behind AotW

I’ve gone to Army Surgeon-General Joseph K Barnes’ Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1870-1883) many times over the years chasing Antietam casualties, but never done a systematic scrub through it. I’m underway on that now.

Among the first cases I found was that of Private Samuel Altman of the 50th Georgia Infantry, who was wounded by a gunshot to his head at Fox’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. He was captured there and treated by US Army surgeons on the field and in hospitals in Frederick, MD and Philadelphia, PA. Despite their efforts, including trephining – boring a hole in his skull to relive pressure – he succumbed to the effects of his wound on 11 October 1862.

Here’s an illustration of part of his skull, post-mortem, which was kept in the collection of the Army Medical Museum as an aid to education of future combat surgeons.

A little later in that volume I found the fine illustration below, purported by Surgeon Bernard A Vanderkieft to be the skull of an unnamed Confederate sharpshooter knocked from a tree atop South Mountain at long range by Union skirmishers, presumably on 14 September 1862. Touch the image to read the accompanying text.

A fine presentation of all 6 volumes of the MSHWR is online from the National Library of Medicine.

Altman’s skull is found in Volume 2, Part 1 on page 123. The sharpshooter’s is on page 170.