Civil War Washington

CASE 1916.—Sergeant P. Welsh, Co. K, 28th Massachusetts, aged 32 years, was wounded at Spottsylvania​, May 12, 1864, and sent from a Second Corps field hospital to Washington, where Surgeon O. A. Judson, U. S. V., reported: "Admitted to Carver Hospital, May 14, 1864. Gunshot wound of left forearm, by a conoidal ball, producing compound comminuted fracture of inferior third of left ulna. On May 17th, Acting Assistant Surgeon J. S. Wentz excised three inches of the shaft of the ulna through a straight incision; no ligatures were applied; the ball was also extracted. The constitutional state of the patient at time of operation was good. On May 20th, secondary hæmorrhage occurred, apparently from the interosseous artery, but ceased spontaneously. On the 24th, rigors and other pyæmic symptoms appeared, and the patient died May 28th, 1864, from pyæmia." The specimen, represented in the adjoining wood-cut (FIG. 701), was contributed to the Museum by Dr. Judson. It consists of "four pieces of bone, representing three inches of the left ulna, excised; a conoidal ball, exceedingly battered, distorted, and grooved, is mounted with the specimen."