File:Pvt. Henry D. Fulton (CP 1328), National Museum of Health and Medicine (5964333903).jpg

Pvt. Henry D. Fulton (CP 1328), National Museum of Health and Medicine

Description: Private Henry D. Fulton, Company E, 30th Indiana volunteers, sits showing with part of the humerus excised following a wound received at the battle of Chickamauga, Georgia on September 19th, 1863. Treated by Dr. C.F. Haynes and Dr. E.D. Hudson.

History (from SP 202): "Henry D. Fulton, private Co. E, 30th Indiana Volunteers, was wounded at the battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, September 19, 1863, by a canister shot. The missile entered at the surgical neck of the left humerus, passed upward and backward, comminuted the head of the humerus, and made its exit beneath the base of the acromion. The patient was sent to the Cumberland hospital at Nashville, Tennessee. Extensive exfoliation followed, and abscesses burrowed beneath the clavicle and scapula. On November 1, 1863, Assistant Surgeon C.F. Haynes, U.S.V., excised the head oaf the left humerus, the outer portion of the acromion process, and a portion of the articular surface of the scapula, through a linear incision on the anterior aspect of the arm. The case progressed favorably, suppuration beneath the clavicle and scapula ceased, the external wound cicatrized, and his general health rapidly amended. Unfortunately, firm achylosis took place between the scapula and upper extremity of the humerus, and the muscles of the shoulder wasted from disuse. The patient was transferred to hospital at Madison, Indiana, on March 11, 1864, and was discharged from service April 22, 1864. In September, 1868, this pensioner went to New York, and was provided with an apparatus by Dr. E.D. Hudson, who reported that the shortening of the arm was about half an inch, the motions of the forearm and hand were normal, that the muscles of the shoulder were much atrophied, and that the only motion of the shoulder was the limited movements permitted by the scapula following the humerus. Dr. Hudson was of the opinion that the apparatus which he applied mechanically aided muscular action to a satisfactory degree."

Date: circa 1868

Photo ID: CP 1328

Source collection: OHA 75: Contributed Photographs

Related Material: SP 202

Repository: National Museum of Health and Medicine, Otis Historical Archives