Civil War Washington

CASE 1817.—Corporal F. Ott, Co. E, 93d Pennsylvania, aged 35 years, was wounded March 25, 1865, in an assault on Fort Steadman, in the lines about Petersburg. Surgeon S. F. Chapin, 139th Pennsylvania, reported his admission to the hospital of the 2d division of the Sixth Corps, with "a slight gunshot wound of the right arm by a minié ball." The patient was transferred to the Sixth Corps depot hospital at City Point, where Assistant Surgeon J. S. Ely, U. S. V., reported: "A gunshot flesh-wound of the right forearm." The patient was sent, March 27, 1865, on the hospital transport "State of Maine" to Washington, and entered Finley Hospital, March 29, 1865. The wound, as reported by Acting Assistant Surgeon C. J. Polk, who has published an account of the case,¹ was regarded as trivial for more than a week. Pyæmic symptoms supervened. It was discovered that the joint was affected with suppurative inflammation, and on May 6, 1865, Surgeon G. L. Pancoast, U. S. V., excised the joint, "removing an inch of the humerus and the half of the head of the radius, and the olecranon process of the ulna." The preparation (FIG. 638) was presented to the Museum by Dr. Pancoast (Cat. Surg. Sect., 1866, p. 154). There has been no fracture of the articular extremities, but ulceration and destruction of the cartilages evidently existed. There is a transverse section of the humerus above the trochlea, half an inch from the point at which the bone was ultimately sawn. The case progressed favorably, and the patient was discharged August 1, 1865, and pensioned. Examiner M. D. Benedict, of Washington, reported, at that date: "He had compound comminuted fracture (!!) of the right elbow joint: the entire joint was removed by excision; limb entirely useless for labor." Examiner W. B. Lowman, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, reported, September 6, 1873: "Resection of right elbow joint; the limb is two inches shorter than its fellow; the arm is but of little use; he cannot grasp anything with his hand. Address, Scalp Level, Cambria County, Pennsylvania."

¹ POLK (C. J.), Rare Cases in Surgery, in The [Philadelphia] Medical and Surgical Reporter, 1874, Vol. XXXI, p. 44. The operation by Dr. PANCOAST is the second case reported.