The Pelvic Wound of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

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When you say taking credit are you referring to political actions or goals or speaking of his service in the Army?
He was a h#lluva soldier, but also didn't mind telling you about it either and because he was highly educated and intelligent his version of events seemed to be taken as gospel, even if he stretched the truth a bit.
 
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Diane, can you link those diagrams to this forum? I'd be interested in seeing them. Thanks.

I can't even put up an avatar! :nah disagree: Need a scanner - they were in a medical journal dealing with pelvic injuries. I found them at the university. I'll see if I can relocate them and maybe the folks at the library there can link them up. Don't hold me to it, though - might not be able to get back there for a while. They are very interesting and really should be on this thread. Somewhere on the internet is a very basic one showing the trajectory of the bullet but not all the stuff it went through.
 
I was going to ask Diane the same thing! I haven't been able to find a way to post the individual pictures, so, thanks to Andy Hall for providing the following link to the entire medical journal article that I quoted in part above...
http://deadconfederates.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/lion-of-the-union.pdf

Thanks! That is the photo I was mentioning - showing the trajectory. What I had been reading in the library was detailed with the organs involved and so forth. I will make an extra effort to get back there and get it up but don't nobody hold their breath! :frantic:
 
After reading the h#ll Chamberlain went through from 1864 through the rest of his life, I'd be a little protective of my legacy too. "I should be dead and it would have been for you. I'll tell me story any darn way that I please."

Talking about groundbreaking...these doctors rewired a man's bowels and excretory circuit board with sticks, picks and tricks...and he lived!!! Wow!!!
 
GRAPHIC

Medical/Surgical History--Part II, Volume II
Chapter VII.--Injuries Of The Pelvis.
Section III.--On Injuries Of The Genital Organs.

CASE 1056.--Colonel Joshua L. C----, 20th Maine, was wounded at Petersburg, June 17, 1864, and taken to the hospital of the 1st division, Fifth Corps. Surgeon W. R. DeWitt, jr., U. S. V., reported that "a conoidal ball penetrated both hips, and was extracted," and that Surgeon M. N. Townsend, 44th New York, was detailed to accompany the patient to City Point, when, by direction of Surgeon E. B. Dalton, U. S. V., he was placed on the hospital transport Connecticut and conveyed to Annapolis, and promoted Brigadier-General of Volunteers and Brevet Major-General. Surgeon B. A. Vauderkieft, U. S. V., reported that he "reached the hospital at that place very comfortably on June 20, 1864, with a shot wound involving both buttocks and the urethra." The progress and treatment does not appear on the hospital case-books, but in a letter to Surgeon J. H. Brinton, U'. S. V., September 4, 1864, Dr. Vanderkieft states: "I send you a catheter used by Brigadier-General J. L. C ., U. S.V. As you will perceive, it is covered by a calculous deposit. This catheter was but five days in the bladder, and was repeatedly covered in the same way. I think it a very important specimen, illustrating the necessity of often renewing cathethers when they are to be used à demeurc. The history you shall get when the patient is discharged." The specimen referred to is accurately represented, of half size in the wood-cut (FIG. 256). The patient was furloughed September 20, 1864, and mustered out January 15, 1866, and pensioned. The promised report of the case was not received. From Pension Examiner O. Mitchell's report, September 18, 1873. it appears that "the ball entered the right hip in front of and a little below the right trochanter major, passed diagonally backward, and made exit above and posteriorly to the left great trochanter. The bladder was involved in the wound at some portion, as the subsequent history of escape of urine from the track of the wound and its extravasation testified. He very often suffers severe pain in the pelvic region. The chief disability resulting indirectly from the wound is the existence of a fistulous opening of the urethra, half :m inch or more in length, just anterior to the scrotum; this often becomes inflamed. The greater part of the urine is voided through the fistula, the fistula itself resulting from the too long or too continuous wearing of a catheter. No change has resulted since the last examination; disability total." This invalid was paid to June 4, 1873, at $30 a month.


M. E. Wolf
 
:rofl:

NathanB1, ma'am--at least we don't have 'said' wound to contend with. :smile coffee: General Chamberlain suffered to his dying day of that wound.

M. E. Wolf
Wow, and, I don't imagine the $30/month pension did much to ease the "very often severe pain in the pelvic region", did it? I admit I have a new found admiration for General Chamberlain and what he endured.
 
Yes it was a terrible wound and Chamberlain carried and dealt with the pain and discomfort long after the war ended. Chamberlain was a brave educated man but not a West Pointer. I thought it was very fitting that Gordon and Chamberlain were present for the formal surrender of the ANV in April. Neither man was a West Pointer but both were very accomplished effective officers who saw plenty of combat and both were wounded.
 
Sorry for being the newbie who bumps up old threads.:unsure:
There is a drawing of the catheter in the book quoted above.
http://www.joshualawrencechamberlain.com/medicalhistory.php
I also created the Wiki for Dr Shaw and included a picture of a similar one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_O._Shaw
I can't be sure that he wore the catheter his whole life, the one mentioned above was made out of metal.
They did start making rubber ones that could be hooked to a
urinal, it is possible he used that at some point. Some historians have said he used absorbent cloth.
I haven't found a document that would prove that one way or another.
But, either way, as a doctor who treated him said,
The agony which was caused by the exposure of ten thousand loops of nerves in the track of the wound to the fluids passing over the surface can hardly be appreciated. In bearing this silently while performing all his exacting duties there was shown more heroism than in gaining the military promotions which he so valiantly earned.
 
I can't recall where I heard this, but I heard that when the surgeons asked if they should continue the surgery, Chamberlain begged them to shoot him. They refused, and, ultimately, the surgery was successful.
 
I can't recall where I heard this, but I heard that when the surgeons asked if they should continue the surgery, Chamberlain begged them to shoot him. They refused, and, ultimately, the surgery was successful.
Can't say I ever heard that he asked them to shoot him. I have heard people say that he begged them to continue when they stopped. However I haven't found proof of that. The 44th New York, Dr. Townsend's regiment recounts,
During one of these attempts on the enemy's works Col. Joshua L Chamberlain of the 20th Me, commanding the 1st Brigade received a severe and apparently fatal wound. Held in high esteem, extraordinary efforts were made by a number of surgeons to save his life. His proper treatment at the time and his recovery later, constitute a high testimonial to the skill and devotion to duty of our own much esteemed surgeon M.W. Townsend, who after many efforts, assisted by other surgeons, to do a particularly difficult bit of surgery and the abandonment of the effort as useless and only distressing to the patient, turned back again for still another effort. This time good fortune rewarded intelligent persistence severed parts were artificially connected and to the great joy of patient and surgeon there was a possibility of recovery.
Chamberlain in his own account remembers Dr Townsend saying, "Its is of no use, Doctor; he cannot be saved. I have done all possible for man. Let us go, and not torture him longer." to which Dr. Shaw of the 20th Maine replied, "Just once more, Doctor, let me try just this once more, and I will give it up."
 
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