It is alleged in the report of the
committee of the House who reported this bill that he was wounded with
buckshot in the face and head by bushwhackers, when on recruiting
service, on the 23d day of July, 1863. If these dates are correct, he
was wounded before he entered the service; but this fact is not made the
basis of the disapproval of the widow's application for relief. There
seems, however, to be no mention of any such injury during his term of
service, though he is reported sick much of the time when present with
his regiment, and is reported as once in hospital for a disease which,
to say the least of it, can not be recognized as related to the service.
The soldier himself made no application for pension.
A physician testifies that he was present on the 21st day of July, 1873,
when the soldier died; that he examined the body after death, and to the
best of his knowledge such death was caused partially by epilepsy, and
that the epilepsy was the result of "wounds about the face and head
received during his service during the war."
Another physician testifies that the soldier applied to him for
treatment in 1868, and that his disability was the development of
confirmed epilepsy, and he expresses the opinion that this was due to a
wound from a buckshot. This physician, while not giving epilepsy as the
cause of death, says that "had he lived to die a natural death he
certainly would have died an insane epileptic.
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