills, which were repeated on the following days, when his wounds became dark colored and dry and ceased to discharge, and he grew delirious. From this period quinine, iron, and chlorate of potassa were prescribed, with stimulants and the most nourishing diet, together with applications of creasote, tannin, and solution of chlorate of patassa​ to the wounds, under which treatment he gradually improved. At present (December 31st) his wounds are about healed and he is able to leave his bed, being greatly improved in every respect, and convalescent." The man was discharged from service March 24, 1865, because of "permanent contraction of the gastrocnemius muscle of the left leg, resulting from the wound." Examiner J. O. Perry, of Portland, Maine, certified, April 30, 1868, that "both wounds are very tender;" and that "the wound in the leg so far involved the nerves that the leg below it and the foot are quite numb." The Portland Examining Board reported, in 1873 and 1875, that they find deep, and, on the left leg, adherent scars, with considerable loss of tissues in both wounds. The pensioner was paid June 4, 1876.