Civil War Washington

CASE 1558.—Private J. Ruddy, Co. A, 63d New York, aged 32 years, was wounded at Petersburg, April 2, 1865. Surgeon F. M. Hammond, U. S. V., at the First Division Hospital of the Second Corps, and Acting Staff Surgeon J. Aiken, report simply that the patient had a shot wound of the left shoulder, and was sent on to Washington, where he was received into Harewood Hospital on April 4th. Surgeon R. B. Bontecou, U. S. V., reported: "Gunshot wound of the left shoulder and back, the ball entering at the head of the humerus and making its exit near the anterior portion of the scapula, fracturing the head of the humerus and the acromion process. On April 22d, the wound being in a suppurating condition, the patient was placed under the influence of ether, and the head and about four inches of the shaft of the humerus were removed. The after-treatment was supporting, with simple dressings, and the result was favorable." The photograph represented in the cut (FIG. 451) was taken while the patient was at Harewood Hospital, and was contributed to the Museum by the operator, Dr. Bontecou. This soldier was discharged from service July 12, 1865, and pensioned. Examiner J. S. Delevan, of Albany, reported, September 8, 1866: "Ball entered the left shoulder. The shoulder joint was resected, with a portion of the humerus. The limb cannot he used at all, excepting that the hand can be opened and shut, but he cannot carry anything in it. The elbow joint cannot be bent fully, and for all practical purposes it is useless to him, and in my opinion permanently so; disability total." Dr. P. F. L. Reynolds, of Albany, certified as follows: "Said John Ruddy died at Albany, June 3, 1868, from the effects of a gunshot wound; the ball which occasioned it having passed through the upper lobe of the left lung and out of the left shoulder, resulting in the wasting away of his system, and was the sole cause of his death."