Medical Journal #2
James B. Kennedy

On this occasion the Medical Journal examines the case file of 2^nd Lieutenant Isaac Branson, Co. “E”, 19^th Indiana Infantry Regiment. The 28-year-old Muncie Indiana resident was commissioned as a 2^nd Lieutenant, April 5, 1863, and took his oath of allegiance on May 10, 1863. He would later be promoted to the rank of 1^st Lieutenant on January 8, 1864. Lieutenant Branson received his wound on September 14, 1862, while engaging the troops of General D. H. Hill, C S A, in the fury of South Mountain.

The case file of 2^nd Lieutenant Branson is located under the heading of, “Removal of Fragments After Gunshot Fractures of the Skull.” Page 225.

Case file---- Second Lieutenant Isaac Branson, Co. “E”, 19^th Indiana Volunteers, aged 28 years, was wounded at the Battle of South Mountain, September 14, 1862, by a round musket ball, which entered the mastoid portion (behind the ear and of the air space connecting it to the cavity of the middle ear) of the left temporal bone (either of the bones that make up the cranium) about one and one half inches above and behind the meatus auditorius externus, (the passage leading from the penna of the outer ear to the eardrum) and lodged. After remaining insensible for a few minutes, he attempted to rise, but being unable to control his limbs, he would constantly stumble and fall. He states that he introduced his little finger into the wound more then an inch, and could feel the brain substance. Spiculae (small splinters) of bone were removed. On September 15^th, he was sent to the hospital at Frederick, and thence was transferred, on September 19^th, to the Patent Office Hospital at Washington. The wound being very painful, he did not wish to have it probed, and therefore did not tell the attending surgeon that the ball remained in the wound. Simple dressings were applied. For several weeks he staggered and had fever, but was never delirious. Spiculae of bone continued to come away for several weeks, but the wound healed gradually, and on October 3^rd the patient was sent to New York. He was afterward returned to his regiment, and mustered out on October 23^rd, 1864. Lieut. Branson was examined on March 29^th, 1866, by Dr. G. W. H. Kemper. A prominent scar marks the entrance of the ball, which according to the patient’s belief, remains in the cranium. He is subject to headache in the back part of the head. His intellect does not seem to be impaired. On October 7^th, 1867, Pension Examiner J. C. Helms reports the patient nearly unfit for any business, owing to vertigo, headache, and dizziness. He rates his disability as total and permanent.

Surviving an injury of this nature certainly highlights the amazing recuperative powers of the human body. It would be of interest to examine the pension papers of Lieut. Branson in an attempt to find out how long he lived and what difficulties he faced in his life long misery. Lieut. Branson was certainly not alone in this form of massive injury and for many years after the war the soldiers so afflicted were left in their agony without any form of surgical remedy. Lieut. Branson is a true testament to the iron will and bravery so common to those “Damn Black Hatted Fellers.”

Medical Journal

On this occasion the Medical Journal examines the case file of Private William Bickelkaupt.

Private Bickelkaupt served in Company “F” the “Citizens Corps,” 6^th Wisconsin Infantry. The diminutive 5’ 3”, 24-year-old barber, and resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, enlisted May 10, 1861. Enlisting with Captain W. H. Lindurm at Milwaukee, the native of Damstadt, Germany, Province of Starkenburg, mustered in at Camp Randall, on July 16, 1861.

Private Bickelkaupt’s regimental records indicate the following. The age recorded on the Company “F” muster rolls shows he was aged 24 years, where as the medical case file indicates he was aged 18 years. The regimental muster rolls show he was wounded on August 30^th, 1862, at the Battle of Bull Run, the case file shows he was wounded on August 28, 1862, at Gainsville, Va. It is interesting to note that there are three reports filed by he Adjutant Generals Office and each appear to give a different reflection on the final status of Private Bickelkaupt. The first A.G.O. report states, “August 1862: Killed in action, August 30^th, 1863, Bull Run”, The second report states, “September 1862; since ascertained to be alive.” The third report states, “December 1862:  died October 22, 1862, Washington D. C. of disease.” The regimental “Descriptive Book” shows the following entry: “In battle at Gainsville, --- Shot through the lungs at 2^nd Bull Run, where he died, October 22, 1862, Washington D. C.” The muster out records and Final Statement & Inventory of Effects Report indicate; “Died October 22, 1862, Georgetown Hospital, Wounds received, August 30, 1862. The hospital case file shows that Private Bickelkaupt died October 21, 1862.

Private Bickelkaupt’s medical case file is listed under the heading of Wounds and Injuries of the Chest, Chapter V, page, 618.

Case; --- Private William B------, Co. “F”, 6^th Wisconsin Volunteers, aged 18 years was wounded in which his regiment participated, at Gainsville, August 28, 1862, the first of the series of engagements included under the title of the Second Bull Run. He was shot through the right chest, and was left upon the field for several hours, but was provided shelter at a field station of the First Army Corps. There was not much bleeding; but a frequent painful cough, with bloody sputa (saliva mixed with mucus, coughed up from the respiratory tract.) and dyspnoea, (A labored or difficult breathing) and anxiety, and a quick small pulse. Occasional stimulants, with small anodynes, and cooling drinks, constituted the general treatment, and local treatment consisted in covering the orifices of the wounds with compresses secured by adhesive strips. On September 2^nd, he was placed in an ambulance train, and, after a weary journey, over rough roads, of over thirty miles, he was admitted to College Hospital, Georgetown, September 6, 1862, and according to the memorandum of the Acting assistant Surgeon J. Morris Brown. “with a perforating gunshot wound of the thoracic cavity, (chest) the missile entered on the right side, between the first and second ribs, about one and a half inches from the costal cartilages, passed downward & backword, perforated the right lung, and emerged at the angle of the fifth rib, which it comminuted, (a fracture in which the bone is broken in more then two pieces) besides chipping the sixth. There was effusion (the escape of fluids into the body cavity) of the right pleura; (covering of the lung) sonorous rales; exaggerated breathing; he also spat blood.” The prescription book of the hospital is the only guide to the progress of the case during the six weeks, which elapsed before termination. Death resulted on October 21^st, 1862. The necropsy revealed the track of the ball. The wood cut (not show in this report) represents a preparation of the right lung and of the six ribs of the same side. The lung is collapsed and solidified and the pleura intensely thickened after inflammation, the pleura pulmonalis (visceral layer of the pleura) being about two and a half lines in thickness. There is a corresponding thickening of the costal membrane. The specimen was contributed, with a brief note of the case, by Acting Assistant Surgeon G. K. Smith.

It appears that so many of the Iron Brigade members were forced to suffer long periods of agony due to the wounds they received. A thirty-mile wagon trip, under the road conditions near the Bull Run Battlefield, had to be a journey of immense suffering. One can only wonder at what Private Bickelkaupt endured during the six weeks it took for him to die.

The Roll of Honor, Volume #1, page # 16, shows that Private Bickelkaupt is buried in the Military Asylum Cemetery, Washington, D. C.