BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of Health and Medicine (Walter Reed) -- Exhibit: Civil War

BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of Health and Medicine (Walter Reed) -- Exhibit: Civil War [Normal Text] [1 col] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [Bruce Guthrie Photos home page]

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[7] NMHMCW_110327_030.JPG	[8] NMHMCW_110327_035.JPG $The Case of Major General Daniel E. Sickles: Major General Daniel E. Sickles, Union Third Army Corps commander, was struck by a cannonball during the battle of Gettysburg. Sickles was on horseback when the twelve-pound ball severely fractured his lower right leg. Sickles quieted his horse, dismounted and was taken to a shelter where Surgeon Thomas Sims amputated the leg just above the knee. Shortly after the operation, the Army Medical Museum received Sickles' leg in a small box bearing a visiting card with the message: "With the compliments of Major General D.E.S." The amputation healed rapidly and by September of 1863, Sickles returned to military service. For many years on the anniversary of the amputation, Sickles visited his leg at the museum. Sickles' exploits extended beyond the Civil War. He was the first defendant to successfully use the temporary insanity defense in the United States. In 1859, Sickles was found not guilty of the murder of his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key, the son of the composer of the national anthem. Sickles had shot Key in Lafayette Square in Washington in a jealous rage after learning of the affair. Sickles also served as a secret agent for President Lincoln and was appointed Ambassador to Spain by President Grant. Right lower leg bones of Major General Daniel E. Sickles showing the destruction cause by a cannonball.$
[9] NMHMCW_110327_043.JPG $Private J. Potter, Company H, 12th Illinois Cavalry, age 45, was injured at Cane River, Louisiana, on April 27th, 1864, when a ball entered the middle of the upper arm, traveled down the length of the bone and lodged near the elbow without fracturing the bone. The bone was removed on May 9th, but the wound became infected. The infection caused Potter great pain and the limb was amputated in early November of 1865. He was discharged in March of 1866.$	[10] NMHMCW_110327_049.JPG
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[17] NMHMCW_110327_092.JPG $The Case of Private Columbus Rush: Private Columbus Rush, Company C, 21st Georgia, age 22, was wounded during the assault on Fort Stedman, Virginia, on March 25th, 1865 by a shell fragment that fractured both the right leg below the knee and the left kneecap. Both limbs were amputated above the knees on the same day. He recovered quickly and was discharged from Lincoln Hospital in Washington on August 2nd, 1865. In 1866, while being treated at St. Luke's Hospital in new York City, he was outfitted with artificial limbs.$	[18] NMHMCW_110327_097.JPG $Tourniquet Amputation: Surgeons frequently treated arm and leg wounds by amputating. This grisly wounds caused by bullets and shrapnel were often contaminated by clothing and other debris. Cleaning such a wound was time consuming and often ineffective. However, amputation made a large complex wound simple. Surgical manuals taught that an amputation should be performed within two days following injury. The death rate from these so-called primary amputations was lower than the rate for amputations performed after the wound became infected. Union surgeons performed nearly 30,000 amputations. Patients undergoing amputation were first anesthetized. A tourniquet was applied above the site of the proposed amputation. The skin and muscle were then cut with amputation knives several inches above the fracture site. The muscles were pulled up to expose the bone. Once the cut was completed, large arteries were pulled out from the stump tissue with a tenaculum and tied off to prevent bleeding. The skin muscle was then released and the tissue sutured. Two types of amputation were commonly used. A circular amputation involved cutting straight through the skin to the bone and resulted in a stump that was circular in appearance. A flap amputation required the tissue to be cut leaving two flaps of skin that were used to create a stump. Fingers and other small bones were amputated using the smaller metacarpal saw.$
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[29] NMHMCW_110327_154.JPG	[30] NMHMCW_110327_162.JPG $Excision: Surgeons treated some shoulder wounds with a technique known as excision, also termed exsection or resection. The fractured bone section was removed, the tissues sutured, and the limb left to heal. Excision gave the patient limited use of the arm and usually full use of the hand. Prosthetic braces worn over the shoulder allowed nearly normal function of the limb for some patients. The flexible teeth of chain saw were passed under the tissue, the handles attached and the device was moved back and forth to saw through the bone.$
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[33] NMHMCW_110327_180.JPG	[34] NMHMCW_110327_187.JPG $To perform a trephination, the patient was first anesthetized. The tissue surrounding the trephination site was then pulled back and the trephine placed on the site. The trephine was turned in a circular motion to slowly cut through the bone. Care was taken not to cut the tissue surrounding the brain. An instrument called an elevator was used to raise sections of fractured bone away from the brain. A Heye's saw was used to remove protruding bone fragments.$
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[99] NMHMCW_080114_087.JPG $The Case of Major General Daniel E. Sickles: Major General Daniel E. Sickles, Union Third Army Corps commander, was struck by a cannonball during the battle of Gettysburg. Sickles was on horseback when the twelve-pound ball severely fractured his lower right leg. Sickles quieted his horse, dismounted and was taken to a shelter where Surgeon Thomas Sims amputated the leg just above the knee. Shortly after the operation, the Army Medical Museum received Sickles' leg in a small box bearing a visiting card with the message: "With the compliments of Major General D.E.S." The amputation healed rapidly and by September of 1863, Sickles returned to military service. For many years on the anniversary of the amputation, Sickles visited his leg at the museum. Sickles' exploits extended beyond the Civil War. He was the first defendant to successfully use the temporary insanity defense in the United States. In 1859, Sickles was found not guilty of the murder of his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key, the son of the composer of the national anthem. Sickles had shot Key in Lafayette Square in Washington in a jealous rage after learning of the affair. Sickles also served as a secret agent for President Lincoln and was appointed Ambassador to Spain by President Grant. Right lower leg bones of Major General Daniel E. Sickles showing the destruction cause by a cannonball.$	[100] NMHMCW_080114_094.JPG
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[115] NMHMCW_070103_068.JPG	[116] NMHMCW_070103_072.JPG $The Case of Major General Daniel E. Sickles: Major General Daniel E. Sickles, Union Third Army Corps commander, was struck by a cannonball during the battle of Gettysburg. Sickles was on horseback when the twelve-pound ball severely fractured his lower right leg. Sickles quieted his horse, dismounted and was taken to a shelter where Surgeon Thomas Sims amputated the leg just above the knee. Shortly after the operation, the Army Medical Museum received Sickles' leg in a small box bearing a visiting card with the message: "With the compliments of Major General D.E.S." The amputation healed rapidly and by September of 1863, Sickles returned to military service. For many years on the anniversary of the amputation, Sickles visited his leg at the museum. Sickles' exploits extended beyond the Civil War. He was the first defendant to successfully use the temporary insanity defense in the United States. In 1859, Sickles was found not guilty of the murder of his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key, the son of the composer of the national anthem. Sickles had shot Key in Lafayette Square in Washington in a jealous rage after learning of the affair. Sickles also served as a secret agent for President Lincoln and was appointed Ambassador to Spain by President Grant. Right lower leg bones of Major General Daniel E. Sickles showing the destruction cause by a cannonball.$
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[127] NMHMCW_050618_24.JPG $"The smell of ether, the odor of blood" Trauma and Surgery: Popular but generally incorrect images of Civil War medicine involved surgery -- amputations without anesthesia, piles of arms and legs, the surgeon as butcher. By modern standards, wartime surgery was limited. Despite the lack of both surgical experience and sanitary conditions, the survival rate among those who underwent the knife was better than in previous wars. Amputation was not the only surgical recourse available. Surgeons also extracted bullets, operated on fractured skulls, reconstructed damaged facial structures, and removed sections of broken bones. As bullets hit their victims, shattered bone and shredded flesh became the calling cards of the minie ball. Most of the surgeons who had come from civilian practices had little or no experience in dealing with such wounds. They quickly became aware of the surgical options: remove the limb, remove the fractured portions of bone, or clean the wound and apply a dressing. Union surgeons documented nearly 250,000 wounds from bullets, shrapnel, and other missiles. Fewer than one thousand cases of wounds from sabers and bayonets were reported.$	[128] NMHMCW_050618_31.JPG $The Case of Major General Daniel E. Sickles: Major General Daniel E. Sickles, Union Third Army Corps commander, was struck by a cannonball during the battle of Gettysburg. Sickles was on horseback when the twelve-pound ball severely fractured his lower right leg. Sickles quieted his horse, dismounted and was taken to a shelter where Surgeon Thomas Sims amputated the leg just above the knee. Shortly after the operation, the Army Medical Museum received Sickles' leg in a small box bearing a visiting card with the message: "With the compliments of Major General D.E.S." The amputation healed rapidly and by September of 1863, Sickles returned to military service. For many years on the anniversary of the amputation, Sickles visited his leg at the museum. Sickles' exploits extended beyond the Civil War. He was the first defendant to successfully use the temporary insanity defense in the United States. In 1859, Sickles was found not guilty of the murder of his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key, the son of the composer of the national anthem. Sickles had shot Key in Lafayette Square in Washington in a jealous rage after learning of the affair. Sickles also served as a secret agent for President Lincoln and was appointed Ambassador to Spain by President Grant. Right lower leg bones of Major General Daniel E. Sickles showing the destruction cause by a cannonball.$
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