Civil War Washington

CASE 338.—Private S. H. Barnum, Co. H, 7th Ohio, was wounded at Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, by a conoidal ball. There is no account of this case prior to admission to St. Aloysius Hospital, Washington. On May 7th, Acting Assistant Surgeon J. F. Thompson reported on the Medical Descriptive List: "Wounded by minié ball, which entered three inches from the linea alba, on the right side, passing through the liver, and making its exit an inch or two lower, on the same side, and about four inches from the spine. There was a great discharge of bile from the posterior opening when he was wounded; there was no peritonitis. On the 13th, patient was taken with pleuro-pneumonia of left side, from the effects of which and the wound he died on May 17, 1863. Treatment: At first nothing was done more than applying cold-water dressings to wound, and administration of purgatives. For the pleuro-pneumonia he was cupped, and four drops of tincture of veratrum viride ordered every four hours; this medicine was suspended after the second dose, as it produced unpleasant head symptoms without reducing the pulse. Small doses of calomel and antimony were then administered."