From the Richmond Dispatch, 10/13/1862

Interesting and Successful Surgical Operation. – A young soldier named Wm. H. Ricketts, belonging to the 13th Virginia regiment, was wounded at the battle of Gaines's Mill by a Minie ball passing through and shivering the bone of the upper arm, near the joint, and splitting it into many fragments nearly down to the middle of the arm. He was taken to the Moore Hospital, in this city, and an operation performed, dividing the bone near its middle, and then dissecting it upwards and removing it from its socket at the shoulder. By this means the whole of the remaining arm was left, the operation of amputation at the shoulder avoided, and the patient was left with the perfect use of his fore arm and fingers, and bids fair, in time, to regain the use of the whole arm in a great degree. The operation was performed by Surgeon O. F. Manson, of North Carolina, in charge of the Moore Hospital, and a graduate of the Richmond Medical College.

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