Christopher C. Frayser.

This is the medical History of Christopher C. Frayer, but its not so much about his wound that interest me, it was the adventures he must have had to take to get too the medical care he needed, I bet his story would have made a good movie or book.

Medical and Surgical history of the War of the Rebellion.

 

CASE A 1 -. Private Christopher C. Frayser, Co. C, 1st Dragoons, aged 22 years, was wounded, May W, 1856, at the Big Bend of Rogue River, in Oregon, in a fight with Indians. Dr. C. II. Crane, U. S. A., reported : " He was struck, at short range, by a large round rifle hall of the so-called Harper s Ferry make. The head of the humerus was fractured, two or three pieces were detached, and the upper part of the shaft of the hone was broken in fragments. It was at first supposed that it would be necessary to amputate at the shoulder joint. But, owing to peculiar circumstances the detachment being surrounded by a large number of Indians, and under fire for thirty hours; and as, furthermore, there was but little hemorrhage, and but alight constitutional disturbance, nothing more was done than to remove all loose fragments of bone, pieces of clothing, and other foreign bodies, and to keep cold-water applications to the wound.

This man continued to do well, and was transported, with other wounded men, by me, in a canoe, for a distance of fifty miles, on a river in which obstructions and rapids were numerous, and he had a rough transit He was then transported over more than fifty miles of precipitous mountain paths, on mule-back, and, three weeks after the reception of the wound, he was placed, in good condition, in the post hospital at Fort Orford, Oregon. I saw him some months subsequently, at Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, and his wound was nearly healed.

He told me that a number of small pieces of bone had come away during the first two months ; and that then the wound had healed. He had some use of his arm when I saw him. I afterward heard that he made a good recovery, and had an excellent use of his arm." Surgeon C. II. Laub, U. S. A., reported, from Fort Vancouver, that this soldier was discharged February 9. 1857. The records of the Pension Office show that he went to his home in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and received his pension. The loss of the records of the Southern pension agencies, after the outbreak of the war, precludes the possibility of tracing the progress of the case. Dr. B. W. Robinson, of Fayetteville, wrote, in 1874, that the man had left that place.