Civil War Washington

CASE 800.—Private W. Nash, Co. C, 187th Pennsylvania, aged 19 years, was wounded in the right foot, before Petersburg, June 18th, 1864. Surgeon C. N. Chamberlain, U. S. V., reported his admission to the field hospital of the 4th division, Fifth Corps, with "severe injury to the bones of the foot, caused by a minié ball." From the field hospital the wounded man passed to City Point thence to hospital at Alexandria, and subsequently to Philadelphia. Assistant Surgeon T. C. Brainerd, U. S. A., in charge of Broad and Cherry Streets Hospital, described the injury as "a compound fracture of the tarsus, followed by necrosis of bone, pain in the foot, and free discharge, for which the leg was amputated at the lower third by circular method, on May 8th, by Acting Assistant Surgeon H. M. Bellows. At the time of the operation the patient had become much exhausted from the profuse and continued discharges from the wound. He reacted promptly, ether having been used as an anaesthetic. Dry dressings were applied." The operator subsequently communicated that the stump only required three weeks to heal perfectly. The patient afterwards passed through various hospitals, and was ultimately mustered out at the expiration of his time of service, August 3, 1865, and pensioned. Several years later, when seen and examined by the operator, the pensioner was found in general good health and with a good, round, and entirely healed stump, he being able to walk satisfactorily with the aid of an artificial limb. In his application for commutation, in 1870, the pensioner described the stump as being "not in the best condition;" but in his subsequent statements, five and ten years later, he reported its condition as "good." The pensioner was paid September 4, 1880.