Princeton, the
On Feb. 28, 1845, President Tyler lost two of his most trusted cabinet ministers by an accident. The President and all his cabinet, many members of Congress, and other distinguished citizens, with several ladies, were on board the United States steam ship-of-war Princeton, on a trial-trip down the Potomac from Washington. When they were opposite Mount Vernon one of the largest guns of the Princeton, in firing a salute, burst, scattering its deadly fragments around. The Secretary of State, Abel P. Upshur, and Secretary of the Navy, T. W. Gilmer, and David Gardiner, of New York, were killed. No one else was seriously injured.