"I Am Still in the Land of the Living"
The Medical Case of Civil War Veteran Edson D. Bemis
Spring 2011, Vol. 44, No. 1 | Genealogy Notes
By Rebecca K. Sharp and Nancy L. Wing
On February 5, 1865, Cpl. Edson D. Bemis of Company K, 12th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry received a traumatic head wound from a conoidal musket ball during the Battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia. Surgeon Albert Vanderveer reported on Bemis's condition upon his arrival at the field hospital:
rain matter was oozing from the wound. There was a considerable hemorrhage, but not from any important vessel . . . the right side was paralyzed and there was total insensibility. [After Surgeon Vanderveer removed the musket ball on February 8,] [t]he patient's condition at once improved. He told the surgeon his name, and seemed conscious of all that was going on about him. . . . [During the next] ten days, [Bemis was limited to] answering direct questions, but indisposed to continue a conversation.1
After his release from the hospital, Bemis continued to recover at his home in Massachusetts. Prior to the head wound, Bemis had sustained several other injuries. On July 13, 1865, he was discharged from the Army, and the Army Medical Museum photographed his nearly healed wounds.
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/spring/bemis.html
