From K. L. Bonnett

Civil War Veteran

Co I 21st Iowa Infantry

From military records:

Barr, Henry.

Age 31. (Note he lied about his age or transcription error) Residence Cascade,Ia Nativity Ohio.

Enlisted Aug. 22, 1862.

Mustered Aug.23, 1862.

Wounded May 17, 1863, Black River Bridge, Miss.

Discharged for wounds April 6, 1864, Memphis, Tenn.

In "The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion," Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume) by the U. S. Army Surgeon General's Office, 1883, there is a full treatise by his doctor on the treatment of his wound (a bullet about 3 inches below the knee and the ensuing gangrene). The treatments over a period of months were quite gruesome and primitive since antibiotics did not exist. He left the service as an invalid on Civil War pension. His age in that treatise was identified as 43 years. (excerpt below)

"Case 74. — Private H. Barr, Co. I, 21st Iowa, aged 43 years, was wounded at the Black River Bridge, May 17, 1863, and was transferred from a field hospital to Memphis, two weeks after the injury. Acting Assistant Surgeon W. M. Dorran contributed the following history: "He received a flesh wound of the right leg, the hall entering about two inches below the head of the fibula, external aspect, passing inward and downward behind the bones of the leg. and escaping three inches below the head of the tibia, internal aspect. On June 4th, he was admitted into the Jackson Hospital, in this city...October 1st, Wound almost completely healed, and patient able to walk about." He was discharged April 6, 1864, and pensioned. Examiner R. S. Lewis, of Dubuque, Iowa, certified, June 16, 1864: "The right leg has been pierced by a ball about three inches below the knee, * * * followed by gangrene; is still discharging, leaving the limb useless." This pensioner was last paid September 4, 18C8, since when he has not been heard from."