Civil War Washington

CASE 1398.—Private W. Leiblein, Co. C, 20th Massachusetts, aged 32 years, was wounded at Fredericksburg, December 11, 1862. He was admitted to the field hospital of the 2d division, Second Corps, where Surgeon G. S. Palmer, U. S. V., recorded: "Fracture of arm; resection of upper third of ulna and radius." On December 25th, the wounded man reached Washington, where he was admitted to Armory Square Hospital. In the following April he was transferred to McDougall Hospital, New York, where the arm was amputated. Assistant Surgeon R. Bartholow, U. S. A., in charge of the latter hospital, forwarded the specimen (FIG. 554) consisting of the bones of the right elbow, from which the olecranon and the lowest two inches of the humerus have been excised; subsequently amputated in the middle third of the arm. The bones of the forearm are anchylosed, and the extremity of the humerus presents an irregular deposit of callus. Acting Assistant Surgeon W. F. Cornick reported the patient's admission to Lovell Hospital, Portsmouth Grove, R. I., on November 4th, by reason of "amputation of right arm, performed before admission, May 16, 1863;" also that "Surgeon N. Hayward, 20th Massachusetts, performed the operation of excision." The patient was finally discharged from Central Park Hospital, New York City, on August 1, 1864, and pensioned. In the previous month he was furnished with an artificial arm by Mr. Lincoln, of Boston, who, in his statement, reported that the amputation was performed by flap method. In the man's application for pension it is mentioned that "Assistant Surgeon R. Bartholow, U. S. A., performed the amputation." This pensioner died on May 23, 1872.