behind AotW

Specimen 2746. A cast of the left leg, after amputation, as if by the posterior flap, in the upper third. The cicatrices resemble those following a circular amputation. The integument appears tightly drawn over the bone on the anterior surface. Private J. W., “A,” 8th Connecticut: Antietam, 17th September, 1862.

“Private J. W.” was Jared Wheeler. His commanding officer at Antietam, Major John Ward thought his wound “slight” in his report of 22 September, but a week after the battle it was obviously much worse, and his leg was amputated. After more than a year in hospitals in Maryland, Connecticut, and New York, he went home with an artificial leg in November 1863.

The description of his stump from the Catalogue of the United States Army Medical Museum (1866). It’s image (and the details about his medical case) are from the The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1870)