USS Princeton accident

Memories of an exploding gun aboard the USS Princeton in 1844--in which the Secretary of State, a senator, and several other bystanders were killed or injured--was still fresh.  Had the Monitor used full-weight charges, there is little doubt that the Virginia would not have survived the fight.

If this first great combat between the ironclads ended in a draw, war at sea had changed forever and with it the practice of naval medicine.  Indeed, some of what I am about to relate to you should come as no surprise.  Prior to the ironclad, the type of medicine practiced by navy surgeons during the war--both North and South--was quite similar to the medical care their Army colleagues delivered on the battlefield.