Spring 1776 - Surgeon General’s War Report ~ The Wounds of Benedict Arnold

Fellow Surgeons:

            By this occasion you have undoubtedly heard of the wounding of our Colonel, Benedict Arnold, on the last day of 1775 during the invasion of Quebec.  His injury occurred while he was leading his troops in the invasion of Quebec City.  Alas, we also lost General Montgomery as he endeavored to mount one of the city walls on a makeshift ladder and was shot dead in the spot.

            But more to Colonel Arnold’s miraculously benevolent wound, being shot in his left leg.  The Americans had been “repulsed with slaughter” according to British General Carleton.  The snow impeded all movements having reached a height of about six feet.  The patriots suffered 461 casualties including 30 killed and 42 wounded; the British had only five deaths and 41 wounded. 

            During the fray, a musket ball entered Arnold’s left leg causing bleeding and rendering him very weak.  The ball had been cleft by a third after probably coming in contact with a cannon, a rock or stone before it entered his leg.  The remaining two thirds entered the outer side of the leg, about midway and in an oblique course passed between the tibia and fibula and lodged in the gastrocnemius  muscle which forms the calf.  The musket ball was discovered at the rise of the Achilles tendon where it could be easily removed.

            Colonel Arnold was lucky to avoid a more serious injury, as example to the joint, the bones or the nerves of the leg. He hobbled about for a month thereafter upon which he was completely healed. May we all be so fortunate as Surgeon Isaac Senter to be able to heal our patients with all due care.

—————————————————

Howard, M The Fevered Fight, Pen and Sword Military, Philadelphia, 2023, p 83.