Lieutenant William G. Tracy was severely wounded at the Battle
Lieutenant William G. Tracy was severely wounded at the Battle
Lieutenant William G. Tracy was severely wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville 160 years ago on May 2, 1863 and transported to a US Army field hospital. He received surgical care three days later.
A photograph and detailed record of Captain Tracy's treatment and recovery was collected by the Army Medical Museum during the Civil War and is preserved today by our friends at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
“Captain W.G. Tracy, Aid-de-Camp of General Slocum, aged twenty, was wounded in the right arm at the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 2, 1863..... Read story
The injury was caused by a musket ball, which passed through, postero-anteriorly, above the elbow-joint, producing two complete fractures through the articulation and shattering the bone above the joint. The nerves escaped being injured.
On May 5th Surgeon H.E. Goodman, 28th Pennsylvania, assisted by Surgeon R.W. Pease, 10th New York Cavalry, excised four and a half inches of the lower extremity of the humerus.
A good recovery followed, and on August 15, 1863, Captain Tracy was able to return to the field, his wound being perfectly healed, but the bones remaining ununited. He continued to serve on the staff of General Slocum until after the termination of the war and was finally mustered out October 13, 1865, and pensioned.
In a communication, sent by him in April, 1866, he stated that his arm had become shortened about three inches, but that the muscles never withered away and the sensation of the limb remained perfect. He also mentioned that he can write as well as ever, though experiencing some difficulty in raising the arm.
In October, 1875, when the photograph was taken, Mr. Tracy was in good health, and the usefulness of his mutilated limb had in no wise deteriorated. The excised bone constitutes specimen 1155 of the Surgical Section of the Museum.”
Tracy was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Chancellorsville where he nearly lost his life. He passed away in 1924 in his hometown of Syracuse, New York at the age of 82.
(Photograph: Captain Tracy in 1864 - National Museum of Health and Medicine, Otis Historical Archives - Accessed through Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Capt._W.G._Tracy_(CP_1544),_National_Museum_of_Health_and_Medicine_(4821331273).jpg)
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