Civil War Washington

CASE 124.—Private H. Root, Co. B, 104th New York, aged 26 years, was wounded at Petersburg, June 22, 1864, and admitted to the field hospital of the 3d division, Fifth Corps. Surgeon L. W. Read, U. S. V., noted, "buckshot flesh wound of right leg, slight." On June 30th, the patient entered the Harewood Hospital, Washington, whence Surgeon R. B. Bontecou, U. S. V., contributed the specimen (FIG. 21), with the following brief history: "Gunshot wound of right leg, middle third, injuring soft parts. On admission the constitutional state of the patient was very poor; condition of injured parts tolerably good, but wound very painful. The parts subsequently became gangrenous, with rapid sloughing of soft parts; about one half of the lower third, and three-fourths of the upper third, and all of the middle third of the tibia exposed and denuded of periosteum. The tibia became necrosed throughout its whole extent, and at this time the patient became jaundiced. On October 29th, about ten inches of necrosed bone was extracted by Acting Assistant Surgeon D. I. Evans. The general condition of the patient improved soon afterwards, under a supporting treatment throughout, and was doing tolerably well, parts improving, when transferred to hospital at Elmira, January 4, 1865." Two weeks after his transfer the patient obtained a furlough and proceeded to his home in Tioga County, New York, where his limb was subsequently amputated at the middle third of the thigh. Dr. S. Knapp, his attending physician, certified that "he found him suffering from a badly cared for and neglected wound," etc., and that "on February 28, 1865, it became necessary to amputate the leg," which operation he performed, being assisted by Dr. E. Daniels. About two months afterwards the patient returned to the hospital, and on July 21, 1865, he was discharged from service and pensioned. He died July 25, 1870, of consumption, resulting from the wound and its effects, more than five years after the amputation. The parts removed by the amputation at mid-thigh by Dr. Knapp were not transmitted to the Museum; but the large sequestrum comprising the greater part of the diaphysis of the tibia is represented in the wood-cut (FIG. 21), and, as mounted, is nine inches in length (see Catalogue of the Surgical Section of the Army Medical Muesum​, Washington, 1866, p. 405).