Civil War Washington

CASE 1825.—Private G. Thompson, Co. E, 15th New Jersey, aged 21 years, was wounded at the Wilderness, May 5, 1864. Surgeon E. F. Taylor, 1st New Jersey, recorded his admission to the field hospital of the 1st division, Sixth Corps, with "gunshot fracture of left elbow." On May 11th, the patient entered Finley Hospital, Washington, where he was operated on by Surgeon G. L. Pancoast, U. S. V., who reported as follows: "The ball entered on the posterior surface of the arm near the internal condyle, and passed through the elbow joint, fracturing the olecranon process and the upper end of the ulna. June 7th, parts much swollen and inflamed; constitutional state of patient good. Resection of the elbow joint was performed, chloroform being used as the anæsthetic. Favorable progress followed. The treatment consisted of water dressings, tonics, and stimulants. The patient rapidly recovered." The specimen, represented in the annexed cut (FIG. 648), shows the excised parts, consisting of nearly two inches from the lower extremity of the humerus, the head of the radius, and the upper portion of the ulna cut half an inch below the coronoid process. The articular surfaces are eroded. It was contributed by the operator. The patient was discharged February 21, 1865, and pensioned. Examiner J. Nichols, of Washington, D. C., February 23, 1865, certified: "Gunshot fracture of left elbow joint, with resection. Not yet entirely healed. Limb shortened about two inches," etc. Examiner C. Hodge, jr.​, certifies, March 4, 1867: "The joint is entirely cut out and the arm thereby rendered entirely useless for manual labor." Drs. J. B. Coleman, C. Hodge, jr.​, and W. W. L. Phillips, of the Trenton Board, reported, September 8, 1873: "Ball destroyed the elbow joint, from which bones were removed, and there remains a false joint." The pensioner was paid September 4, 1875.