I have a question about the US Civil War.

[JVS]

According to Wikipedia Winfield Scott Hancock suffered "a severe injury caused by a bullet striking the pommel of his saddle, entering his inner right thigh along with wood fragments and a large bent nail." at Gettysburg, but my mom insists that an expert on the topic, now deceased, informed her that the injury was caused by the nail entering his scrotum. Anyone know the truth of this matter?

[Statistical]

1. I don't know but I nominate this as the weirdest question asked on DU.

:rofl: thanks for making my day.

[erwin1230]

14. Hello

I like to know what is real weirdest.Because I don't have any idea about it.
=============

[Toucano]

2. Really? That's a question about the U.S. Civil War? n/t

[femmocrat]

3. Where did the wood and the nail even come from?

Were they in the saddle? Odd......

[dhpgetsit]

8. From the shattered pommel of the saddle, I imagine.

[Tansy_Gold]

9. The saddle frame was probably wood. n/t

[demodonkey]

19. Even today many saddle trees are wood and there are nails in them... nt

[Drale]

4. Thats the funny thing about history

any crazy person can make a claim and it can become well known even with little or no evidence. In this case Wikipedia is correct he was wounded by a bullet and was taken from the field shortly before his old friend General Armistead reached the position.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. Seriously?

Well, I am sure an eyewitness to the event/aftermath will be along shortly to clear this up.

:toast:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. I don't think John McCain posts at DU. -nt

[Condem]

6. The correct answer is from Wikipedia, JVS.

But Winfield "The Superb" survived long enough to pull the noose on the Lincoln conspirators.

[dhpgetsit]

7. Does the truth of the matter matter?

Apparently he continued fighting in spite of his injury and survived the war.

[valerief]

10. Oh, balls, not that question again!

:rofl:

[DeadEyeDyck]

12. He got his nuts nailed to a wall? Ow

[erwin1230]

15. Hello

I can

[provis99]

13. his last name holds the clue.

went through his hand and hit him in the c*ck.

[petronius]

16. Turned his grape shot into minie balls, so to speak?

:shrug:

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. He was a Yankee, was he not?

So naturally I have no information on what's his name....

[struggle4progress]

18. This on 3 July, the third day of the Gettysburg battle, with 45K or 50K casualties?

You suggest a wound that would not have been discussed bluntly in polite company. "Thigh" (of course) might have been a polite euphemism, but it is difficult to imagine that the man would have told such a story on himself in public, and publishers then or later would probably not print such a story about a war hero, so I think it unlikely to appear in anyone's published memoirs of the war

On a less busy day, one might hope to find something in the diary of some physician who treated him, but all the physicians must have been extraordinarily busy on July 3 and perhaps unlikely to notice something as minor as a nail wound, even though the victim was a general, given the number of more serious cases they would have been called to address: they were busy with amputations or men with serious but untreatable wounds

Similarly with anyone who aided him after his injury: if he'd been injured (say) by a sniper on a less busy day, perhaps someone who helped him off the field might have remarked the details of his injury in a diary, but this is a minor incident in the context of 3 July, and I should doubt whether anyone would have written home about it