lornajarrettblanchard

–190  Nichols. “Scurvy at Cantonment Missouri, 1819-1829.” Nebraska History, V49, 1968, 346.

–160  NebraskaStudies.org. “Fort Atkinson.” Accessed 5-23-2018.

–157  McDowell. Vitamin History, the Early Years.

 

Narrative Information

 

McDowell: “1820-Scurvy in Nebraska (USA) — Scurvy broke out in a Nebraska infantry fort; of 788 soldiers, 500 developed scurvy and 157 died. The disease was controlled by consumption of wild onions.”

 

NebraskaStudies.org: “In 1819, Colonel [Henry M.] Atkinson led a force of 1,126 riflemen up the Missouri River….The parties spent the winter in two camps, Atkinson’s troop in Camp Missouri near Council Bluffs…Through the winter, Atkinson lost 160 soldiers to the bitter cold and scurvy….Fort Atkinson was the earliest and largest town in what was to become the Nebraska Territory, and over one thousand soldiers and their families lived at this remote outpost from 1820-1827.”

 

Nichols: “….In present Nebraska, an outbreak of scurvy among the troops at Cantonment Missouri during the winter of 1819-1820 caused the first recorded epidemic within the state. [p. 333]

 

“The scurvy resulted from the unusual troop movements in 1818- and 1819, which carried American soldiers far beyond the fringes of existing settlement in an attempt to decrease the tensions and friction between frontiersmen and Indians in the Missouri River Valley….

 

“…By October 1819, nearly eight hundred officers and men had arrived near the site of present Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, hundreds of miles beyond the nearest frontier settlements. [pp. 334-335]

 

“The men of the Sixth Infantry Regiment had traveled over twenty-six hundred miles from their former position at Plattsburgh, New York, to their destination…. [p. 335]

 

“Because the ration [mostly salted meat] failed to provide the men proper nutrition, it became a health hazard.

 

“The established system of supplying the army created a second, related problem. Rather than allow the quartermaster general or the commissary general of purchases to buy foodstuffs, the army depended upon civilian contractors. Unfortunately, frontier merchants often sold diseased or poorly slated meat, spoiled flour, and scrawny, run-down cattle to the army. This poor quality merchandise made the task of keeping the troops healthy difficult, as the experience of the Missouri Expedition proved…. [p. 337]

 

“The strenuous work necessary to complete the camp buildings [by cutting down nearby trees and quarrying nearby limestone for foundations] helped to weaken some of the men. On October 3, 1819, they began clearing land for their quarters and hurrying to erect their shelters before the full force of a Nebraska winter struck….During October, November, and December, 1819, the cantonment took shape…. [p. 338]

 

“…by January, 1820 the regimental surgeons…noted that scurvy had become the most important health problem at the camp…. [p. 339]

 

“Surgeon Gale described the symptoms among the soldiers in his regiment as follows:

 

The victim of this dreadful malady is characterized by his extreme feebleness and debility, his pale and bloated complexion; his spongy black and ulcerated gums; by his loosened teeth; his {feted} urine and offensive breath; by the {watery} swelling of his legs; the livid spots on his skin and the universal discolouration of the limbs; by his stiff and swollen joints; his rigid and contracted tendons; his loss of locomotion and by wandering and excruiciating {sic} pains. [p. 340]

 

“….The scurvy outbreak began with a few reported cases during January, 1820, and by February ‘nearly the whole regiment [Sixth Infantry] sand beneath its influence.’ Late that month Surgeon Gale reported that 280 men were sick and that nearly all of them had scurvy. By March 10, this had increased to 360 men, and less than two weeks later the count stood at 345 men sick and 100 dead. On April 1, he noted that 100 infantrymen and 60 riflemen had died.[1] From these figures, it may be seen that the scurvy epidemic incapacitated or killed well over half of the garrison during February and March, 1820…. [p. 343]

 

“Of the one hundred [sick] men taken down river to Fort Osage by boat on March 25, at least twenty died enroute.

 

“To treat the remaining men thought to have a chance for survival [but to sick to move by boat], the physicians decided to move them out of the cantonment. Apparently they did this for two reasons. First, they hoped that a change of scenery would improve morale among the sick. Second they wanted to get the men out of the filthy, disease-ridden camp. The medical officers supervised moving the sick soldiers to the woods about three miles from the cantonment, where they erected a hut and tent city called Camp Recovery. There the men found wild onions[2] and got fresh meat by hunting. These additions to their died helped to end the scurvy epidemic. The stay at Camp Recovery brought what some considered near miracle recoveries. Dr. Mower cited several cases in which patients taken there in a ‘seeming moribund state’ recovered. Some of the men had already lost all of their teeth, while on others ‘large portions of the lips had sloughed off.’ In all of these cases the men recovered and eventually returned to duty…. [p. 344]

 

“The scurvy epidemic and a cut in military appropriations in 1820 caused at least one positive response. Colonel Atkinson had suggested that frontier army units could reduce War Department expenditures for food and keep themselves healthy if they got a part of their meat ration from hunting and if they could raise livestock and fresh vegetables to supplement their died. On April 10, 1820, Secretary of War John Calhoun concurred. By October of that year, Atkinson reported that the men at Cantonment Missouri had harvested 250 tons of hay for livestock, 13,000 bushels of corn, 4,000 bushels of potatoes, and 4,000 to 5,000 bushels of turnips. Apparently these vegetables and feed for livestock to provide fresh meat did help, because army deaths from scurvy dropped from 190 in 1820 to only five the next year. In fact, excluding the scurvy epidemic of 1820, there were only eleven deaths from scurvy in the army from 1819 to 1838….”[3] [pp. 345-346]

 

“….the Nebraska scurvy epidemic of 1820…[which] killed or weakened nearly one tenth of the entire [US] army, stands alone.” [p. 347]

 

Sources

 

Levine, Victor E. “Scurvy in Nebraska: The Epidemic of Scurvy at Cantonment Missouri (Fort Atkinson), Nebraska, 1819-1820.” American Journal of Digestive Diseases,” Vol. 22, Issue 1, Jan 1955, pp. 9-17. Preview accessed 5-23-2018 at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02881510

 

McDowell, Lee R. Vitamin History, the Early Years. University of Florida, 2013. Google preview accessed 5-23-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=bb9xPf6JqLgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

NebraskaStudies.org. “Fort Atkinson.” Accessed 5-23-2018 at: http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0400/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0400/stories/0401_0131.html

 

Nichols, Roger L. “Scurvy at Cantonment Missouri, 1819-1829.” Nebraska History, Vol. 49, 1968, pp. 333-347. Accessed 5-24-2018 at: https://history.nebraska.gov/sites/history.nebraska.gov/files/doc/publications/NH1968Scurvy.pdf

 

Additional Resource

 

Reals, William J. “Scurvy at Fort Atkinson, 1819-1820, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 2, March-April 1949, pp. 137-154.

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Including just one officer. (p. 343)

[2] A good source for vitamin C.

[3] Cites: Risch, Quartermaster Support, p. 204.

–2,871-3,019  Blanchard range (using Keating for low-end and our tally of states for high end).

–1,157-3,019  Blanchard tally based on locality breakouts below.

—          2,871  Keating 1879, pp. 83-84.

 

Summary of State Breakouts Below

 

Alabama                     Mobile                        (          274)

Georgia                      Savannah       (              ?)

Louisiana                   New Orleans  (425-2,190)

Maryland                   Baltimore       (          >47)

Massachusetts            Boston             (          >18)

Mississippi                  Natchez          (   180-250)

New York                   NY City          (       23-50)

Pennsylvania              Philadelphia   (            13)

South Carolina          Charleston     (          177)

 

Breakout of Fatalities by State and Locality

 

Alabama                     (   274)  (Aug 15-Nov 30).  (Toner 1873, 16)

–274  Mobile. Keating 1879, 83-84; Sternberg 1908, 719; Toner 1873, 16;[1] USMHS 1896, 434.

–274       “       Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History.  Submitted by K. Torp.[2]

 

District of Columbia (       ?)

–?  Georgetown. La Roche cites a Dr. Blair to the effect that yellow fever was present in 1819.[3]

 

Georgia                      (       ?)

–?  Savannah. Sternberg. Report on the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow Fever. 1908, p. 719.[4]

–?  Savannah.              “Reviewed Works…The late fever in Boston.” The NAR, 10/27, Apr 1820, 407.[5]

 

Louisiana                   (425-2,190)     (mid-Aug-Jan 1820)

–425-2,190  New Orleans. Blanchard.[6]

–2,190  New Orleans. Augustine, History of Yellow Fever. 1909.

–2,190             “          Keating. A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878… 1879, p. 84.

–2,190             “          New York Times. “Yellow Fever Retrospect.” 10-7-1888.[7]

–2,190             “          Sternberg. Report on the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow Fever. P. 44.

–2,190             “          US Marine Hosp. Svc. (Treasury). An. Rpt. for FY 1895. 1896, p. 434.

–1,200            “          Childs 1886, p. 80.[8]

–1,138            “           Total mortality. Sanitary Commission. Report of… 1855.[9]

—   425 (2,138 total deaths). Barton. The Cause…Prevention…Yellow Fever…New Orleans. 1857.[10]

 

Maryland                   (    >47)

—>47  Fell’s Point, Baltimore, July 1-Oct 20. Quinan. Medical Annals of Baltimore… 1884, 29.[11]

 

Massachusetts            (     >18)

—>10  Boston. Blanchard estimate based on “The late fever in Boston.” New Eng. Med. Jour.[12]

—    ?  Boston. La Roche (p.269) notes yellow fever was present in Boston in 1798 and 1819.[13]

Breakout of Boston (and area) fatalities:

—  >3       “      Late June. The first cases in late June “were very speedily fatal.”[14]

—  >5       “      July. Notes late June deaths were “not…so great as it was about a month later.”[15]

—    3       “      Aug. Crewmembers of the Ten Brothers after getting sick in Boston.[16]

—    1       “      Aug. Mr. Daniel Badger, after going aboard Ten Brothers at Boston.[17]

—    1       “       Fort Hill, Aug 2, Mr. Wilds.[18]

—    1       “       Fort Hill case, Aug 7, grandchild of Mr. Wilds (taken to Acton and died).[19]

—    1       “       Fort Hill case, wife of Mr. Wilds “sickened on the seventh…died” in Acton.[20]

—    1       “       Fort Hill case, daughter of Mr. Wilds, about same time as mother.[21]

—    1       “       Aug 10. Brother of Harriet Bryant, who had worked several days on the ship.[22]

—    1       “      Aug 15. Harriet Bryant, who had nursed her older brother.[23]

 

Mississippi                  (180-250) (Sep 4-Dec 1, Monette 1842, p. 64)

—  250  Natchez.         Macomber. “My Worst Fears…Yellow Fever…” Civil War Interactive.

—  200       “                 Monette. Observations…Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez…1842, p.64.

—  180       “                 Keating 1879, 84; Sternberg 1908, 719; US Marine Hosp. Ser. 1896, 434.

 

New York                   (23-50)

–50  New York City.  La Roche. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical… 1855, p. 750.[24]

–37     “                      Keating 1879, 84; US MHS 1896, 434.   

–23     “                      Putnam. The World’s Progress: A Dictionary of Dates. 1851, 605.

Specific Deaths.

—  1  New York City   Aug 13. Passenger from brig Eliza from Charleston, dying day of arrival.[25]

—  1     “                      Sep 5. “Reviewed Works, The North-American Review…, 10/27, Apr 1820, 402.[26]

—  6     “                      Poor removed by Board of Health to Fort Richmond, Staten Island.[27]

—  1     “                      Sep 22. Capt. Cary of sloop Union at the Marine Hospital.[28]

—  1     “                      Oct 6. Capt. of brig Eliza.[29]

 

Pennsylvania              (     13)

— 13  Philadelphia       Keating 1879, 84; US MHS 1896, 434.   

 

South Carolina          (   177)

–177  Charleston        Keating 1879, 84; Sternberg 1908, 719; US MHS 1896, 434.   

 

Narrative Information

 

Alabama (Mobile)

 

“Reviewed Works…Contagion and the fever of the last season,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, 1820: “At Mobile the yellow fever was more destructive in its ravages, in proportion to the population, than perhaps it has ever been in any other place in the country. The committee appointed after its termination to investigate the causes and extent of the sickness, confidently referred it to the contamination of the atmosphere by the putrefaction of vegetable substances, abundant sources of which they pointed out. The fever was also severely felt at New Orleans. But the opposite opinion has been adopted respecting its origin…. [p. 408.]

 

Louisiana (New Orleans)

 

Carrigan: “Although the records of yellow fever’s visits in the early 1800’s are rather sketchy and sometimes contradictory, during the first two decades of the century New Orleans experienced at least five major outbreaks of the disease: 1804, 1809, 1811, 1817, and 1819.” [P. 40.]

 

Monette:  “In 1819, the yellow fever raged with great violence in New Orleans, from and after the middle of August. Cases had occurred occasionally on board the shipping and about the wharves as early as June. Toward the middle of August it raged severely among the shipping and

spread to the adjacent streets, and also to the boats which had descended the river. Not a ship escaped without the loss of one or two hands, and some lost their whole crews; many steamboats became infected, and lost, many of their passengers and crews. It was not entirely destroyed until January following.”[30]  (Monette 1842, p. 64.)

 

Massachusetts (Boston)

 

New England Medical Journal: “The cities of the United States have exhibited a curious spectacle during the last year. In most of our principal towns, a malignant and fatal disease, long known as the yellow fever, has prevailed to a greater or less extent; at the same time that in the greatest part of them a rigid system of quarantine has been put in execution in each, to prevent [end of p.386] the importation of the same disease from the others. Philadelphia, forgetful of her reputation for kindness and hospitality, with a few cases within her own borders, carried the system of exclusion so far, as to prohibit all intercourse with her neighbour, Baltimore, refused a shelter to those who were seeking a refuge from the disease, and denied admittance, or even liberty to pass through, to all who had visited any part of that city….

 

“At the same time Boston was equally engaged in enforcing the same precautions towards her sister cities. Her health officers were not prevented, by the prevalence of the fever in its most fatal forms, in a small part of the town, and occasional cases of it in almost all the other parts, from yielding to the dread of importing it from abroad [e.g. England], but applied to the southern cities the same system of quarantine, which some of them had enforced against us…. [p. 387]

 

“In Boston this fever has appeared in three different years. Each time of its appearance, the summers have been unusually hot; and the fever has been principally confined to a small section of the town…. [p. 395]

 

“In the year 1802, the same disease appeared within much narrower limits [than 1798]. It was confined to the neighbourhood of Fort-hill; that is, it appeared in its mildest form in Liberty square, which is on the north side of the hill, and in a more severe form in Purchase street, the lower part of Summer street, and a little in Sea street and High street….

 

“ ‘The fever, which has appeared this year [1819] has been confined to limits still more narrow than those in 1802. It has been around Fort-hill, but mostly within one small square on the south-eastern side of the hill. The longest side of this square is about twenty five rods in length. This square is bounded by Purchase street, High street, Griffin street, and Gibb’s lane. The disease did not even extend over the whole of this square; but has been almost confined to the half nearest Purchase street. There have, however, been a few cases in the vicinity of this square, and perhaps two or three on the other borders of the hill. It has likewise happened now, as in 1802, that persons who have contracted the disease on the ground above described, have sickened elsewhere; but the disease has not in this way been extended to other persons. Since the above statement was drawn up, scattered cases of the disease have appeared over a larger extent, but still in a circle around Fort-hill. These cases have been somewhat milder than those which occurred in July and August. The fatal ones have not terminated so early, as happened in most of the other cases. The most strict investigation in respect to some of these later cases, has shown that the disease had not been derived from those previously sick.’ N. E. Med. Journ. Vol. viii, p. 380.

 

“The first cases of the disease occurred about the last of June, and were very speedily fatal. The number was not, however, so great as it was about a month later, after a longer period of very warm weather. In the mean time a new source of the disease appeared. On the 26^th of July the ship Ten Brothers arrived at quarantine ground in the harbour, and on the first of August came up t the town. This ship had been absent nearly a year on a voyage to the coast of Africa. The captain and a boy had died of fever on board at Prince’s Island in February and March; and a man in July of some other disease. On her return she had taken in a quantity of Indian corn, which was discharged at [end of p. 396] Martinico [sic], and she brought home only a small part of a cargo of any sort….

 

“…. ‘The ship remained on quarantine ground as long as the law, and the regulations of the board of health, require vessels to remain similarly situated. Said ship was washed with vinegar, and every night fumigated in her cabin, and between decks, while on quarantine, and every cleansing and purification of said ship and articles on board, was used, in the most faithful manner that has ever been thought to be necessary of proper, with vessels arriving at quarantine, similarly situated.’

 

“All this, as we have seen, must have been done between the twenty sixth of July and the first of August. It does not appear that any examination was made of the state of the lower hold of the ship; and no part of the cargo was removed. Yet this cargo was in a state very far from healthful; and it is matter of common remark that no ship has arrived in our harbour for many hears in so foul a state as the Ten Brothers. The interstices between her timbers were filled with corn and coffee, in the most putrid state; and the gunny bags and the coffee of her cargo were filled with insects. We are told by the author of ‘the late fever,’ that ‘it has been stated by people of veracity that the ship was extremely foul, so as to be offensive to the senses, even when coming up the harbour, and of course before her cargo was started.’

 

“After some remarks, the board proceed:

 

When Capt. Cobb left quarantine ground, with the ship, his wife, two of his sons, and a nephew went in the ship with him up to Boston; the ship laboured much, and the crew were wet and much fatigued, after leaving quarantine, and before they arrived at the wharf in Boston. On arriving at the wharf, Capt. Cobb, [end of p.397] under the inspection of the late Mr. Eaton, one of the officers of the customs, delivered from said ship some articles of clothing…belonging to Capt. Mayo, late master of said ship; and on Tuesday, {the 3d} the day before the said ship was unladed at the wharf, the late Mr. Daniel Badger received from said ship a box containing brushes, and a handkerchief containing common slop clothes…and returned in said ship. The crew of the said ship did not assist in unlading her at the wharf, but they all slept on board her, on Sunday night, when she first arrived at the wharf, and on that Sunday and Monday following, they were all taken sick and left the ship; three of them died, during the week, after leaving Boston, and two recovered. On Wednesday, {the 4^th} after the said ship arrived at the wharf, and when unlading, a white scum was discovered on the bilge water in her lower hold, and an unusual stench from the water pumped out of her; putrid corn was also discovered to be scattered in her timbers under her ceiling.’ [p. 398]

 

“….From these two sources arose the disease which occasioned a considerable number of deaths, and gave so much alarm in Boston the last summer. Many persons were on board the Ten Brothers soon after her arrival; and within a few days, several of them were attacked with violent symptoms of fever, which to most of them, in a short time, proved fatal. These persons, as well as some of those who received the disease on Fort-hill, were sick in various parts of the town and in other towns, but they did not communicate the disease to others….

 

“Mr. Badger, who has been mentioned, sickened and died at Portsmouth….” [p. 399]

 

[Blanchard: Goes on to note, after describing the deaths of several of his family, that there were some other “fifty or sixty cases that occurred in the town.” A “case” however, does not mean a death.]

 

“We are obliged to speak thus loosely of the number of cases, because we have no means of knowing the exact number. So defective is our system of public health, that there are no records to show the extent to which the disease prevailed. No returns of diseases are ever made until after death has taken place; and then only such as the sexton can collect [end of p. 399] from the friends of those whom he goes to bury. Even this system, bad as it is, does not include those who die at the Almshouse, or at the quarantine ground on Hospital Island.

 

“From all these circumstances, it is evident that the disease which arose from the ship Ten Brothers was as purely local in its origin, as that upon Fort-hill….

 

“As to what is said of the nature of the disease [omitted here], we beg, for the credit of the physicians on Boston, that it may be distinctly remembered, that there is no physician in the board of health. If the board or their committee were unable to obtain any definite and satisfactory [end of p. 400] information, it is because they did not seek it from that class of men who are generally supposed to be the best acquainted with the characteristics of diseases….

 

Mississippi (Natchez)

 

La Roche: “Quarantine was established at Natchez in 1819, as soon as it was heard that the fever prevailed at New Orleans. It was rigidly enforced. Notwithstanding this, the epidemic began on the 1^st day of September with several cases at the upper end of Maine Street. No boat, with fever from New Orleans, had arrived. The Alabama, with cases on board, stopped at Vidalia, opposite Natchez, but no one crossed over.”[31] (La Roche. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical… 1855, p. 542.)

 

Macomber:  “In 1819, in the town of Natchez, Mississippi, the yellow fever was so deadly that the general population fled in a panic and only nine hundred and ten stayed behind to take their chances. Of those, two hundred and fifty died.”  (Macomber. “My Worst Fears…”)

 

New York City

 

“Reviewed Works, Art. XX.–1 The late fever in Boston.”: “It does not appear that the number of cases, or the degree of fatality, was much greater in New York than it was in Boston. But perhaps from its being more in the centre of population and business, or from some other cause, the alarm which it produced was much more extensive. By the middle of September most of the inhabitants had removed, not only from the sickly district as defined by the Board of Health, but also from the immediate vicinity; and before the end of the month about four hundred removals of places of business of various kinds were advertised. Some of these persons carried the seeds of the disease with them, and were sick after their removal. We have no means of ascertaining how [end of p.402] many instances there were of this kind. Of an hundred and fifty of the poor who were removed by order of the Board, to Fort Richmond on Staten Island, six sickened and died there….” (New England Medical Journal. “The late fever in Boston,” Oct, 1819. In: “Reviewed Works, The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, April 1820, pp. 386-418.)

 

Sources

 

Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History (citing Time Magazine, 7-6-1925 as source).  Submitted by K. Torp. 2013. Accessed 8-25-2013: http://genealogytrails.com/ala/epidemics.html

 

Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: 1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010.

 

Barton, Edward H., MD, Chair, Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission to His Honor J. L. Lewis, Mayor of the City of New Orleans. New Orleans: By Authority  of the City Council of New Orleans, 1854. Google preview accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=_EQJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Barton, Edward H., MD. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans and other Cities in America (Third Edition, with a Supplement). New York: H. Bailliere; London and Paris, 1857. Google preview accessed 3-14-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=yEJZDrCO-ZkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Carrigan, Jo Ann. The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905 (Doctoral Dissertation). Louisiana State University, LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses, 1961. Accessed 3-11-2018 at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1665&context=gradschool_disstheses

 

Childs, Emery E.  A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885.  NY:  Baker & Taylor, 1886.  Digitized by Google. At:  http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Keating, J. M.  A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN:  Howard Association, 1879. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=WEIJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

La Roche, Rene, M.D. Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical, Pathological, Etiological, and Therapeutical Relations, Including A Sketch of the Disease as it has Occurred in Philadelphia from 1699-1854… (Vol. 1 of 2). Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1855. Google preview accessed 3-15-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Fsg1AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Macomber, Robert. “My Worst Fears Have Been More Than Realized: Yellow Fever Hits The Union.” Huntingdon, TN: Civil War Interactive (website). Accessed 8-15-2013 at:

http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/ArticleYellowFeverMacomber.htm

 

Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov

 

New York Times.  “Yellow Fever Retrospect.”  October 7, 1888.  Accessed at:  http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D03EFD81F38E033A25754C0A9669D94699FD7CF&oref=slogin

 

Putnam, G. P. (Ed.).  The World’s Progress: A Dictionary of Dates.  NY:  G. P. Putnam, 1851.  Digitized by Google:  http://books.google.com/books?id=qz9HAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Quinan, John R., M.D. Medical Annals of Baltimore From 1608-1880, Including Events, Men and Literature, to Which is Added A Subject Index and Record of Public Services. Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald, 1884. Google digitized. Accessed 1-14-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=xNcRAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service). Report on the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow Fever. Washington: GPO, United States Marine Hospital Service, Treasury Dept., 1890. Google preview accessed 3-15-2018 at:

https://books.google.com/books?id=LpYaAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Sternberg, George M. “Yellow Fever: History and Geographic Distribution,” pp. 715-722. Appendix to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences by Various Writers, Thomas L. Stedman, (ed.). New York: William Wood and Company, 1908. Google preview accessed 3-15-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal (University of Northern Iowa), Vol. 10, No. 27, April 1820, pp. 386-418. “Reviewed Works: The Late Fever in Boston ; Case of the Ship Ten Brothers; Being the Report of a Committee of the Board of Health, Unanimously Accepted, and Published by Order of the Board ; A Statement of the Occurrences during a Malignant Yellow Fever in the City of New York, in the Summer and Autumnal Months of 1819 ; Observations on the Epidemic of 1819, as It Prevailed in a Part of the City of Baltimore by David M. Reese.” Accessed 3-15-2018 at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25121454?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

 

Toner, Joseph M. (M.D., President, American Medical Association). “The Distribution and Natural History of Yellow Fever as it has Occurred at Different Times in the United States” (Paper read before the American Public Health Association, November 12, 1873). Washington, DC: 1873, 33 pages. Accessed 8-23-2013 at: http://cdm16313.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/LSUBK01/id/10240/rec/19

 

United States Marine Hospital Service, Treasury Department.  Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1895 (Document No. 1811).  Washington:  GPO, 1896.  Digitized by Google at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

[1] Cites: P. H. Lewis, N.O.M.J., vol. 1, No. 4, 1845, p. 284.

[2] Notes that the yellow fever was also at Fort St. Stephens, July 4-Dec 1, and at Fort Claiborne, July 4-Dec 1.

[3] “Dr. Blair remarks that, although some of the inhabitants of Georgetown, who passed through the epidemics he describes, had resided there during the fever of 1819, there was no instance of a sufferer from the latter being attacked in 1837 and following years.” [Blanchard: In that yellow fever was present in nearby Baltimore, it should be no surprise that there were cases and possibly deaths in Georgetown, DC.]

[4] No note on deaths. Writes “Georgia.–At Savannah epidemics are recorded in the years 1800, 1807, 1808, 1817, 1819, 1820….”

[5] “The late fever in Boston” was in New England Medical Journal, Oct, 1819 and reviewed as “Reviewed Works” in The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal (Univ. Northern IA), V.10/N.27, April 1820, pp. 386-418. While writing of yellow fever in New York and Baltimore, notes “It [yellow fever] also prevailed in Charleston and Savannah, but in a degree much less destructive than in many former years.”

[6] We cannot reconcile large discrepancy between Barton and Sanitary Commission of New Orleans in 1854, and the other sources we cite, including the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, Treasury Dept., which agree on 2,190. Perhaps they all mistook total mortality in New Orleans for yellow fever mortality. Perhaps their numbers are better. Perhaps their numbers included deaths elsewhere in Louisiana, in that yellow fever has a great tendency to spread as infected people leave the area and are then bitten by a mosquito which bites someone else thus spreading the disease.

[7] NYT notes as well that the yellow fever also broke out in Alabama and Louisiana, but noted deaths only for NO.

[8] “…during a period of sixty days…”

[9] “Comparative Table: Estimate of the Salubrity of New Orleans, as affected by her Epidemics. 1^st–of Yellow Fever.”

[10] “Comparative Table [Yellow Fever and Cholera]. Estimate of the Salubrity of New Orleans, as affected by her Epidemics. 1^st — of Yellow Fever.” (p. xlix)

[11] We add the “at least” to the 47 given the description: “July 1. Yellow fever begins, as did the epidemic of 1794 and 1800, at Fell’s Point, in Wolf, Pitt, Ann, George, and Lancaster streets. Oct. 20. Epidemic ceased. Total cases reported by Board of Health only 1005, while Drs. Wm. H. and A. Clendinen alone report 630 cases and 47 deaths in their practice from July 1 to Nov. 1.”

[12] See breakout below and Narrative section on Boston for our estimate of at least ten deaths. The original article “The late fever in Boston” was in New England Medical Journal, Oct, 1819. It was reprinted as “Reviewed Works” in The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal (University of Northern Iowa), Vol. 10, No. 27, April 1820, pp. 386-418. On p. 399 it is written that there was “a considerable number of deaths…”

[13] At page 376 La Roche refers to “The epidemic of 1819” as having broken out “and prevailed in nearly the same localities” [as 1798, viz. “a short distance from the water’s edge…the town dock, Codman’s Stoddart’s and other wharves, as also about State Street, Liberty Square, the market place around Fort Hill, and some similar situations.”

[14] For the purpose of contributing to a tally we convert first very speedily fatal cases into at least three.

[15] No hint as to the extent of mortality is given. Thus, we again, in order to contribute to a tally, speculate on the number. If the mortality in July was greater than it late June (which we put as at least 3) we assume at least 5 in July.

[16] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 398. On p. 399, it is written that “The sailors, who were taken sick, were carried to Brewster [Barnstable County], where, as we have seen, a part of them died, and some persons were sick at Marblehead.”

[17] It is noted that he “sickened and died at Portsmouth.”

[18] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 399.

[19] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 399. It is noted she was taken to Acton, Middlesex County, where she died.

[20] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 399.

[21] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 399. Written: “Their daughter was taken about the same time [as mother] and removed to her brother’s in Back street, where she remained three days, and was then removed to Acton, and died there.”

[22] Ten Brothers. “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Jour., 10/27, Apr 1820, 401.

[23] Written that “Previously to his death he vomited upon his pillows a large quantity…dark coloured grumous [?] blood….The day following that event, Harriet took them, ripped them open, and picked over the feathers with her fingers, as they were matted together by the blood and other matters thrown from the stomach….she was attacked on Thursday evening the twelfth and died the Sunday following.” “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 401.

[24] “In New York…in 1819 there were only about one hundred and fifty cases, and fifty deaths.” Notes in “had sickened on Saturday evening, the seventh of August, after having worked several days on board the ship, and died on Tuesday the tenth.”

[25] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 404.

[26] First NYC resident death.

[27] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 403.

[28]  “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 403.

[29] “Reviewed Works,” The North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 10, No. 27, Apr 1820, p. 403.

[30] Cites: Medical Repository, New Series, Vo. Vi, pp. 6-20.

[31] Cites: Barton’s Medical and Physical Journal, ii, 26.

— ~1,000  Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. MacMillan Pubs., 1991, p. 47.

— <1,000  Roth, David (NWS). Texas Hurricane History. 1-17-2010 update, p. 8.

 

Narrative Information

 

Cartwright:  “A slave trader named Randall Jones who visited the Island [Galveston] in the summer of 1818 reported that a number of foreign schooners were anchored in the harbor, including a Yankee Clipper from Boston that came to swap potatoes and cured pork for sugar, cocoa, coffee, and wine. More buccaneers were arriving daily, some with women. Many seamen took black mistresses from the populations of slaves kept in Galveston to do domestic chores and handle cargo. New huts were being constructed all across the eastern end of the island; the population had swelled to nearly 2,000.

 

“A hurricane that hit late in the summer almost wiped out the colony. At the storm’s approach, Lafitte ordered that the women be evacuated to the Island’s highest point, the ridge occupied by La Mansion Rouge and the fort. Then Lafitte and some of his officers went aboard a schooner anchored in the bay to ride out the storm. It was clear that this was a major hurricane. By midnight most of the Island was under water. More than a dozen ships were blown across the bay and torn to splinters. Houses vanished under walls of water. The fort collapsed. La Mansion Rouge stood against the gale, but sometime that night a cannon crashed through the tower floor into a room where the women were huddled. Many were killed[1] and many more maimed, including a quadroon girl named Jeannette, who was either Lafitte’s mistress, his housekeeper, or his daughter, depending on which story one believes. By dawn the storm had passed, but the settlement was in ruins, and hundreds of corpses were strewn along the beach. One historian estimates that at least half the members of the colony died.”  (Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. MacMillan Publishing Co., 1991, p. 47.)

 

Roth: “September 12-14th, 1818:[2] Among the earliest accounts of a direct hurricane strike on the Texas coast was this storm which formed near the Cayman Islands, then moved west into the Bay of Campeche and moved northwest to hit Galvez’s town (Galveston). It was described as a storm of extraordinary violence. Settlers on the island saw the signs of an approaching storm, but did not think anything of it since they had been through similar situations before. They anchored their boats and went to sleep like it was any other night.

 

“They were awakened by the fierce winds, thunder, and waves crashing against their homes.  The entire island was overwhelmed by the storm surge, which flooded the French colony of Champ d’Asile by four feet. By morning, the city had become a “picture of chaos”.  As water began to invade the hospital, people moved the sick to Maison Rouge (Red House), the residence of the pirate/privateer Jean LaFitte (Gaillardet).

 

“All but six buildings were reported destroyed on the Island. The pirate Jean LaFitte was occupying Champ d’Asile at the time and played an intriguing role during the storm, as both a Spanish spy and a hero. The Spaniards had paid him to keep an eye on this French town, located in the heart of Spanish territory.  His house was used for the sick during the storm, which earned praise from the community. However, he too suffered losses as most of the ships in his fleet were destroyed; four in all. Wreckage from some of these ships was dug up by a dredge boat building portion of the Texas City jetty fifty years later (Block[3]).

 

“War ships from Vera Cruz who encountered this storm were put out of commission for months. Ships and boats in harbor dragged their anchors and were carried out to sea. Two of the boats were later found in “six leagues inland”. Altogether, fourteen ships were claimed by the hurricane. After the storm, those who had survived fled to New Orleans, bringing an end to the short history of Champ d’Asile (Gallardet). Estimates of the lives lost during the cyclone approach 1000 (Cartwright)[4].”  (Roth, David (NWS).  Texas Hurricane History.  Jan 17, 2010 update, pp. 13-14.)

 

Seline: “….In 1818, Texas was part of the Spanish colony of New Spain (Mexico), which was then fighting for independence from the mother country. The Spaniards had settlements at San Antonio de Béxar, La Bahía del Espíritu Santo (present-day Goliad), and Nacogdoches. The total Hispanic population probably numbered less than 4,000. Texas was primarily inhabited by Native Americans….

 

“In 1816, French privateer Louis-Michel Aury established a base on Galveston Island, a short distance from the Texas mainland. In April 1817, when Aury left to help Francisco Mina invade Mexico, pirate Jean Laffite took control of the establishment. He ran a privateering, smuggling and slave-laundering operation from the island. A visitor who arrived in January 1818 described Galveston as a “wild sand bar with four or five ‘temporary miserable hovels’ for the 50 men, mostly blacks and mulattoes, living there.”[5] Laffite inhabited a two-story frame house built on a slight elevation.

 

“In early 1818, Laffite and his men were temporarily joined by approximately 100 Bonapartists – mainly French supporters of Napoleon — on their way to found a colony called Champ d’Asile beside the Trinity River. A few months later, after learning that a Spanish force was coming to eject them, the French colonists returned to Galveston Island to wait for transportation to New Orleans. They arrived in July and settled near Laffite’s village. The Champ d’Asile refugees built a small protective earthwork on a three-foot rise about 400 yards from the water. They were still there when the hurricane struck in September.

 

“On September 10, 1818, a hurricane passed the Cayman Islands. It blew across the Yucatán Peninsula and then veered north towards Texas. The residents of Galveston Island saw the storm approaching on the evening of September 12, but did not anticipate a hurricane. The French refugees were preparing to go to bed when it struck. [Seline quotes from Le Champ d’Asile au Texas]

 

The raging winds, the rushing waves shook the earth: the rain fell in torrents, the sky was ablaze; the piles supporting our hut broke: the canvas covering it was torn, and I saw a black column, a whirlwind that carried ravage and destruction in its flanks. The sea flowed in from all sides, the wind lifting the waves. A vortex of wind tore off and removed the remnants of the sail that sheltered us. Night passed and faint light, whitening the horizon, announced that day was soon to appear. Complaints and cries could be heard from all sides when the wind ceased for a moment to roar, and then redoubled its fatal efforts.

 

Day broke, the storm was not yet calm; but since we could see the danger, it was easier to avoid it. We were able to bring relief to those who were hurt and save them from death. We transported them to the strongest dwelling [Laffite’s], around which we had all gathered.

 

The island of Galveston, invaded by the sea, seemed to be part of it. This scene of desolation became more terrible when we saw that the waves, redoubling to flee, broke the cables that held our boats and dragged them into the gulf; every means of salvation was taken from us; I dared not announce it, the words died on my lips, and my heart broke. However, the wind subsided, and the sea began to re-enter the gulf.

 

As we were on a rise, the ground was soon dry, and we were able to sit down. What a sight! We all had pale and drained complexions; our soaked clothing seemed to be glued to the skin and forming part of it; a burning thirst devoured us, and seawater was the only refreshment nature offered us.[6]

 

“By the time the storm was over, only six buildings remained on Galveston, one of them Laffite’s house. At least four of Laffite’s vessels were sunk or driven ashore. Wrecks from the storm were reportedly found five miles inland in the 1820s. Virtually all of the French refugees’ supplies were lost and the island’s wells were contaminated with salt water. The settlers were dependent on Laffite’s generosity for survival.

 

“Although there is no good estimate of the number of lives lost in the hurricane, many Karankawa Indians reportedly perished.

 

The great 1818 hurricane is said to have blown a high flood into Aransas and Copano Bays. It is reported to have drowned many Indians and washed a brigantine or brig to the upper end of a creek (Bergantine Creek) that flows into St. Charles Bay, supposedly indicating that the flood was as high, or higher than, the 1919 flood in that bay. … The normal heights of hurricane floods and their plain weather signs must have been well known to the Indians. The drowning of large numbers of Indians indicates an unexpectedly high flood for a hurricane and probably a wide breach.[7]

 

(Seline, Shannon. The Texas Hurricane of 1818. (Website). Accessed 7-4-2019.)

 

Sources

 

Androbus, Sally. Galveston Bay. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2005. Accessed 7-4-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=8URdra-y_bEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. MacMillan Publishing Co., 1991. Google digital preview accessed 12-30-2013 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=RFRu8kYThEcC&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=1818%20hurricane&f=false

 

Roth, David (National Weather Service). Texas Hurricane History. Camp Springs, MD: NWS.  1-17-2010 update.  At:  http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/txhur.pdf

 

Seline, Shannon. The Texas Hurricane of 1818. (Website). Accessed 7-4-2019 at:  https://shannonselin.com/2017/09/texas-hurricane-1818/

 

 

 

 

[1] Sally Antrobus (Galveston Bay, p. 74.) citing Cartwright, writes “Hundreds of bodies lay on the beach…A dozen ships were smashed in the bay…Perhaps half the colonists were lost.”

[2] We use dating of September 12-13. By accounts, the hurricane “hit” the future Galveston the evening of the 12^th, and “the storm was not yet calm” at daybreak on the 13^th. (See Seline.)

[3] Block, W. T. “Texas Hurricanes of the 19th Century: Killer Storms Devastated Coastline” Beaumont Enterprise 19 Feb 1978, 3.

[4] Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. Atheneum: New York, 1991.

[5] Cites: William C. Davis. The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf. Orlando: 2005, p. 352.

[6] C. D. Le Champ d’Asile au Texas. Paris: 1820, pp. 103-105.

[7] W. Armstrong Price. North Beach Study for the City of Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi, TX; 1956, p. 67.

 

–234  Blanchard tally based on numbers below.

 

Louisiana                   (115)

–1,115  New Orleans.                         Keating 1879, 31.[1]

–1,115             “                                  Jones. State of LA Health Board, 1883/84, cxliv[2]

—   115            “                                  Augustin 1909, p. 486.

—   115            “                                  Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, pp. 57,[3] 92.

—   115            “                                  U.S. Marine Hospital Service 1896, p. 434.

 

New York                   (    4)

—   4 NYC Marine Hospital                U.S. Marine Hospital Service 1896, p. 434.

 

South Carolina          (115)

–115    Charleston                               U.S. Marine Hospital Service 1896, p. 434.

 

Sources

 

Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: Published for the Author by Search & Pfaff Ltd., 1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010. 1909 copy digitized at: http://archive.org/stream/historyofyellowf00auguuoft#page/n4/mode/1up

 

Carrigan, Jo Ann. The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905 (Doctoral Dissertation). Louisiana State University, LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses, 1961. Accessed 3-11-2018 at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1665&context=gradschool_disstheses

 

Jones, Joseph, MD. “History of Quarantine in Louisiana.” Beginning at p. cxiv in Quarantine and Sanitary operations of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana During 1880, 1881, 1882 and 1883. Baton Rouge: State of Louisiana Board of Health. Leon Jastremski, State Printer, 1884. Google digitized at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=qSwPTVLVoiEC&pg=PR144&dq=Yellow+Fever+New+Orleans+1818&ei=PFUzSeT5HoLgywSh3NjqBA#PPP5,M1

 

Keating, J. M. A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN: Howard Association, 1879. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=WEIJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

United States Marine-Hospital Service, Treasury Department. Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1895 (Document No. 1811). Washington, DC: GPO, 1896. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

 

[1] Not used in our tally — appears to be a tally of all deaths, not just those from yellow fever.

[2]  “Dr. Bennet Dowler gives the following statistics for 1818:  Deaths, while male adults, 324; of female adults, 81; white children, 87; black male adults, 219; black female adults, 162; black children, 277.  The mortality augmented in each month until September, in which 166 died. Total whites, 492; total blacks, 658; grand total 1151.  Dr. Barton does not include 1818 amongst the epidemic years, and the statistics given by Dr. Dowler evidently relate to all diseases.”  (Blanchard note: Thus, we do not use this estimate.)

[3] Carrigan, in footnote 52, cites: New Orleans Medical & Surgical Journal, New Series, VI, March 1879, p. 699.

–1,208 -1,233  Blanchard tally based on locality breakouts below.

—          1,085  Keating 1879, p. 83.

Louisiana                   (800-823)

–823  New Orleans.    Aug-Dec 30    Dowler. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 14.[1]

–760  White male adults

—  63  White female adults

–800  New Orleans.   June 18-Dec    Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge, 1961, p. 59.[2]

–800            “                                      Keating 1879, 83;[3] Sternberg 1908, 719.

–800           “                                       Marine Hosp. Svc.  An. Rpt…1895. 1896, 433.[4]

–600          “ Barton. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans, 1857, p. xlix.[5]

–600           “                                       Sanitary Com. of New Orleans. Report on Yellow Fever.

—  80           “               June 18-Dec    Augustine 1909, 486.[6]

 

Mississippi                  (134)    (Aug-Nov 15)

–>134  Natchez. Monette. Observations on…Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez…1842, p.63.

—  134        “        Dowler. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 14.[7]

—      9        “        Keating 1879, 83.

 

New York                   (    4)

—    4  NY Marine Hospital                             Keating 1879, 83; USMHS 1896, 433.

 

South Carolina          (270-272)

–272  Charleston                                Keating 1879, 83; Sternberg 1908, 719; USMHS 1896, 433

–270         “                                         Dowler. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 14.[8]

–270   “  NYT. “Yellow Fever. Epidemics in Charleston, S.C. – Statistics from 1700.” 9-18-1871

 

Narrative Information

Natchez, MS:

 

Monette:  “Natchez was a stranger to these visitations [yellow fever] previously to the autumn of 1817, which was soon after the introduction of steamboats on the Mississippi river… this was the first time that Yellow Fever was known as an epidemic in Natchez….

 

“Epidemic of 1817. — Occasional cases were seen in Natchez as early as August preceding the epidemic; but where they contracted the disease I have not been able to learn….

 

“`At this time, when the population was highly susceptible, the Washington steamboat reached us from New Orleans, with persons on board, ill of yellow fever, some of whom were landed; and several young men from town went on board, who were all taken sick soon after and died. The disease spread rapidly and with most destructive malignity. For some time it had its sway over the whole city. On the 28th of September the physicians publicly announced the existence of yellow fever, and a large portion of the population retired to the country.’ It continued to prevail with slight interruptions until the 9th of November; and several cases occurred six days later in those who returned after frost to their houses which had been closed during their absence.

 

“The whole number of deaths in the city, during this epidemic, was one hundred and thirty-four; besides some in the country who contracted their disease in the city.”  (Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov )

 

New Orleans, LA:

 

Carrigan: “Although the records of yellow fever’s visits in the early 1800’s are rather sketchy and sometimes contradictory, during the first two decades of the century New Orleans experienced at least five major outbreaks of the disease: 1804, 1809, 1811, 1817, and 1819.” [p. 40.]

 

“….in 1817 the epidemic period extended from July to late October…In both epidemics [one in 1819] the fever centered its attacks mainly upon Europeans or Americans fresh from the North, but its victims each time included some long-time residents and a few Creoles as well. Not a single Negro was affected by the fever of 1817; some died in 1819.”[9] [p. 40]

 

Eberle: “The epidemic manifested itself in July. Many symptoms of this disease had, however, been noticed as early as the latter part of June, especially in the city hospital, before the arrival of a vessel from Havana, which had lost a part of her crew by the black vomit, during its passage. The disease increased in its ravages during July; and acquired great malignity in August, on account of the arrival of a great number of Europeans and Americans at that time. In the beginning of September, a violent storm took place, upon which the epidemic abated its fury.—Weather variable until the 20th of this month; at which time the south wind began to blow anew. The heat again became very intense, and the fever still raged with violence, especially among those who had lately arrived. In October, it finally disappeared, after a violent tempest; still, however, reigning in some degree at the hospital, after it was extinguished in the town.”  (Eberle. “On Yellow Fever…New-Orleans,” The American Med. Recorder, V2, No. II, Apr 1, 1819, 217)

 

Sources

 

Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: Published for the Author by Search & Pfaff Ltd., 1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010. 1909 copy digitized at: http://archive.org/stream/historyofyellowf00auguuoft#page/n4/mode/1up

 

Barton, Edward H., MD. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans and other Cities in America (Third Edition, with a Supplement). New York: H. Bailliere; London and Paris, 1857. Google preview accessed 3-14-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=yEJZDrCO-ZkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Carrigan, Jo Ann. The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905 (Doctoral Dissertation). Louisiana State University, LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses, 1961. Accessed 3-11-2018 at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1665&context=gradschool_disstheses

 

Dowler, Bennet, MD. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853, with Topographical, Chronological, and Historical Sketches of The Epidemics of New Orleans Since Their Origin in 1796, Illustrative of the Quarantine Question. New Orleans: The Office of the Picayune, 1854, 76 pages. Accessed 3-16-2018 at: https://ia600300.us.archive.org/18/items/65020990R.nlm.nih.gov/65020990R.pdf

 

Keating, J. M. A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN: Howard Association, 1879. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=WEIJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov

 

New York Times. “Yellow Fever. Epidemics in Charleston, S.C. – Statistics from 1700.” 9-18-1871. Accessed 3-18-2018 at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0C13F938541A7493CAA81782D85F458784F9

 

Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission to His Honor J. L. Lewis, Mayor of the City of New Orleans. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1855. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100633711

 

Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service). “Yellow Fever:  History and Geographic Distribution.” Pages 715-722 in Stedman, Thomas L., M.D. (Ed.) Appendix to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences. NY: William Wood & Co., 1908.  Google preview accessed 3-18-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

United States Marine-Hospital Service, Treasury Department. Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1895 (Document No. 1811). Washington, DC: GPO, 1896. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

[1] Notes this was out of a “Total mortality for vice months of 1142.”

[2] Carrigan, in footnote 55, cites Jones, Medical and Surgical Memoirs, III, pt. 1, cxliv. She adds that this was “probably a conservative figure.”

[3] Keating notes that “other accounts say mortality for five months 1,142.”  (Keating 1879, 83)

[4] Cites S. Chaille, Va. Medical Journal, 1858, p. 498 (Toner.).

[5] “Comparative Table. Estimate of the Salubrity of New Orleans, as affected by her Epidemics. 1^st — of Yellow Fever.”

[6] We assume that “80” is a typographical error, given the prevalence of other reports noting “800”.

[7] Cites a Dr. Perlee.

[8] Notes a total mortality of 1,249, citing “Mills’ Statist.”

[9] Carrigan, in footnote 54, cites: Rapport publié au nom de la Société Medicale de la Nouvelle-Orleans sur la Fievre Jaune, qui y a regne Epidemicquement, Durant l’Ete et l’Automne de 1819 (Nouvelle-Orléans, 1820), pp. 7, 35-36.

–19  NY State.           NY Dept. of Health. An. Rpt., p. 547.[1]

–15  NYC.      NY Dept. of Health. An. Rpt., p. 547.

 

 

New York State Department of Health. Thirty-Eighth Annual Report of the State Department of Health of New York For the Year Ending December 31, 1917 (Vol. 1). Albany: J. B. Lyon Co., 1918. Google preview accessed 6-3-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=XE49AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Additional Resource

 

Hess, Alfred F., MD. (NYC). Scurvy Past and Present. Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1920. Google preview accessed 6-4-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=samZAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

[1] From: Table 23 — Number of deaths from each cause during 1917, in the entire State, New York city and rest of State, according to th detailed International List of causes of death..

–179  Duffy. A History of Public Health in New York City 1625-1866. 1968, p. 248.

–179  Jones. “Introduction of Vaccination into New York, United States of America.” P. 193.[1]

 

Narrative Information

 

Duffy: “On December 19, after the weekly bill of mortality showed 17 deaths from smallpox, the City Council appointed a committee to look into the matter. Subsequently, on January 29 the Council granted the Dispensary $1,000 to cover the cost of a general vaccination of th poor, and in conjunction with the Board of Health, began an educational campaign to arouse the public. The Council especially asked clergymen, charitable associations, and ‘intelligent’ persons to spread the good word about vaccination among the poor. Despite their efforts, the best available figures show that smallpox killed 94 persons in 1815 and 179 in 1816. The number of smallpox deaths fell off sharply thereafter, and the intensive campaign of 1816 possibly helps to account for the virtual elimination of smallpox during the next eight years. The very success of these efforts proved self-defeating, for the temporary elimination of smallpox caused apathy to set in, and a smallpox outbreak in 1824 killed almost 400 persons.” (Duffy, John. A History of Public Health in New York City 1625-1866. 1968, p. 248.)

 

Sources

 

Duffy, John. A History of Public Health in New York City 1625-1866. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Printers, Inc. and Russell Sage Foundation, 1968. Google preview accessed 6-20-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=LAcXAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Jones, Joseph, M.D., President of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana. “Introduction of Vaccination into New York, United States of America.” Pages 191-193 in: 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…(Circular No. 2, Prepared for the Guidance of the Quarantine Officers and Sanitary Inspectors of the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana, by Dr. Joseph Jones). 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] From a table entitled: “Total Deaths from all Causes, and from Small-Pox, Measles, Scarlet Fever and Phthisis-Pulmonalis [TB] in the City of New York during a Period of Fifty Years, 1804-1853.”

— 4,000  Brooks, citing Comanche leader Chihuahua, as reported to John Jameson, p. 338.

— 4,000  Thornton, Russell. American Indian Holocaust and Survival. 1990, 94[1]

— 4,000  Zimmerman. “An Overview of American Indian Diversity.” PowerPoint slide 5.[2]

Narrative Information

Brooks: “Comanches had been stunned by the smallpox epidemic of 1779-1781. Another fierce outbreak swept the southern Plains in the winter of 1815-816, taking some four thousand people, according to the Comanche leader Chihuahua. Losses might have been more, assuming he spoke only of the devastation among his people, the ‘middle’ tribe of the Yamparicas. Kiowas recalled that this was the first smallpox ‘within the memory of their tribe,’ and they probably suffered proportionally to their Comanche allies. The disease struck at the wisdom and hope of these Plains peoples, taking mostly the old and young. The Texas divisions lost at least four of their paramount leaders, and clear political power did not again refocus for a generation. The full shock of their loss escapes our comprehension, but at least one strategy for recovery was clear.”[3]  Determining real numbers of the women and children drawn into Plains Indian captivity is even more difficult than counting their counterparts in Spanish and Mexican society….” (Brooks. Captives & Cousins. 2008, pp. 337-338.)

Mooney: “In 1816 the smallpox made terrible ravages among all the tribes in the region of the Red and Rio Grande, being probably communicated from the Spanish settlements. The Comanche especially lost heavily (Morse, 1).[4] The Kiowa suffered in proportion, and their old men speak of this as the first epidemic of smallpox within the memory of their tribe.” (James. Mooney. Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians. Pages 129-in Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-96. J. W. Powell (Director), Part 1 of Two Parts. Washington: GPO, 1898, p. 168.)

 

Sources

 Brooks, James F. Captives & Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands. Accessible Publishing Systems PTY, Ltd., 2008. Google digitized. Accessed 1-4-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4X22pSWrVhsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 Mooney, James. Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians. Pages 129-445 in Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-96. J. W. Powell (Director), Part 1 of Two Parts. Washington: GPO, 1898. Google digitized. Accessed 1-4-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=TxM_AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 Thornton, Russell. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492.  University of Oklahoma Press, 1990, 292 pages. Partially Google digitized at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=9iQYSQ9y60MC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 Zimmerman, Larry J. “An Overview of American Indian Diversity” (PowerPoint Slides). Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Accessed 1-4-2015 at: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iupui.edu%2F~mstd%2Fexhibit1%2Fdiversity.ppt&ei=VcSpVLbOI4b4yASXnYGgAw&usg=AFQjCNFLDeiChcgplyklId8P0G-mMjz8Sw&bvm=bv.82001339,d.aWw

 

  

 

[1] Thornton writes:  “There was another, less severe smallpox epidemic in 1815 and 1816 along the Red River and the Rio Grande. The Comanches said they lost 4,000 in it, out of a population of 10,000.  Both the Iowa and the Kiowa reportedly also suffered (Mooney, 1898: 168; Stern and Stern, 1945: 78.” (p. 94)

[2] Cites Thornton on previous slide on a different topic. This could be drawn from Thornton.

[3] Footnote in original: “Chihuahua’s estimates were reported by John Jameson, newly appointed American agent at Natchitoches, in 1817. See Kavanagh, Comanche Political History, 172-173; for Kiowas, see Mooney, ‘Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians,’ Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, part 2, 168.”

[4] Reference to Rev. Jedidiah Morse. A report to the secretary of war of the United States, on Indian affairs, comprising a narrative of a tour performed in the summer of 1820, under a commission from the president of the United States, for the purpose of ascertaining, for the use of government, the actual state of the Indian tribes in our country, etc. New Haven, 1822.