- Joined
- Dec 28, 2008
- Location
- Pennsylvania
I'm not positive but ' think ' it was because they thought there was no need Hancock himself first thought he'd been hit with something other than a mini ball. A nail was found in the wound. The ball had torn through Hancock' saddle carrying wood and debris, including a nail into his upper thigh. Having recovered the nail and debris it was expected the wound would heal. When it did not doctors understood more debris required recovering before the wound would heal.
I'm not sure where I heard this, and can't verify that this is true, but I think, in order to correctly find the angle the debris from the saddle went into Hancock's body so he could finally remove the debris and dead bone, the doctor who attended him later, after the war, had him sit on a chair on top of a table--to approximate the height of a horse.