William Maxwell Wood was an officer and surgeon in the United States Navy in the middle 19th century. He became the First Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy in 1871, with the equivalent rank of commodore. He rose to president of the examining board in 1868 and chief of the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in 1870 following his service in the American Civil War as Fleet Surgeon of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron aboard the USS Minnesota and Medical Officer of the James River Flotilla, participating in several famous Naval battles, and establishing temporary hospitals as needed during the Civil War.

The East India Squadron, or East Indies Squadron, was a squadron of American ships that existed in the nineteenth century. It focused on protecting American interests in the Far East, while the Pacific Squadron concentrated on the western coasts of the Americas and the South Pacific Ocean. Its duties included the Yangtze River Patrol in China. The East India Squadron was established in 1835 and existed until it became part of the Asiatic Squadron in 1868.