Case 217. – Private Thomas J. D——-
30 March 2020
This is part of US Surgeon G.A. Otis’s Report on Excisions of the Head of the Femur for Gunshot Injury (1869) concerning Corporal Thomas J. Dunn of the 18th Mississippi Infantry describing his months of misery after he was shot at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. His diseased femur (thigh bone) is illustrated.
In April 1863 the Confederate Agent of Exchange in Richmond requested
SIR: … I will be much obliged to you if you will cause to be sent to City Point Thomas J Dunn, Company E, Eighteenth Mississippi Regiment, captured and wounded at Antietam. He is now at Locust Springs [field hospital on the Geeting Farm near Keedysville, MD ], about two [21] miles from Frederick, Md. I am very anxious about this matter and will take it as a great favor if you will give it your attention …
He was not exchanged, probably in no condition to travel, but was instead transferred to a US Army hospital in Frederick on 3 May and he died there of infection in his hip and other complications from his wounds on 19 June 1863.
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