Civil War Washington

CASE 849.—Sergeant A. M. Wright, Co. C, 80th Indiana, aged 23 years, was wounded in the left ankle, at Resaca, May 14, 1864. Surgeon E. Shippen, U. S. V., reported his admission to the Twenty-third Corps field hospital, whence the wounded man was transferred to hospital at Chattanooga and afterwards to hospital No. 15, Nashville. Surgeon W. M. Chambers, U. S. V., in charge of the latter hospital, described the injury and reported that "the bone was fractured and necrosed," necessitating "excision of two and a half inches of the lower end of the fibula, which was performed on June 13th by Acting Assistant Surgeon J. J. O'Riley. Gangrene ensued the day after the operation, but was stopped by applying bromine. Simple dressings were used and nutritious diet and stimulants were administered." The patient subsequently was transferred to Joe Holt Hospital, and later to Lincoln Hospital, Washington. In the following March he was returned to duty, and on June 22, 1865, he was mustered out of service. Examining Surgeon H. M. Smith, of Vincennes, Indiana, March 31, 1877, certified: "I find on examination that the applicant received a wound in the ankle joint. The ball penetrated the lower part of the external malleolus and passed through the head of the tibia, making its exit on the front part of the ankle, at which point a large cicatrix exists as if caused by sloughing resulting in adhesions of the soft parts and partial anchylosis of the joint," etc. The pensioner was paid June 4, 1880.