Civil War Washington

CASE 718.—Corporal J. Downey, Co. D, 56th Pennsylvania, aged 23 years, was wounded in the left leg, at Bull Run, August 28, 1862. He was admitted to Eckington Hospital, Washington, several days afterwards, where the injury was noted but no treatment recorded. Surgeon J. Hopkinson, U. S. V., in charge of Mower Hospital, Philadelphia, made the following record of the case: "The wound was caused by a ball, which entered the outer side of the tibia, fracturing the bone, and emerging on the inner side of the leg at the lower third. The tibia was resected at Eckington Hospital, from where the patient was transferred to this hospital September 23, 1863, the wound being nearly healed. Subsequent entries show that in addition to applications of water dressings to the wound the patient for a time received treatment for a syphilitic affection. He remained in the hospital until January 17, 1865, when he was mustered out and pensioned. Examining Surgeon D. W. Shindle, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, certified to the fracture and excision, and added: "The wound healed, leaving the leg, however, very crooked, shortened, and necessarily much weakened, and rendering his locomotion unsteady, difficult, and at times painful, also liable to tire in standing as well as walking. General system much impaired." The pensioner died of phthisis pulmonalis, October 20, 1870, his attending physician testifying that the injury remained "a constant source of irritation until a short time previous to his death. Exfoliation of bone was frequent, resulting in nervous prostration, innutrition​, and impairment of his general health, a condition favorable to the development of tubercle. He never would undergo an operation for the removal of sequestra," etc. The specimen (FIG. 281), embracing the removed portion of the tibia and showing some periosteal thickening, was forwarded by Surgeon J. R. Smith, U. S. A., having been excised on October 4, 1862.