Civil War Washington

CASE 1741.—Brigadier-General John W. Geary, U. S. V., was wounded at the engagement at Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862. He was struck in the evening in the left foot, and afterward received a more severe wound in the left elbow, "but remained on the field until nine o'clock, when he was compelled to retire from exhaustion produced by pain and loss of blood." (BATES, in Hist. of Penna. Vols., 1869, Vol. I, p. 427.) His wounds were dressed at the field hospital of the 2d division, Second Corps, established by Surgeon A. Ball, 5th Ohio, and he was sent to Culpeper and thence to Washington. He was attended in quarters by Surgeons M. Clymer, B. A. Vanderkieft, U. S. V., and Dr. David Ahl. It was found that a conoidal musket ball had shattered the left olecranon and outer condyle, and had flattened itself against the latter. There had been considerable bleeding, and the joint was already swollen and tender. The battered projectile and some bone splinters were extracted, and the limb was put up in a felt trough or angular splint, a large fenestrum being cut out opposite the wound, and kept at rest at an angle of 130°. There was very considerable inflammatory reaction and copious suppuration; but the inflammation was kept within bounds and there was little destructive action in the tissues about the joint. At the end of five weeks, it was practicable to commence passive motion, cautiously, and by September 25th the General was able to rejoin the army, "with his arm still in a bandage" (BATES, op. cit., p. 428), and took command of the 2d division, Twelfth Corps. He was again wounded at Chancellorsville; but served to the end of the war with very tolerable motion of the elbow. He was subsequently elected Governor of Pennsylvania, and died February 9, 1873, aged 53 years.