Civil War Washington

CASE 256.—Private Alexander Ewing, Co. A, 140th Pennsylvania, aged 30 years, was wounded at the battle of Spottsylvania​, on May 12, 1864, by a conoidal musket ball, which comminuted the upper part of the left femur. He was taken to the hospital of the 1st division of the Second Corps, and on the following day was sent to the rear in a wagon. Arriving at Belle Plain after a three-days journey over rough roads, he was conveyed on an hospital steamer to Washington, and, on May 18th, he was admitted to Judiciary Square Hospital. There was considerable inflammation and swelling of the soft parts, and the patient was in poor health. On the following day he was anæsthetized, and Acting Assistant Surgeon J. F. Thompson made an incision five inches in length over the great trochanter, including in it the wound of entrance. The muscular attachments being divided, it was found that the neck was splintered, that fissures extended within the capsule, that the great trochanter was separated from the shaft, and the upper part of the shaft much comminuted. The head and fragments of the neck and trochanters were removed, and the shaft was sawn just below the trochanter minor. Ice was applied to the wound, and stimulants were freely administered. The wound assumed an unhealthy action, and the patient gradually sank and died from exhaustion on May 24, 1864, five days after the operation. The pathological specimen was not received at the Army Medical Museum.