In this excellent Flickr set of photos from the National Museum of Health & Medicine, I found this painting of "Private Eben E. Smith, Co. A, 11th Maine, [who] was wounded at Deep Bottom, Virginia, August 16, 1864 by a musket ball through the right leg."


An account of Smith's injuries and treatment appeared in A Report on Amputations at the Hip-Joint in Military Surgery, published in 1867. The website of The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War notes that Smith beat the odds:

The surgeon noted that he had an amputation of the right thigh on account of gunshot facture and subsequent necrosis of the femur, he suffered 3 amputations to his right leg. In Eric Carver M.D.'s paper "Orthopaedics During the Civil War," on page 6, he states that there were 66 Union soldiers who had an amputation at the hip joint. Of those 66 cases, 55 resulted in death, for a 88% fatality rate.

Eben was the son of Moses and Christiana (Haslem) Smith, born a twin 30 March 1845 in Eastbrook, Hancock County, Maine. He lived for a time in Wisconsin, but returned to Maine to marry Rachel E. (French) Dyer of Sullivan, 24 Nov. 1898. He had one step-daughter, but fathered no children of his own. He died 18 Aug. 1921, and was buried in Bayview Cemetery, Franklin.