Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1871-12-09
Curious Accidents,
SINGULAR sAsss or noUsr TO 1aH HUrAz BODY

Old and NeU has put together some
curious stories about injuries to the hu-
body-especially those who are ilustra.
ted q the army museum at Washington.
Explaining why he entities bis articles
"Broken Bones" he says "Broken
English" was the description once applied
by Punch to the victims Of a railway
accident, When sympathzers shipped
to the Texas revolutionists carefully
packed cannon and shell, the bills of
lading described them as Hollow Ware.
So tue meanings of works, however,
common III themselves, depend for force
upon their recipient. To one msn-to
you, it may be, amiable but prosiac
reader" broken bones" may convey
nothing your neighbor in the country
may translate it as a potential fertilizer
TO third party it may suggest much
more than these pages can develop.
An exceedingly curious, and, so far as
it indicates the possibilities OF nature,
instructive specimen, is the following
A soldier was admitted to the hospital
in Baltimore after one of the Virginia
battles, with loss of vision in the right
eye, although the external injury to the
organ was not remarkable. lie could
give no special account Of the wound, OF
Of the course or character of the missile.
" seemed to be one of the ordinary
minor casualties Of battle that occur,
one can not tell exactly how. The LETT
eye was slightly prominent, but its func-
tionst were unimpaired. The wonnd
healed speedily, and the man was per-
mitted to go about the city freely on
hospital pass.
More than two months subsequently
he died after an ilucss of few weeks.
An examintion then showed that a
conoidal ball had entered the skull
| through the right eye, and was firmly
lodged close to and directly behind the
lett eye, part of whose casing was
somewhat broken and displaced and
that nature had thrown out new bone
sufficiently to plaster it in its place, and
to nearly entirely close its orifce of ell
trance. The immediate cause of death
was a small abcess in the brain where its
special covering rested upon the bullet.
But this must have existed only toward
the close of life and one naturally in
quires, "lf bullet can lie for weeks
without occasioning appreciable mischief
or being suspected, why may it not do
80 for months Who can prescribe tn,
limit Of its existence ?"
Some puzzling incidents occasionally
happened. One man had his arm broken
below, and again above his elbow, by
the same bullet which appears strange
until it is known that the limb was bent
ut the time it was struck. A case may
be vouched for where one bullet made
five openings i'll the skin and did not
break bone. In another, ball lodged
in the upper part of the right thigh, and
several months afterward 1t was. cut out
from near the lett knee. A man at Mine
Run had two pocket-knives shattered
aud driven into his thigh. Que hundred
fragments of the knives were removed
during life, and seven after death, o.
which there is little doubt that they, and
not the bullet, were the direct cause. A
Antetam, a soldier received bullet il
his mouth After the same battle,
soldier crouched over loaded shell
cracking nuts upon it his carelessnes
was followed by speedy explosion an'
DEATH
Accidents of this character, due e
ignorance or folly, were not unfrequen
in the war. Ons is described thus: I
soldier attempted TO solve the question
whether shell would go off by placin:
it ON one side of a large tree while he
from the other side, stretching his arm
around and it with hammer, expectin,
to withdraw his hand quickly enough L
avoid injury. The shell and the arm
both went off The writer once saw tw,
infantry soldiers in front oil Richmond
pick up and hurl upon the ground, tey
feet from them, an unexploded shell, L
decide whether it was OF the slime" o
the "gercussion" variety. Kaw soldier
are reckless almost beyond belief.
A lieutenant of Mosby's comman
was captured, wounded, near Harper
Ferry His right arm was broken belo,
the shoulder but the bullet, which ha
not been extracted, could not be found
When he died, several weeks atterwart
the bullet was discovered lodging in tn
spine, one Of the bones which it ha
badly broken, below the level of the e,
ternal wound, where it's presence ha
not been suspected Dy nllnselt or MS al
tendants. Its must, Of couse, have struc
n his arm when it was extended in tn
: same line with the back, and have TO
low its long axis.
, When Sedgwick advanced upon FREQ
: = ericksburg, in May, 1868, one Of his me
| fell without experiencing pain and
! was found that his thigh was broker
He was admitted 10 the hospital i
= Washington Eve days afterward, whe
! there was no external wound of the thigl
= and it was presumed that the injur
: came from spent round shot. He die'
: in about six weeks, and the thigh bon
. was found broken and splintered in tn
middle with a conoidal bullet. itself par
! ly split, lodged A small wound tha
y had long been closed was found near th
= knee and the course OF the ball ha
. been so tortuous that it had collapse
D upon itself, and no discharge had ind
, Gated the track of entrance.