Civil War Washington

CASE 1789.—Major B. S. Stanhope, 6th Ohio Cavalry, was wounded in the right elbow at Aldie Gap, June 17, 1863, and entered the field hospital of the 2d division, Cavalry Corps. Assistant Surgeon G. M. McGill, U. S. A., who performed excision, furnished the following account of the case: "He was wounded in the right upper extremity by a carbine ball. Entrance two inches above the tip of the olecranon in semiflexion; course inward, downward, and forward, breaking the humerus—without extensive shock of the bone or comminution—passing down anteriorly, partially denuding the radius; exit in the anterior inferior third of the forearm. Primary resection was performed six hours after the injury. Patient is about 26 years, short, and has an abundance of adipose tissue." The specimen, represented in the annexed cut (FIG. 612), consists of three inches of the lower extremity of the right humerus, which was nearly transversely fractured, with some comminution, two inches above the articulation. It was contributed by the operator. On the day following the injury the patient reached Prince Street Hospital, at Alexandria, whence Surgeon J. R. Spencer, U. S. V., reported the following result: "This patient had been transported sixteen miles in an ambulance wagon and the same distance by cars, after the operation, before entering this hospital. The weather was warm and damp. The musculo-spiral and ulnar nerves were injured. Tetanus in the form of acute opisthotonos set in on June 23d. The treatment consisted of stimulants, tonics, and narcotics. Death occurred on June 25, 1863."