Civil War Washington

CASE 255.—Private Charles C. Cleaver, Co. C, 2d Infantry, aged 18 years, was wounded at the battle of Spottsylvania​, on May 12, 1864, by a conoidal musket ball, which fractured the neck and trochanters of the right femur. He was transferred to Fredericksburg and thence to Belle Plain in a wagon, and thence on a steam hospital transport to Washington. On May 18th he arrived at Washington, and was admitted to Judiciary Square Hospital. The soft parts of the upper and outer part of the thigh were extensively lacerated, and pus of an ill-conditioned character was burrowing in every direction around the wound. The patient's condition was unfavorable; but it was decided that excision of the fractured portion of the femur afforded the only prospect of relief. Accordingly, on the 19th, Assistant Surgeon Alexander Ingram, U. S. A., proceeded to make a curved incision six inches in length, through which the head, neck, and four and a quarter inches of the shaft of the femur were removed. Carpie soaked with permanganate of potash was applied to the wound, and tonics and stimulants were freely given. Pyæmia supervened, and the patient died on May 23, 1864, four days after the operation. The pathological specimen, figured in the accompanying wood-cut (FIG. 64), is in the Surgical Section of the Army Medical Museum.