Civil War Washington

CASE 449.—Private C. G. Kingsbury, Co. D, 39th Massachusetts, aged 28 years, received a penetrating wound of the abdomen at Petersburg, April 1, 1865. He was taken to the field hospital of the Fifth Corps, where simple dressings were applied to the wound. On the 8th, he was transferred on the hospital steamer, State of Maine, to Washington, and admitted to Armory Square Hospital on the 10th. The register and case book at this hospital states that a conoidal ball entered over the second floating rib, left side, midway between the umbilicus and right nipple, and emerged one inch from the spinal column, at the second lumbar vertebra. When admitted, there was pain of an acute character in the region of the wound, with discharge of pus, and a greenish-white secretion exuded from the wound; skin, conjunctiva, and eyes yellow. His pulse was full and rapid, 120 per minute, and respiration greatly impeded; sleepless nights. Death resulted May 21, 1865. At the necropsy, the ball was found to have perforated the liver at its upper lobe; exit at inner border of gall-bladder; it also passed through the lower lobe of the right lung. The thoracic cavity on the right side was filled with pus; pleuritic adhesions very firm, almost impossible to remove them. The abdomen was filled with pus and coagulable lymph. Surgeon D. W. Bliss, U. S. V., reports the case.