Served in Co. D, 183rd Ohio Infantry.
Enlisted at the age of 36 on Oct. 8, 1861.
Died in Cumberland US General Hospital from a gunshot wound to the foot.
Benjamin died during his service with the 183rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company D, in middle Tennessee during the Army's campaign against Confederate General John Bell Hood. He suffered a very unfortunate death. Shot in the foot in lingered in a Nashville hospital until the doctors amputated his big toe. Soon after he suffered muscle spasms, had his lower leg amputated and died the next day.
- -Source Eric Jacobson in his book Baptism of Fire
"Case 16. — Corporal B. Prather, Co. D, 103d Ohio, aged 18 years, was wounded at the battle of Nashville, December 15, 1864, and was admitted to the Cumberland Hospital on the following day. Surgeon B. Clark, U. S. V., reported: "Gunshot wound of right foot, ball entering immediately under the metatarsal bone of the great toe and burying itself in the plantar fascia. The soft parts were remarkably sensitive in the vicinity of the wound, showing a great degree of muscular and nervous irritability. The foot was not swollen, the bones were not fractured, nor the tissues severely lacerated. December 26th, the ball was removed by Acting Assistant Surgeon S. G. Ayres; second operation, exsection of a half inch of the posterior tibial nerve, behind the inner malleolus, by Assistant Surgeon W. B. Trull, U. S. V.; third operation, amputation of the toe, with removal of the first metatarsal bone, by Acting Assistant Surgeon L. E. Tracy. The patient complained, on December 26th, saying that a feeling of stiffness had been coming on for three days, especially in the shoulders, neck, and jaws. The latter gradually closed until it was impossible to introduce food into his mouth. There was a tetanic spasm of the muscles of deglutition, so that the patient was dying from inability to swallow. Chloroform alone seemed to afford temporary relief from his intense sufferings. Relaxation of the jaws was effected by division of the nerve, but the spasms of the muscles immediately returned. At midnight of the 27th, amputation at the lower third of the leg was performed by Acting Assistant Surgeon S. G. Ayres, but without effect. Large opiate injections were afterward given, and the patient obtained sleep. A copious warm perspiration breaking out upon the face and the improved pulse were considered favorable symptoms. Died December 28, 1864." -- The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume) by U. S. Army Surgeon General's Office, 1883.
Served in Co. D, 183rd Ohio Infantry.
Enlisted at the age of 36 on Oct. 8, 1861.
Died in Cumberland US General Hospital from a gunshot wound to the foot.
Benjamin died during his service with the 183rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company D, in middle Tennessee during the Army's campaign against Confederate General John Bell Hood. He suffered a very unfortunate death. Shot in the foot in lingered in a Nashville hospital until the doctors amputated his big toe. Soon after he suffered muscle spasms, had his lower leg amputated and died the next day.
- -Source Eric Jacobson in his book Baptism of Fire
"Case 16. — Corporal B. Prather, Co. D, 103d Ohio, aged 18 years, was wounded at the battle of Nashville, December 15, 1864, and was admitted to the Cumberland Hospital on the following day. Surgeon B. Clark, U. S. V., reported: "Gunshot wound of right foot, ball entering immediately under the metatarsal bone of the great toe and burying itself in the plantar fascia. The soft parts were remarkably sensitive in the vicinity of the wound, showing a great degree of muscular and nervous irritability. The foot was not swollen, the bones were not fractured, nor the tissues severely lacerated. December 26th, the ball was removed by Acting Assistant Surgeon S. G. Ayres; second operation, exsection of a half inch of the posterior tibial nerve, behind the inner malleolus, by Assistant Surgeon W. B. Trull, U. S. V.; third operation, amputation of the toe, with removal of the first metatarsal bone, by Acting Assistant Surgeon L. E. Tracy. The patient complained, on December 26th, saying that a feeling of stiffness had been coming on for three days, especially in the shoulders, neck, and jaws. The latter gradually closed until it was impossible to introduce food into his mouth. There was a tetanic spasm of the muscles of deglutition, so that the patient was dying from inability to swallow. Chloroform alone seemed to afford temporary relief from his intense sufferings. Relaxation of the jaws was effected by division of the nerve, but the spasms of the muscles immediately returned. At midnight of the 27th, amputation at the lower third of the leg was performed by Acting Assistant Surgeon S. G. Ayres, but without effect. Large opiate injections were afterward given, and the patient obtained sleep. A copious warm perspiration breaking out upon the face and the improved pulse were considered favorable symptoms. Died December 28, 1864." -- The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume) by U. S. Army Surgeon General's Office, 1883.
Bio by: Bob & Donna Werner
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