Civil War Washington

CASE 1004.—Amputation in the leg.—Private C. O. F. Clark, Co. G, 1st Oregon, aged 35 years, was frost-bitten in his feet and hands while on march between Owyhee and Malheur rivers, Idaho, December 17, 1865. He was conveyed to Camp Auburn, where portions of the lower limbs were amputated by Acting Assistant Surgeon M. V. Amen on January 17, 1866. The patient recovered, and was mustered out of service April 14, 1866, and pensioned. Having been sent East, after receiving his discharge from service, for the purpose of being provided with artificial limbs, he was admitted to the Post Hospital at Washington on February 2, 1867, whence Assistant Surgeon W. Thomson, U. S. A., described the case as follows: "The operation seems to have been Chopart's, on the right foot, which had entirely healed when the patient was admitted. The stump was firm and well formed, but so sensitive for the space of one and a half inches from the cicatrix that the man desired the limb to be removed at a point above the ankle. The amputation of the left leg had been performed about six inches above the ankle and had failed to close from the presence of a ligature. After this was removed the stump healed entirely. The patient had also lost portions of the phalanges of both hands from the same cause. On May 22, 1867, he was furnished transportation to New York City to be fitted with artificial limbs." These were supplied by the firm of Monroe and Gardiner. Re-amputation of the stump of the left leg subsequently became necessary and was performed by Professor F. H. Hamilton, at Bellevue Hospital, on November 9, 1868. Several years later, when the pensioner was supplied with artificial limbs by D. W. Kolbe, of Philadelphia, both stumps were reported as being in a sound condition. The pensioner was paid December 4, 1881. Casts of the stump of the foot and of the leg were prepared at the Army Medical Museum, and constitute specimens 4128 and 4191, respectively, of the Surgical Section. The latter is represented in the annexed wood-cut (FIG. 371) and apparently shows the amputation to have been performed by the posterior flap-method.¹

¹ Account of Several Amputations, etc., in Circular No. 3, S. G. O., Washington, 1871, p. 197.