The Medical Environment

of the Ironclad Navy

By Jan K. Herman

Historian, Navy Medical Department

Director, Benjamin Rush Education Center

“David goes out to meet Goliath and every man who can walk to the beach sits down there, spectators of

the first ironclad battle of the world…”

Congress, Cumberland, and Minnesota under attack

Captain John Worden, USN

“Soon, after noon, a shell from the enemy’s gun, the muzzle not ten yards distant, struck the forward side of the pilot’s house directly in the sight hole or slit and exploded, cracking the second iron log and partly lifting the top, leaving an opening.”

A Visit to the Captain’s Cabin

Fighting a Losing Battle

Cumberland vs. Merrimack (1862)

Gundeck of CSS Virginia (or is it Merrimack?)

11-Inch Dahlgrens in Monitor’s Turret

(Aging like a fine wine…or not)

Drug Cabinet

Civil War Surgical Kit

Marvels of

“Modern Medicine”

Ericsson’s Monitor at Sea

Coal Heavers

“Tinclad” with Awning

Ironclads in Storm

Tripolitan Wars

Sea Battle in the Age of Sail

CSS Atlanta Surrenders to USS Nahant

Flight Operations aboard Aircraft Carrier

USS Cairo

Breach-loading Artillery

Gihon’s “Ambulance Cots”

“Great White Fleet”

U.S. Naval Medical School

QUESTIONS

&/or

COMMENTS