Description of Charles Henry Chesley (1828-1905)

For personal reasons I have been unable to find the time to update my blog for the last three months.  But with the holidays behind us, it is time to fire it up again.

My son was able to make it to Washington D.C., and graciously stopped in at the National Archives to copy off the Civil War pension records for four of our ancestors.  One such record was for my g-g-grandfather Charles H. Chesley, a Private in Company K, 8th Regiment, Illinois.  In the pension records we find the requisite medical report (formally known as "Surgeon's Certificate").  And from the medical report we get the following description --

Upon examination we find the following objective conditions: Pulse rate, 75;  respiration, 18;  temperature, 98 1/2;  height, 5 feet 10 1/2 inches;  weight, 165 pounds; age, 62 years.  Left eye globe collapsed - otherwise in reasonable good condition, the eye totally blind.  Right mucous membrane relaxed areas [     ] of right, eyesight normal.

Rheumatism right shoulder [  ] tender [    ] motion limited because of pain same description of right hip [  ].  No other sign of rheumatism, heart normal.

Supporting documentation appears to indicate he lost his left eye in combat during the Civil War, but I need to transcribe the handwritten documents before I will know for sure.

Copyright © 2011 by Kevin W. Walker