Civil War Washington

CASE 340.—Private J. White, Co. A, 4th New Jersey, aged 19 years, was wounded before Petersburg, April 2, 1865, and admitted to the field hospital of the 1st division, Sixth Corps, where Surgeon R. Sharpe, 15th New Jersey, recorded: "Shot wound of left thigh." On the following day he was conveyed to the Depot Hospital at City Point, and one week afterwards he was transferred to Washington. Surgeon R. B. Bontecou, U. S. V., who removed the missile from the patient's limb, made the following report: "He was admitted to Harewood Hospital April 12th with a wound of the upper third of the thigh, the ball entering posteriorly, passing upward and inward, impinging against the femur and denuding it of a small portion of its periosteum, and lodging beneath the vastus externus muscle. On April 17th, the ball was extracted by incision, the patient being under the influence of chloroform. The condition of the injured parts and the constitutional state of the patient at the time of the operation were poor. He was suffering from diarrhœa and his progress was unfavorable. On April 19th, pyæmic symptoms were developed. The treatment consisted of alteratives, and was supporting throughout. The patient gradually sank, and died April 27, 1865." The upper third of the injured femur was contributed to the Museum by Surgeon Bontecou, and is represented in the adjacent wood-cut (FIG. 127).