The Civil War U.S Navy--charged with blockading the Southern coast, controlling the Mississippi River, and participating in army-navy operations--faced daunting medical difficulties. These included not only combat injuries, but malaria, yellow fever, and other infectious diseases, all of which threatened to compromise the navy's ability to wage war. The tremendous wartime expansion in naval personnel and vessels outpaced the ability to provide adequate numbers of qualified medical personnel, and the initial absence of Union naval hospitals in the South forced officials to improvise the means to care for the most seriously ill or injured sailors and marines. The wide dispersal of large numbers of vessels and facilities necessitated changes in how supplies were distributed. The U.S. Navy Medical Department responded to these challenges by innovating, calling on other government entities for assistance, and political maneuvering.

How it did so is chronicled here in the first carefully researched work on the topic.