1865 — Smallpox, esp. NY City/<664, Philadelphia/524, SC/GA/FL Sea Islands--2,500-2,510
–2,500-2,510 Blanchard[1] tally based on locality breakouts below. [2]
Summary of Breakout of 1865 Smallpox by State
Alabama ( 101) Mobile
Arkansas ( ?) Cases Reported
Florida ( ?) Cases Reported
Georgia ( >96) Augusta
Illinois ( 119) Alton Prison for Confederates Jan-March; Chicago
Indiana ( 1) Logansport
Louisiana ( <35) New Orleans
New York (664-674) New York City
Pennsylvania ( 524) Philadelphia
Sea Islands ( >800) Off SC, GA, and FL Coasts Late Nov-Early Dec
South Carolina ( 146) Especially Charleston
Texas ( >3) Marlin
Virginia ( ?) Cases reported in Petersburg and Richmond
Wisconsin ( >10) Wolf Creek Menominee Native Settlement
Breakout of 1865 Smallpox Fatalities by State and Locality (where noted):
Alabama ( 101) Mobile
— 1 Cahawba, Nov 25. 2d. Lt. John Merrill. Rice. Peoria City and County, Illinois. V1, p. 226.
–100 Mobile. (500-600 cases) Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History.[3]
— ? Montgomery. Rockingham Register, Harrisonburg VA. “Small-Pox in Ala.” 11-17-1865, 3
Arkansas
— ? Kotar, S. L. and J. E. Gessler. Smallpox: A History. McFarland, 2013, p. 165.[4]
Florida
–? Tallahassee. Daily Milwaukee News, WI. “From Cairo.” 12-16-1865, p. 1.[5]
Georgia ( >96) Augusta
–>96 Blanchard tally of smallpox deaths reported in Augusta and Savannah.[6]
— ? Andersonville Prison. 74 prisoners reported in Smallpox Hospital, as of March 26.[7]
–82 Augusta. Jones. Contagious and Infectious Diseases… 1884, p. 211.
–74 Blacks
— 8 Whites
— ? Macon. Kotar, S. L. and J. E. Gessler. Smallpox: A History. McFarland, 2013, p. 165.[8]
–14 Savannah. Jones. Contagious and Infectious Diseases… 1884, 205.[9]
Illinois ( 119) Alton Prison for Confederates Jan-March; Chicago
— ? Athens, Menard Co. Alton Telegraph, IL. “News Items.” 12-1-1865, p.2, col. 3.[10]
–62 Alton Military Prison for Confederate Prisoner’s of War. Kempland 2004.[11]
–57 Chicago. U.S. National Board of Health. Annual Report of…1883, p. 134.[12]
Indiana ( 1) Logansport
–? Lafayette, Feb 14. A few cases reported. New Albany Daily Ledger, IN. 2-14-1865, p. 2.
–1 Logansport. Nov. Logansport Journal, IN. “City Council.” 11-18-1865, p3, c. 3.[13]
Louisiana ( <35) New Orleans
–>35 New Orleans. New York Times. “New Orleans…Health of the City.” 3-26-1865, p. 2.[14]
Maryland, Annapolis. ? Rockingham Register & Advertiser, Harrisonburg VA. 12-8-1865. 4[15]
New York (>664-674)[16] New York City
–674 NY City. Condran. “Changing Patterns of Epidemic Disease in New York City,” 31.[17]
–674 Rosner, David. Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in [NYC]. 1995, 31.[18]
–664 NYC Dept. of Health…Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics 2009. Dec 2010.[19]
Pennsylvania ( 524) Philadelphia
–524 Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia. First An. Msg.…Mayor…Philadelphia… 1907, p. 99.[20]
–524 Philadelphia. Henry. Standard History…Medical Profession…Philadelphia. 1897, 277.
Sea Islands ( >800) Off SC, GA, and FL Coasts Late Nov-Early Dec
–>800 Late Nov-Early Dec. Downs. “Freed Slaves Battle Small Pox and Other Diseases.”[21]
South Carolina ( 146) Charleston and Hilton Head Island
— 1 Beaufort Smallpox Hospital. Price, Henry F. March 9. Heritage Library, Hilton Head. P49
–138 Charleston. — Jones. Contagious and Infectious Diseases. 1884, p. 203,[22] 205.
— 7 Hilton Head Island. Heritage Library, Hilton Head Island, SC. “Individuals Who Died…”
–Bates, Pvt. Delos R. NY 144th Infantry. Feb 1. P. 3.
–Griffin, Pvt. Joseph. USCT 21st Infantry. March 9, USA Smallpox Hospital. P. 22.
–Jones, Pvt. George W. NH 4th Division Infantry. March 31. P. 33.
–Jones, Cpl. Samuel. USCT 21st Infantry, Dec 27, in USA Smallpox Hospital. P. 33.
–Middleton, Sgt. London. USCT 21st Infantry. Dec 20, in USA Smallpox Hospital. P. 42.
–Steel, Sgt. John W. MO 29th Infantry. March 6, USA General Hospital. P. 57.
–Wilson, Pvt. Abram (Abraham). CTR 103rd Infantry. USA General Hospital, p. 66.
Tennessee, Nashville ? Janesville Gazette, WI. 11-25-1865, p. 1.[23]
Texas ( >3) Marlin
— >3 Marlin, Falls County. Galveston Weekly News, TX. “West and South” 11-15-1865, 2.[24]
Virginia ( >1) Petersburg and Richmond
–? Petersburg. Kotar, S. L. and J. E. Gessler. Smallpox: A History. 2013, p. 165.[25]
–? Richmond. NY Times. “Small-Pox in Richmond—Orders for Vaccination.” 5-8-1865, p. 4.[26]
–1 Richmond, Howard’s Grove Hospital, March 19. Pvt. William F. Cole.[27]
Wisconsin, Wolf Creek Menominee Native Settlement (>10)
—>10 Jensen. Calling This Place Home: Women…Wisconsin Frontier, 1850-1925. 2006, 275[28]
Narrative Information
Alabama
Oct 27 report: “It is useless to disguise the fact that the small-pox is gradually, but surely, spreading itself throughout this city — not only amongst the colored population, but also among the whites. We have heard from undoubted authority that convalescent patients who have been afflicted with it, have appeared in our most crowed thoroughfares. Numbers of the prisoners in the jail have been attacked with it and sent to the hospitals in the suburbs to be properly treated. We understand that there is not at this time any good vaccine matter in the city, but physicians, we imagine, will soon obviate this difficulty. — Montgomery (Ala.) Mail, Oct. 27.” (Rockingham Register, Harrisonburg, VA. “Small-Pox in Alabama.” 11-17-1865, p. 3, col. 4.)
Arkansas
Oct 28 report: “Headquarters Post of Little Rock, Little Rock, Arks., October 28th, 1865. General Orders No. 11.
“1. The prevalence and rapid spread of the Small-Pox throughout the City, principally among the Colored population, renders necessary the following regulations:
“1st. A Medical Officer, specially detailed for the purpose, will visit all the localities where the disease is known to exist or where it may be suspected of existing, to cause the removal of all persons having the disease, to vaccinate such as are directly exposed to the disease, and to direct and enforce the necessary measures for the purification of premises, such as ventilation, white-washing, airing of bedding, clothing, &c. Persons neglecting or refusing to comply with the directions of the visiting Surgeon, will be summarily dealt with.
“2d. The lime required for white washing can be obtained by application to the Quarter master’s
Department, and will be furnished gratuitously.
“II. It is earnestly enjoined on all citizens to aid by rigid policing, white washing, etc., in getting rid of this loathsome disease.
“By command of Maj. Gen. Th. J. Wood
Geo. W. McDiarmid, Captain and A. A. A. G.,
Oct. 31, 1865.” (Little Rock Daily Gazette. 11-3-1865, p. 2, col. 2.)
Georgia
“New York, Nov. 15. – The Herald’s Washington special says…In Georgia there is a gradual spreading of the small pox among the colored people. Larger cities, like Macon and Augusta, are being most infected. The want of medical men among the blacks is very great, and the medical director of the bureau [Freedman’s] suggests that the efforts of the humanitarian societies of the north cannot be better directed than in sending medical practitioners into the southern states under the auspices of the bureau.” (Daily Milwaukee News, WI. “Mortality Among the Negroes.” 11-17-1865, p. 1.)
New York
Jan 17: “New York, Jan. 17, 1865. The small-pox continues to create much anxiety, not to say excitement, in South Brooklyn, and in some portions of Williamsburg. It is said to have been brought there by soldiers recently discharged from the hospitals.” (Philadelphia Inquirer. “From New York.” 1-18-1865, p. 8.)
Jan 29: “The condition of the city in the matter of small-pox, requires immediate and vigorous attention by the authorities. More than forty deaths by this disease were reported for a recent week, and, allowing twelve cases for each death, we should have some five hundred cases for a single week. This, we are convinced, is a low estimate — the number is much nearer one thousand. There is not a school in which children of the laboring classes attend, where a number of cases are not reported; the tenement-houses are full of it, as any dispensary visitor will inform one; the Small-pox Hospital is crowded to overflowing. We hear of the disease on every hand; and yet, as is well known, the relatives of the persons diseased will seldom report them as cases of small-pox, on account of the odium it excites in the tenement-houses, and the fear of their removal to the public hospitals. All the poorer parts of the city we believe now to be more or less infected with this pest. And it appears we are spreading it to the country and the army.
“Prof. F.H. Hamilton, in his new Treatise on Military Surgery and Hygiene, says: ‘In our armies small-pox is almost constantly present, and nothing but the most vigilant attention to vaccination could have prevented its rapid extension. In 1862, contractors were in the habit of sending their cloth into all the pestiferous dens of New-York to be made up, and from that source the small-pox was frequently introduced into the army.’….” (NYT. “The Small-pox Precautions.” 1-29-1865, 4.)
March 26: “The bill to prevent small-pox, reported by Dr. RICHARDSON, from the Committee of public Health, has encountered, what appears to me, a most ridiculous opposition on the part of BURDETT, of Otsego, and a few other members. The bill makes it the duty of every person in this State to be vaccinated, unless that operation has been performed within five years, the only penalty being that if he neglects to do so, in case he has the small-pox, he shall be isolated from his fellows — quarantined in a pest-house. Some other provisions are attached for the purpose of carrying the above provision into effect, prescribing the duty of physicians. Boards of Health, &c. Now, it seems to my unsophisticated reflections that this bill, plain and simple in its provisions, is just what is needed. If faithfully carried out, it would exterminate one of the most loathsome of diseases, which is now afloat in the air of all our cities, which is peddled from house to house, retailed in ready-made clothing and other articles made up in dwellings where the infection rages, and propagated everywhere solely, or mainly, at least, from a neglect to apply the discovery of the immortal JENNER.
“But the bill is opposed by sturdy sticklers for the ‘immunities of citizens.’ They argue that the Legislature has no right to require people to be vaccinated, or to shut up infected persons where they cannot peril others. These doughty champions of freedom stand up for the inalienable right of every man to take the small-pox; they insist that he should not be deprived of the inestimable privilege of keeping the small-pox as long as he desires, to have it lying around loose, and to give it to as many others as he many possibly bestow it upon. In short, the whole argument is that the bill is an arbitrary interference with the right of the people in the matter of this contagion. Perhaps your readers can appreciate the force of this position, but I confess myself so obtuse as not to “see it.” I fear, however, that this exalted idea of human rights will result in the defeat of a bill which the united voice of all who have investigated the subject, including all the medical profession of our large cities, has declared to be an imperative necessity, demanded by every consideration of concern for human life, health or happiness.” (New York Times. “Affairs at Albany…Small-pox Bill, &c.” 3-26-1865, p. 5.)
April 29: “From the report lately presented to the Legislature by the Committee on Public Health, on the subject of small-pox, and the legislation requisite for its prevention, it appears that the disease certainly exists in this city, and that there is no adequate legal power to prevent its spreading. The report shows that persons taken with this disease are allowed to travel in the cars and stages which are constantly running in the principal thoroughfares; that strangers taken sick at the hotels or boarding-houses are removed to the Small-pox Hospital in covered carriages, which perhaps the next hour are occupied by the wives and families of citizens; and that at some of the hotels strangers are put into rooms and beds occupied the night before by small-pox patients.
“Dr. SMITH, of New-York, testified before the committee that at some time during the past year there were discovered six hundred and forty-four cases of small-pox. It is said that in a building adjoining the largest wholesale dry goods store on the American continent, the small-pox has existed and propagated itself for the last nine months. This den is situated in the busiest part of the city, in the immediate vicinity of West Broadway and Chambers-street, and within a stone’s throw of the largest passenger railroad depot in the city.
“The report also contains the following:
“Another very common mode by which the disease is propagated and spread broadest over the land and in our armies, is by the ready-made clothing trade. It is no uncommon thing for the physician, who is called to see a patient with small-pox, to find the child covered with an unfinished garment that the mother has taken home from the shop to make. Is it, then, a matter of surprise that our soldiers as well as citizens throughout the country, without any known exposure, are so often attacked by this terrible disease?”
“Dr. JONES, City Physician of Brooklyn, speaking of his efforts to prevent small-pox in Brooklyn, says:
“In many places visited I found large amounts of clothing, principally from New-York, such as coats, pants and vests, in numbers say from one to six dozen in each place, in the hands of workmen to make up for the large clothing establishments of New-York and elsewhere; I have seen children thickly covered with small-pox pustules lying on the shop-board with a lot of such goods serving them as pillows. I have found them in cribs, on cradles or beds, temporized on chairs, covered with these goods as with quilts. I have found in a number of instances small-pox matter in many places deposited on these goods.”
“Dr. Jones remarks further:
“I have known coachmen, car conductors and drivers, washer-women and house-cleaners to go direct from the sick to their several daily vocations, washer-women to bring soiled clothes and wash and iron them in the same room with the sick, to take clothes from the bodies and beds of the sick into their homes in large tenement houses to, as they term it, ‘do up.’
I have known milliners and mantua-makers to receive their customers in a room adjoining which would lay a case of small-pox. In all such and many other cases that might be cited, proper measures have been adopted to protect the community.
We have in this city a number of small retail stores; many of the owners thereof, with their families, large or small, as the case may be, occupy rooms and live on the same floor where the store is kept. In some instances I have found a store in front, a sleeping room or apartment made by a board partition reaching only half way to the ceiling, and to the rear of this a place which answered for kitchen, dining, sitting and general living room.
In the beds I have found, in some instances, as many as three cases of small-pox; in one instance I found three in one bed sick with small-pox, and in the general room one dead of the same disease, several neighbors sitting therein, and the family dining in the store. In passing from the general room to the store you came in direct contact with the sick, the wooden partitions reaching only half way to the ceiling; one atmosphere was common to all places on that floor; in such a place as this customers were received in a poisoned atmosphere, waited upon by persons direct from the bedside of the sick or dead, and supplied with goods capable of infecting hundreds. I have even found children sick with this disease lying under the counter over which the mother was waiting upon and selling goods to a customer.”
“The prophylactic against small-pox is vaccination; but this end cannot be attained except through the agency of strong laws energetically enforced.
“Dr. J.G. BALFOUR, of Chelsea, England, remarks that, “although it has been abundantly proved that vaccination will prevent small-pox, yet it is now generally admitted that its protecting influence is not of life-long duration, but that it diminishes in proportion to the lapse of time from the vaccination, until it has been several times repeated, or until the system has been so thoroughly infected with the vaccine poison that it will then act as a permanent protection equally as well as if the person had previously suffered from the small-pox itself.
“The bill drawn and presented to the Assembly by Dr. RICHARDSON, making vaccination compulsory, was defeated on the third reading. It is to be hoped that statistics of the disease will be carefully preserved during the present year, so that an appeal may be made to the Legislature of 1866, which it will not venture to disregard.” (New York Times. “The Prevention of Small-Pos; Propagation of the Disease; Startling Facts.” 4-29-1865, p. 2.)
North Carolina and Sea Islands off SC, GA and FL
Downs: “By early autumn of 1865, the virus reached Washington, N.C., and infected well over 300 freed people in one week. In the Sea Islands, where former Confederate doctors joined the fight to halt the virus, it killed roughly 800 freed people a week in November and December. Yet in the fall of 1865, when Bureau physicians began to report the increasing cases of smallpox, neither the Freedmen’s Bureau nor the medical profession classified smallpox as an epidemic. James E. Yeatman, president of the Sanitary Commission, recognized the need for the government to declare an epidemic when he arrived at Camp Benton, Mo. He explained to military authorities, “Small-pox has had its appearance at several posts and in one of our hospitals; every precaution has been taken to prevent it from spreading, but, in order to arrest and mitigate the horrors of this dreaded disease it is necessary that some obligatory order be issued to colonels of regiments, holding them responsible for the prompt execution of the same.” Military and government leaders failed to enact a similar order for the freed people.
Wisconsin
Jensen: “The following year, in 1865, smallpox ravaged the settlement. The Dousmans closed their schools as the quarantine rules required. Most non-Christians left the community, scattering to live in the forests, but the new priest, the fourth since 1852, insisted the Christians stay, congregate for Mass, and bury their dead from the church. When the Christian death toll continued to mount and the priest till refused to enforce the quarantine rules or prohibit public gatherings, the government ordered him to leave. The remaining Catholics scattered to the forests.”[29]
Sources:
Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History. “Smallpox.” Submitted by K. Torp. 2013. Accessed 8-25-2013 at: http://genealogytrails.com/ala/epidemics.html
City of Philadelphia. First Annual Message of John E. Reyburn, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia with the Annual Reports of the Departments of Public Health and Charities, Supplies, Public Education, Law, City Controller, City Treasurer, Commissioners of the Sinking Funds, Receiver of Taxes, and Board of Revision of Taxes for the Year Ending December 31, 1907 (Vol. III). Philadelphia: Dunlap Printing Co., 1908. Google digitized. Assessed 12-5-2012: http://books.google.com/books?id=0ihNAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Downs, Jim. “Freed Slaves Battle Small Pox and Other Diseases,” Historynet.com, originally published in Civil War Times, June 2013, adapted from his book: Sick From Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering During the Civil War and Reconstruction. Oxford University Press, 2012. Accessed 11-21-2019 at: https://www.historynet.com/dying-to-be-free.htm
Green, Arthur E. Mobile Confederates From Shiloh to Spanish Fort: The Story of the 21st Alabama Infantry Volunteers. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2012, p. 84. Google preview accessed 11-22-2019 at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=IUJ6SIV3nHMC&ppis=_e&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Henry, Frederick P. (ed.). Standard History of the Medical Profession of Philadelphia. Chicago: Goodspeed Brothers, 1897. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=uMI0AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Heritage Library, Hilton Head Island, SC. “Individuals Who Died on Hilton Head, South Carolina, During the Civil War, As Listed in Known Burial Orders and the Roll of Honor Buried in the Government Cemetery on Hilton Head Island. Accessed 11-22-2019 at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5802c4d9414fb5e45ce4dc44/t/5a4abef671c10bd7b359a046/1514847996024/Individuals+Who+Died.pdf
Jensen, Joan M. Calling This Place Home: Women on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1850-1925. Minnesota Historical Society, 2006. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Rcd8NGg6PZQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Jones, Joseph, M.D., President of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana. Contagious and Infectious Diseases, Measures for Their Prevention and Arrest. Small Pox (Variola); Modified Small Pos (Varioloid); Chicken Pox (Varicella); Cow Pox (Variola Vaccinal): Vaccination, Spurious Vaccination Illustrated by Eight Colored Plates (Circular No. 2, Prepared for the Guidance of the Quarantine Officers and Sanitary Inspectors of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana.). Baton Rouge: Leon Jastremski, State Printer, 1884. Accessed 2-12-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=3VTboPycbBgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Kempland. Phil. “Confederate POW Burials on Smallpox Island, West Alton, IL.” Usgwarchives.net. Accessed 11-17-2019 at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/civilwar/smallpox.htm
Kotar, S. L. and J. E. Gessler. Smallpox: A History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013. Partially Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=SldbwtGwVFcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics 2009 The City of New York. Dec 2010. Accessed 12-4-2012: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/vs/2009sum.pdf
New York Times. “Affairs at Albany…Small-pox Bill, &c.” 3-26-1865, p. 5. Accessed 11-21-2019 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1865/03/26/archives/affairs-at-albany-hurrying-business-a-week-of-slaughter-broadway.html
New York Times. “New Orleans…Health of the City.” 3-26-1865, p. 2. Accessed 11-21-2019 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1865/03/26/archives/mobile-to-be-defended-vigorous-preparations-on-the-part-of-the.html
New York Times. “Small-Pox in Richmond—Orders for Vaccination.” 5-8-1865, p. 4. Accessed 11-22-2019 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1865/05/08/archives/smallpox-in-richmondorders-for-vaccination.html
New York Times. “The Small-pox Precautions.” 1-29-1865, p. 4. Accessed 11-21-2019 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1865/01/29/archives/the-smallpox-precautions.html
New York Times. “The Prevention of Small-Pos; Propagation of the Disease; Startling Facts.” 4-29-1865, p. 2. Accessed 11-22-2019 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1865/04/29/archives/the-prevention-of-smallpox-propagation-of-the-disease-startling.html
North Missourian, Gallatin, MO. May 11, 1865, p. 3, column 4. Accessed 11-22-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/gallatin-north-missourian-may-11-1865-p-3/
Philadelphia Inquirer. “From New York.” 1-18-1865, p. 8. Accessed 11-22-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-inquirer-jan-18-1865-p-8/
Rice, Col. James M. Peoria City and County, Illinois (Volume 1). Chicago. Accessed 11-22-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=raMUAAAAYAAJ&ppis=_e&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Rockingham Register, Harrisonburg, VA. “Small-Pox in Alabama.” 11-17-1865, p. 3, col. 4.
Rosner, David (Ed.). Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in New York City. Rutgers University Press, 1991, 236 pages. Partially digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=o34QxI6lHwAC&pg=PA70&dq=1916+Polio+Epidemic&ei=Cy5DSZWvMIXAMpqalOYN#PPP7,M1
United States National Board of Health. Annual Report of the National Board of Health, 1883. Washington, DC: GPO, 1884. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=MtuxEGC1Vp4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true
[1] Developed by B. Wayne Blanchard first in Dec 2012 and modified in Nov 2019 for incorporation into Spreadsheet section of Deadliest American Disasters and Large-Loss-of-Life Events” at: https://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
[2] As in many other epidemics which we have gathered fatality estimates, we believe the numbers we show under-represent the true mortality. This is especially true of the Civil War Years. Gillispie writes that “By the end of the war 3,453 Southern prisoners died in the North’s nine major prisons from eruptive fevers, most of which were smallpox cases.” (James M. Gillispie. Andersonvilles of the North: The Myths and Realities of Northern Treatment of Confederate Prisoners. University of North Texas Press, 2008, p. 231.)
[3] Described as the epidemic of 1865-1866.
[4] “`…the small-pox is raging with great violence both among the whites and Blacks in Arkansas.’”
[5] “Small-pox is raging among the negroes at Tallahassee, Fla.”
[6] In that smallpox is reported in Macon, and in that it definitely took lives in Augusta and Savannah, we use “>” to denote ninety-six deaths or more, in the belief that may well been other smallpox deaths we are unaware of.
[7] North Missourian, Gallatin, MO. May 11, 1865, p. 3, column 4.
[8] “Other reports…in the same vein, smallpox ‘raging among the {Negroes in and around Macon, Ga.,’” Richard Iobst notes that Macon established a Small Pox Hospital. (Civil War Macon: The History of a Confederate City. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1999, p. 437.)
[9] Table: “Total Deaths from All Causes, and from Small-Pox, in the White and Colored Population of Savannah, Georgia, during a Period of Sixteen (16) Years, 1854 to 1869, inclusive.” There were 1,202 deaths from all causes.
[10] “The small pox has made its appearance in the Menard county, Illinois, and the greatest consternation prevails, forty cases having occurred in one small town alone.” The Madison County Courier, Edwardsville, IL, 11-30-1865, p. 1, col. 4, names Athens as the small Menard County town.
[11] This is our count on named individuals who were buried on Smallpox Island, West Alton, IL, between Jan 1 and March 31, when the dating of burials ends.
[12] “Table of mortality from small-pox in the city of Chicago from 1851 to 1882, inclusive.”
[13] Notes appropriation for burying John Herbert, “who died with the small pox…”
[14] “New-Orleans, La., Thursday, March 9, 1865…Small-pox is on the wane. Five fatal cases were reported last week. Not long ago the number of cases that terminated fatally was often as high as twenty-five or thirty a week…” Not wishing to speculate irresponsibly, we add five fatalities from the previous week and thirty from the 25-30 experienced per week during some previous weeks, and add the two numbers, recognizing the number was no doubt higher.
[15] “It is reported that fifteen cases of small-pox have broken out among the negroes in Annapolis, Md.”
[16] See New York Times article of Jan 29, 1865 in New York City, for discussion of the reasons that many smallpox cases and deaths were unreported.
[17] From Table 1. “Years of Unusually Large Numbers of Deaths from Selected Diseases, 1798 to 1918,” in Rosner, David (ed.). Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in New York City. Museum of the City of NY, 1995.
[18] “Table 1: Years of Unusually Large Numbers of Deaths from Selected Epidemic Diseases, 1798 to 1918.”
[19] Chart entitled “The Conquest of Pestilence in New York City…As Shown by the Death Rate as Recorded in the Official Records of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene,” cover page of: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Summary of Vital Statistics 2009 The City of New York. Dec 2010.
[20] Table entitled “Deaths from Smallpox from 1807 to 1907, inclusive, and Rate per 1,000 of Population.” Notes death rate of 0.92 per 1,000 population. Previous year had been 0.45.
[21] “In the Sea Islands, where former Confederate doctors joined the fight to halt the virus, it killed roughly 800 freed people a week in November and December.
[22] “Small-Pox and Vaccination in Charleston, S.C.”
[23] “That small pox has found its way into Nashville, Tenn., in a dangerous and even dreadful form, can now no longer be a matter of doubt. In a miserable building, on the bank of the river, erected as a temporary shelter for patients put off from steamboats, now lie over sixty-three human beings in all stages of this loathsome disease, white and black mingled together, no fresh air, no wholesome food, no medicine, no attendance.” Galveston Weekly earlier (11-8-1865, p. 3) reported that “The small-pox is prevalent at Nashville.”
[24] Our figure, based upon the statement that there had been “several deaths” from “some 30 or 40 cases.”
[25] “In order to counteract the problem of smallpox in Petersburg, Virginia, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Baker issued Special Orders No. 9, on July 14, 1865, ordering all destitute persons of the city to appear at the district assistant provost marshal’s office for the purpose of free vaccination.”
[26] “Headquarters Military Commander, Richmond, May 5, 1865. Special Orders, No. 5. – It having been represented to these headquarters that the number of cases of small-pox in this city has increased, as a precautionary measure it is ordered that all persons who have not been recently and successfully vaccinated will have it done by their attending physician. Gratuitous vaccination will be performed at the United States Dispensary, corner of Eighth and Broad streets; Libby Hospital and Stuart Hospital, at the head of Main-street. Commanding officers of different regiments stationed in the city, will see that medical officers of commands, aid in carrying out instructions of this order. “F. T. Dent, Brig.-General, Military Commander of Richmond.”
[27] Green, Arthur E. Mobile Confederates From Shiloh to Spanish Fort: The Story of the 21st Alabama Infantry Volunteers. 2012, p. 84.
[28] This is our manufactured number in that it is not reported how many smallpox deaths occurred. The account below, we believe, justifies our speculation that ten or more deaths occurred.
[29] “Schooling Native Daughters. The Dousman Story {Rosalie LaBorde Dousman, born in Michigan, 1796-1873; Jane Dousman, born in Wisconsin, 1812-88; Kate Dousman, born in Michigan, 1815-ca. 1867},” Jensen, Joan M. Calling This Place Home: Women on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1850-1925. Minnesota Historical Society, 2006, 275.