Civil War Washington

CASE 399.—Private F. Siebe, Co. D, 139th New York, aged 23 years, received a wound of the right side of the abdomen at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. He was taken to the field hospital of the Eighteenth Corps, and was subsequently sent to Washington, D. C., and admitted into Harewood Hospital on the 15th. Surgeon R. B. Bontecou, U. S. V., states, on the medical descriptive list, that "a musket ball entered the right anterior side below the tenth rib, and emerged behind and about one and a half inches from the spine. On admission, the patient was in a very feeble condition; the discharges from the wound consisted of fæces, mixed with greenish streaks, from the ascending colon and liver. He complained of pain in the abdomen, which was increased by pressure; the discharge from the rectum was scanty. Cold-water dressings over the abdomen, opium internally, and light, nourishing diet constituted the treatment. July 1st, the pain in the abdomen diminished, but the discharge remained the same. July 15th, the patient complains of occasional colicky pains. The discharge continued the same until August 15th, but from that date the patient began to improve. By September 1st the wound of exit had healed. September 14th, wounds entirely healed. Colicky pain recurred now and then, but the patient was able to be about." He was furloughed October 8, 1864, and was returned to duty, entirely well, November 23, 1864, at which date a photograph, copied in the wood-cut (FIG. 116), was taken at the hospital. Pension Examiner C. Rowland, of Brooklyn, reports, February 23, 1867, that "the ball entered the right side of the sternum, passed through the liver, and made it exit on the right side of the spine, resulting in constant pain in bending his body. He is feeble, and cannot perform manual labor. He alleges that his disability has increased since the granting of his pension, June 2, 1865." He was last paid September 4, 1872.