American Historical Ephemera & Photography

2 x 3 1/4 in. albumen photograph on cardstock mount (toning, spotting, and wear/discoloration to edges and corners). Kurtz's imprint and pencil identification on mount recto. A uniformed Barnum stands in profile to show the device threaded through his abdomen to drain his wound.

After a musket ball went through his left hip at the Battle of Malvern Hill on 1 July 1862, Barnum was believed to be dead and thus was left behind by withdrawing federal troops. He survived, however, to be captured the next day and taken to Libby Prison, where he remained for more than two weeks. After being exchanged, Barnum recovered well enough to return to the war, serving in the 149th New York Infantry. He went on to see the Battle of Gettysburg, receive the Medal of Honor, and sustain additional wounds at the Battles of Lookout Mountain and Peachtree Creek, but his original wound continued to plague him, resulting in further treatment including the insertion of oakum string and rubber drainage tubes into the hole in his abdomen. He wore the tubes the rest of his life, until he died of pneumonia in 1892. After his death, Barnum's hip bone was extracted and donated to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, where it is curated today.