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

–94  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.”

—>100  Blanchard estimate.[1]

Some relevant breakouts:

–?  Aquia, Stafford Co. “It takes off whole families. I am fearful to send…my family to Aquia.”[2]

–?  Eastern VA. “.the epidemical monster.” High mortality and quick spread. Gray, 1819.[3]

–?  Militia camps and civilian population around Norfolk and Richmond. Butler, p. 503.

–?  Northern Neck / surrounding areas. “…terrible epidemic which overspread the country…”[4]

–?  Northern Neck of VA (Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland counties.

–?  Southside counties. Those south of James River, east of Blue Ridge mts., west of Tidewater.[5]

–?  Stafford County, nine in one family. (Gallup 1815, pp. 80-81.)

–?  Surry, Surry Co. “Many persons in our county have fallen victim to this dreadful malady.[6]

 

Narrative Information

 

Butler: “The winter of 1814-1815 in Virginia was one of the coldest and snowiest for the past several generations. Along with the intense cold came a flu-like epidemic that swept throughout the Northern Neck[7] and down through the lower Tidewater counties. For the militia stationed at the camps around Richmond and at Norfolk, the cold and contagion causes the largest number of deaths of the war. The epidemic was not confined to militia camps, but affected the general population as well….

 

“Along with the uncommonly cold weather came a very virulent type of sore throat which struck with little warning and intense severity, oftentimes resulting in death shortly afterwards. Referred to in newspapers of the time as the putrid sore throat,[8] or the rotten quinsy, the malignant disorder spread over Virginia’s Northern Neck and Southside counties, sparing neither children nor adults. Dr. Joseph Trent identified the disease sweeping the area in the winter of 1814-15 as a resurgent catarrh fever of malignant influenza from previous years. This new version, according to Trent, was far more virulent and faster spreading than its predecessors….” (p. 505.)

 

“In Surry, Nicholas Faulcon commented on the extent of the contagion in that region when he wrote… ‘we are all in great alarm here…Many persons in our country have fallen victim to this dreadful malady, and among them our neighbours Mrs. Mancott and her son, William, and Mr. McIntosh. The two former died within 48 hours from the commencement of the attack’ Faulcon reported his wife and twenty of his slaves had sore throats, but the severity of the disease had yet to set in, and he believed them out of danger….” (Butler. “The Winter of 1814-1815.” Pp. 505, 507 in: Defending the Old Dominion: Virginia and Its Militia in the War of 1812.)

 

Freeman: Feb 4, 1815 correspondence, from Norfolk, VA: “….The epidemic which is making cruel ravages in almost all parts of Virginia has visited the troops, they would have been subject to this disease in any other situation.” (Freeman, Constant, Lt. Col., 1^st U.S. Artillery; Col., Corps of Artillery; p. 138 in Fredricksen, John C. The War of 1812: U.S. War Department Correspondence, 1812-1815. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2016.)

 

Gallup: “1814….From a statement, made in the Richmond Inquirer, printed in Virginia, it appears, that a very severe epidemic disease prevailed in that state, in December. It is called a contagious distemper. Some extracts from a letter to the editors, will give a short account of it; dated county of Stafford, January 3, 1815.

 

The distemper is distressing beyond any thing you can imagine. It takes off whole families. I am fearful to send any of my family to Aquia.[9] If the disease does not abate, I am apprehensive that it will destroy the greater part of our inhabitants. In King George,[10] there was a family of ten; the whole died except a little boy, who went to a neighbour’s house, after starving a day or two, and asked for some bread. He was asked if he had not a plenty at home; he said that his father, mother, and the rest of the family were asleep, and that he could not wake them. He was asked how long they had been asleep; he said a day or two. The neighbours went over and found nine of them dead!

 

The alarming disease, noticed in the above, has existed for several weeks in some portions of the seaboard. In the Northern Neck especially it has made the greatest ravages. It frequently kills in from six to twelve hours. It principally preys upon the most robust habits. Some describe it as a typhus fever; others as a violent inflammatory sore throat; the most of them as a putrid ore throat. It affects the throat most violently, and obstructs the circulation of the air through the windpipe. In a few instances, as the one above stated, the houses in which the dead have lain, have been burnt down to prevent the diffusion of the contagion!….[11]

 

“A few days after the above, a statement was published by Dr. Trent. He calls it epidemic sore throat. He considers the disease to be similar to the malignant influenza, which prevailed last winter in the same neighbourhood, with this difference, that now the force of the disease falls upon the throat, instead of the lungs, thereby endangering suffocation. He does not think it to be croup, nor the putrid sore throat….” (Gallup, Joseph A., M.D. Sketches of Epidemic Diseases in the State of Vermont… 1815, pp. 80-81.)

 

Gray: “…there occurred an uncommon and excessive fall of rain during the early part of the year, which was succeeded by an equally uncommon and long continued drought, attended with excessive heat. Intermittent and remittent fevers, in all their peculiar forms, visited us this season prematurely; and in almost every instance assumed an unusual obstinacy, which often protracted the complaint till the alphabet of remedies was nearly exhausted; and even after the paroxysms were suspended, there remained in the system an unusually strong propensity to a relapse… Rising still higher in the grade of disease, the bilious fever next made its appearance, borrowing as it progressed, a malignancy foreign to its natural character, which cloven feature always discovered itself by a peculiar tendency to the brain, producing stupor, delirium, and phrenitis.[12]

 

“I have thought fit thus to sketch a miniature picture of the predecessors of the epidemical monster of my subject, that my readers might be the better able to analyze or decipher his mysterious genealogy. This disease is very generally preceded by a chill, and this chill is almost universally felt between the house of one, two, and three o’clock in the morning; indeed so punctually true is this symptom to its appointed hours, that I regard it as the fixed premonitory sentinel, which faithfully ushers in the true alarm.

 

“The fever which succeeds the chill is not uniform; sometimes it is high, at other times it is scarcely perceptible… The pulse, in almost every case, is small, weak, and not corded, and frequently irregular, creeping, or intermitting. In some, the first approach of indisposition is announced by a painful, needle-like pricking in the throat, with urgent thirst…Immediately after the rigor, some are affected with pain and stiffness of the neck, with inflammation and swelling of the tonsils….In some cases, there occurs not only a pain in the breast, but in the side, shoulders, and small of the back, attended with such a spasm and rigidity of the muscles, as to draw the whole body backwards…producing such a fixed position, that the body can neither be turned to the one side nor the other, or enjoy a recumbent situation.

 

“Sometimes the face and eyes are affected with violent inflammation and swelling, which are soon followed by confusion of thought, inarticulate speech, indistinct vision, and furious delirium. Rheumatic and paralytic affections of the limbs are also occasional attendants of the disease. The thyroid gland, in some instances, swells to…a surprising extent… In some cases the tonsils are so enlarged as nearly to meet each other, hindering deglutition, and rendering respiration extremely laborious.

 

“The uvula is not only generally very greatly swelled, but remarkably elongated; having also at its extremity a remarkable transparent pellicle, resembling a drop of water hanging from the point of an icicle. This elongation of the uvula, in some few instances, is so extremely great as to jeopardize the life of the person upon every attempt to swallow; and I am disposed to believe that some of the very sudden deaths which have occurred, are to be ascribed to suffocation, happening by the falling of the preternatural uvula into the epiglottis, or upper part of the trachea. The tongue is always extremely loaded with a tenacious covering of white fur, particularly that half of it next to its root. The breath and perspiration of the diseased person have, in most instances, a peculiar nauseating factor….

 

“Some are urgently troubled with pain in the abdominal region, attended with dysenteric gripings, and great looseness….

 

“The true origin and nature of this daily-traveling, wide-spreading, and fatal epidemic, remain yet unknown… From the heterogeneous symptoms of this disease, and its multifarious forms of attack, I am disposed to regard it as the epitome of all the other fevers…

 

“The universal fatality of this disease was not more remarkable than its unexampled rapidity. In many cases, the interval from the first moment of complaint, till the moment of death, is not extended beyond the fifth, sixth, seventy, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth hour; but generally, the disease runs out its course in one, two, or three hours. In some few instances it spins out its length to the fifth or sixth day, which chronic duration, although it augurs well, does not exempt the patient from danger.

 

“Sometimes the mildness of the affection would seem to speak it to be nothing more than the ordinary fixed fever of our climate; but at other times it only wants the black vomit to make it the yellow fever of populous cities; or the petechial purple spots, with buboes, to make it the pestilential plague of Egypt.

 

“For some weeks after its first introduction into this district, its ravages were confined almost exclusively to the white adult subjects, belonging to the lowest rank of society, whose profession and situation in life exposed and subjected them to cold, to want, and unwholesome diet. In a short time it embraced, with augmented malignancy, the African tribe; and next its monarchical usurpation made no discrimination of persons, or rank or colour.

 

“At first it looked like an endemical disease, visiting particular neighbourhoods, or particular counties; but it soon threw off its insulated character, and was confined neither by neighborhoods, nor counties….

 

“If what I have written sheds but one faint glimmering ray of light upon this terror-spreading disease, this destroyer of man, my reward will be great and full….” (Gray. “An Account of the Epidemic Fever…” 1819, pp. 28-36.)

 

Huntt in Medical Repository: “Dear Sir, In compliance with your request, I will give you a short history of the present epidemic.

 

“This disease is truly called pneumonia. It generally comes on with a chill, attended with great oppression about the breast, and sense of suffocation. These symptoms are succeeded by pain tin the breast, sore throat, cough, and expectoration of yellow mucus, (sometimes streaked with blood), the temperature of the skin falls below the natural standard, the blood forsakes the superficial vessels, and the pulse becomes depressed, and sometimes almost imperceptible. The first object of the physician, in such cases, should be to restore the heat of the skin, by placing his patients between blankets, making use of hot applications (Dr. Jennings’s patent bath I have found the most convenient mode of applying heat in such cases) and by giving hot teas. As soon as the patient is a little relieved from the cold skin, give a puke of ipecacuanha or tartar emetic; afterwards take three or four ounces of blood from the arm. This operation should be frequently repeated, taking care to continue the warm teas and hot applications. In some cases of great depression of the pulse, I have found it necessary to use small bleedings six or eight times during the day, when the pulse would recover its elasticity, and the lancet then may be used as freely and successfully as in common pleurisy. The medicines which I used during this time, are small doses of calomel and tartar emetic, repeated every three or four hours, as circumstances may require. After depletion, blisters may always be applied with success. When at attack is attended with a hot skin and flushed countenance, the depleting remedies may be used with less caution and more success.

 

“This disease is rapid in its progress, and requires the most prompt and judicious application of the remedies. If thee lancet is used freely, while the skin is cold, and the pulse depressed, the patient will certainly sink. In these cases the grand object of the physician should be to relieve that large blood vessels from their engorged state, by a gradual abstraction of blood, and by exciting more action in the superficial vessels, which can most effectually be done by the constant perseverance of hot applications.

 

“I have seen many dissections of persons who have died of this disease, within the last year. The full force of the disease falls upon the fauces, the trachea, and the lungs; and every case showed inflammation, congestion, adhesions, and effusions — therefore, no doubt can be entertained of the most correct mode of treatment, an all that is required, is a judicious application of the depleting remedies.

 

Most respectfully, your obedient servant, [signed] Henry Huntt.”

 

(Letter from Henry Huntt, Esq. Hospital Surgeon, United States Army. Washington, February 4^th, 1815. Pp. 399-401 in “Epidemic Diseases in Virginia and Maryland,” Medical Repository, V.II, N4.)

 

Murphy in Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences:

 

“Dear Sir,

 

“I am equally surprised, with yourself, that nothing, from the southern parts of the Union, beyond the meagre accounts which appeared in the daily prints, has ever been given to the public, relative to the character and treatment of the terrible epidemic which overspread the country a few years back. The object of this communication is to supply, in some measure, this unaccountable deficiency…. [p. 110]

 

“It was in the fall and winter of 1814 and 1815, that this new and terrible scourge visited the Northern Neck of Virginia, and the adjacent country. Exposed on all sides to the incursions of the enemy during the late war, this tract of country was incessantly harassed by the irregular and fatiguing calls of militia duty. I attended the regiment from Westmoreland county, during the latter part of their service, in quality of surgeon’s mate. As early as the month of September, while e were lying near the White House, on the Potomac, several cases of a highly malignant fever made their appearance. In one or two of these, the throat was the chief seat of attack: the rest were of a pneumonic character. The same typhoid appearances, however, were manifested by all. Lying in open tents, with nothing but a little straw for their beds, most of these unfortunate subjects were soon hurried to their graves. In November, after the troops were disbanded, and had returned to their homes, the disease became general, and proved horribly destructive in its sweep.

 

“In consequence of the first cases having appeared in camp, the origin of the disease was pretty generally ascribed to its influence, and its propagation, of course, was imputed to contagion. From what I have already said relative to the darkness which rests upon the remote causes of epidemics, you may readily infer that I am no wise disposed to throw myself into the lists of controversy. I would simply remark, that the spread of disease may be much more readily accounted for upon the assumption of an atmospherical, than a contagious influence. It appears to be utterly impossible, in a thinly settled country like this, to reconcile its rapid and almost simultaneous diffusion over such an extended surface, with the slow and uncertain effects of successive contact. It is admitted that the virus of contagion can only radiate from an infected body to the distance of a few feet. It is also granted, that a free exposure to air dilutes and impairs its malignity. Analogy, too, would suggest that the very cold weather which was exclusively selected by the disease, must also have diminished its effusive power. Moreover, it frequently happened that numbers were effected who had had no sort of communication whatever (that could be traced), with the imputed sources of infection. These considerations are sufficient to point out the difficulties which lie in the way of the opinion of its contagiousness. On the other hand, by placing the morbific [sic] power in the atmosphere — a fluid which e are constantly breathing, and which is always in contact with our bodies — we are presented with an easy method of accounting for its diffusion, however rapid and extensive….

 

“The disease was ushered in by a variety of premonitory symptoms — such as muscular debility and inquietude, weakness of the joints, aversion to move about, languor and dejection of spirits, cold extremities, impaired appetite, tightness about the chest, stricture across the forehead, depraved taste, buzzing in the ears, dull and watery eyes, &c. To these soon succeeded a sense of chilliness, alternating with sudden flushings, and accompanied with flying pains about the head, praecordia,[13] thorax, or joints.

 

“After the disease was fully formed, then ensued a remarkable prostration of strength; the alternations of cold and heat were now more strongly marked, the former not unfrequently amounting to a violent and protracted ague. The breathing became hurried and laborious — the countenance either wild and frantic, or stamped with a peculiar impression of suppressed suffering and agony — the eyes suffused, watry, and rolling — the tongue covered with a whitish slime…the bowels torpid…the skin parched, smooth, tense, and now and then mottled — the pulse at this time was commonly full, but unresisting and compressible — the pain, before wandering and unsettled, became now permanently established in some particular part.

 

“Later in the progress of the disease, the pulse became extremely frequent, contracted, irregular, and feeble. The nervous system laboured under either an immoveable weight of oppression, constituting profound lethargy or coma, or exhibited signs of excessive irritation, such as frantic delirium, tendinous [sic] commotion, great restlessness and desire to change position, tremulous tongue, quavering lips, &c. The tongue, in this stage, was covered with a dark-brown crust, hard and tenacious, which enveloped likewise the gums and teeth. The mind, at this time, often presented a sad and moving picture of distress. Amid the wild and shattered state of its energies, it exhibited tokens of constant apprehension and alarm. It was the prey of a thousand torturing visions. The spectre of death incessantly haunted it, and while there was power remaining, its terrors were conveyed in sudden starts, and wild, broken ejaculations, accompanied with an indescribable horror of countenance, and distracted energy of manner….

 

“The most prevalent forms of the disease were those of pneumonia and quinsey.[14] In some places the latter greatly predominated : in the circle of my own practice the cases were pretty much divided. These, however, were not the only shapes which it assumed. The hip and knee joints were not unfrequently the points of local attack. Occasionally the pain was seated in the eye — often in the head, just over the eyebrows — and now and then in a toe or a finger. Sometimes the poison was so completely concealed as to elude the most careful examination. The pulse at times was no guide at all. It happened to me, more than once, to witness the dissolution of patients who, till within an hour or two before death, appeared to have little or nothing the matter with them. At other times, when all the usual guides were absent, there was an indescribable something in the look and general cast of the countenance, which clearly denoted the rapid approach of death.

 

“In regard to the comparative fatality of its forms, that of quinsey was decidedly the most mortal. It was not unusual for patients to be carried off with it in twelve hours. On examination, the soft parts forming the passage to the throat would be found extremely turgid, dry, of a dark purplish, or mahogany hue, and shining appearance….Death was occasioned by suffocation….” (pp. 116-120.) (Murphy. “Observations on the Character and Treatment of the Spotted Fever, as it appeared in the Lower Neck of Virginia, and the adjacent country, in the Fall and Winter of 1814 and 1815. Communicated in a letter to the Editor, By R. Murphy, M.D. Read before the Philadelphia Academy of Medicine.” Pp. 110- in The Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 5, 1821.)

 

Sources

 

Butler, Stuart L. “The Winter of 1814-1815.” Pp. 505-507 in: Defending the Old Dominion: Virginia and Its Militia in the War of 1812. Lanham, Boulder, NY, Toronto, Plymouth, UK: University Press of America, Inc., 2013. Google preview accessed 2-19-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=g9PIII7ISoMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Freeman, Constant, Lt. Col., 1^st U.S. Artillery; Col., Corps of Artillery; p. 138 in Fredricksen, John C. The War of 1812: U.S. War Department Correspondence, 1812-1815. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2016. Google digital preview accessed 2-21-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=F_TBDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Gallup, Joseph A., M.D. Sketches of Epidemic Diseases in the State of Vermont; From its First Settlement to the year 1815, with a Consideration of their Causes, Phenomena, and Treatment. Boston: T. B. Wait & Sons, 1815. Accessed 2-7-2018 at: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-2555005R-bk

 

Gray, Thomas B. W., M.D. “An Account of the Epidemic Fever which prevailed in that district of Virginia called the ‘Northern Neck,’ in the year 1814-1815.” Pp. 28-36. in The American Medical Recorder, of Original Papers and Intelligence in Medicine and Surgery (John Eberle, compiler). Philadelphia: James Webster, 1819. Google preview accessed 2-19-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=ySWgAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Murphy, R. M.D. “Observations on the Character and Treatment of the Spotted Fever, as it appeared in the Lower Neck of Virginia, and the adjacent country, in the Fall and Winter of 1814 and 1815. Communicated in a letter to the Editor, By R. Murphy, M.D. Read before the Philadelphia Academy of Medicine.” Pp. 110-126 in The Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences (N. Chapman, M.D., Editor), Vol. 3, No. 5, 1821. Google preview accessed 2-20-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=M28pMxeMAD4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Rumsey, David. Historical Map Collection. “Southside Region.” The State of Virginia from the beast Authorities (Samuel Lewis, 1794). Accessed 2-21-2018 at: http://www.virginiaplaces.org/regions/14southside.html

 

The Medical Repository (and Review of American Publications on Medicine (Samuel Latham Mitchill, editor), “Epidemic Diseases in Virginia and Maryland,” Vol. II. No. 4 (New Series). pp. 398-399. New York: T. and J. Swords, 1815. Accessed 2-20-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZpbAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=virginia%20epidemic&f=false

[1] Our guestimate, noting that from the “Narrative Information” section one gets impression that hundreds died amongst the militia and the civiliam populations. Virtually all sources note the epidemic was horrible — high fatality rate, spread quickly, and presented itself in symptoms that were frightening. None of the sources we cite here, or others we have consulted, make a stab at the mortality. Thus, in order to recognize this epidemic and give a number for the tally, we “guestimate” at least one hundred if not more, while we think it could have been hundreds.

[2] Richmond Enquirer correspondence of Jan 3, 1815 in Gallup, 1815, pp. 80-81.

[3] “The universal fatality of this disease was not more remarkable than its unexampled rapidity.”

[4] “…this new and terrible scourge visited the Northern Neck of Virginia, and the adjacent country.” (Murphy, pp. 110-111.)

[5] David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. “Southside Region.” The State of Virginia from the beast Authorities (Samuel Lewis, 1794).

[6] Names four his correspondent knows. (Butler , p. 507.)

[7] “The Northern Neck is the northernmost of the three peninsulas (traditionally called ‘necks’ in Virginia) on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in the Commonwealth of Virginia.” (Wikipedia. “Northern Neck.” 12-4-2017.)

[8] “Putrid throat: a historic term for a severely inflamed throat, with tissue destruction, and fetid odor, often due to strep throat (streptococcal pharyngitis) or diphtheria. (Medicinenet.com/ “Medical Definition of Putrid throat.” Accessed 2-20-2018.

[9] Stafford County, VA.

[10] County seat of King George County.

[11] From another source we find that these were abstracts from a longer letter of written from Falmouth (Strafford County) February 3, 1815. It is in “Epidemic Diseases in Virginia and Maryland,” The Medical Repository (and Review of American Publications on Medicine,  pp. 398-399 in The Medical Repository Vol. II. No. 4 (New Series). Samuel Latham Mitchill, editor. New York: T. and J. Swords, 1815. Accessed 2-20-2018.

[12] Inflammation of the brain. (Wikipedia. Phrenitis. Accessed 2-19-2018.

[13] Part of the body near or in front of the heart.

[14] Infection behind the tonsil.

–~30 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 220.
—<30 Watson. “History of Tornadoes in Washington D.C.” Sterling Reporter, V1, Is. 5, 2003, 6 Narrative Information Ambrose: “During the summer of 1814, British warships sailed into the Chesapeake Bay and headed towards Washington. The warships sailed up the Patuxent River and anchored at Benedict, Maryland on August 19, 1814. Over 4,500 British soldiers landed and marched towards Washington. The British mission was to capture Washington and seek revenge for the burning of their British Capitol in Canada, for which they held the United States responsible. A force of 7,000 Americans was hastily assembled near the Potomac River to defend Washington. During the afternoon of August 24, in 100°F heat, the two armies clashed. The British Army quickly routed the less disciplined American volunteers, mostly due to a series of American blunders and a new British rocket that did little damage, but unnerved the raw American troops with a very loud, shrill noise. President Madison and Secretary of State Monroe, who had led a group of officials to watch the battle, were almost captured in the confusion. It was noted that the 100°F temperatures added to everyone’s discomfort. “After the battle, the British Army marched quickly into Washington while American soldiers, United States government officials, and residents fled the city. There were no officials left in Washington from whom the British could seek terms of surrender. The British admiral ate dinner in the White House, then gave the order to set fire to Washington. Within hours, the White House, the Capitol, and many other public buildings and residences were burning. “On the morning of August 25, Washington was still burning. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, the British soldiers continued to set fires and destroy ammunition supplies and defenses around the city. As the soldiers spread fire and destruction throughout the city, the early afternoon sky began to darken and lightning and thunder signaled the approach of a thunderstorm. As the storm neared the city, the winds began to increase dramatically and then built into a “frightening roar.” A severe thunderstorm was bearing down on Washington, and with it was a tornado. “The tornado tore through the center of Washington and directly into the British occupation. Buildings were lifted off of their foundations and dashed to bits. Other buildings were blown down or lost their roofs. Feather beds were sucked out of homes and scattered about. Trees were uprooted, fences were blown down, and the heavy chain bridge across the Potomac River was buckled and rendered useless. A few British cannons were picked up by the winds and thrown through the air. The collapsing buildings and flying debris killed several British soldiers. Many of the soldiers did not have time to take cover from the winds and they laid face down in the streets. One account describes how a British officer on horseback did not dismount and the winds slammed both horse and rider violently to the ground. “The winds subsided quickly, but the rain fell in torrents for two hours. (There may have been a second thunderstorm that followed quickly after the first thunderstorm.) Fortunately, the heavy rain quenched most of the flames and prevented Washington from continuing to burn. After the storm, the British Army regrouped on Capitol Hill, still a bit shaken by the harsh weather. They decided to leave the city that evening….” (Ambrose, et al.. “The Tornado…of Washington, Aug 25, 1814,” Washington Weather. 2002.) Ludlum: “August 25, 1814: This tornado struck Northern Virginia and Washington, DC during the burning of the Capitol by British soldiers in the "War of 1812." It was first documented in Leesburg, Loudoun County where a tornado injured two people. The Washington newspaper wrote that there was much forest damage. It is not known if this tornado moved southeast into Washington or if more than one tornado occurred. In Washington the tornado blew off roofs and chimneys through the residential areas. The swirling debris killed and wounded more British soldiers in the city then the American troops did.” (Ludlum. Early American Tornadoes: 1586-1870. 1970.) Myatt: “On Aug. 25, 1814, as British troops occupied a burning Washington, D.C., a powerful thunderstorm hit the city. According to many sources, that severe thunderstorm spawned a tornado that would plow through the heart of Washington….There has been some disagreement over the years about whether the Washington storm of 1814 was a tornado, strictly a severe thunderstorm, or perhaps even some kind of tropical system. However, the descriptions of the storm and the manner of its destruction seem most consistent with a tornado, so this has become a widely accepted account of the storm….” (Myatt, Kevin. “Did Tornado Wreak Havoc on War of 1812?” Roanoke Times, Aug 26, 2006.) Watson: “August 25, 1814. A strong tornado struck the same day British troops set several buildings in the city on fire during the War of 1812. More British soldiers were killed by the tornado than by the American resistance. Raging fires at the Capitol, the White House, and other public buildings were partially extinguished by heavy rain with the storm. The tornado blew off roofs, knocked down chimneys and fences, damaged numerous homes, and lifted cannons and deposited them several yards away. At least 30 Americans were killed or injured and an unknown number of British were killed or injured.” (Watson 2003, 6) Sources Ambrose, Kevin. Dan Henry, Andy Weiss. “The Tornado and the Burning of Washington, August 25, 1814.” Washington Weather – The Book. Historical Enterprises, December 2002. Accessed at: http://www.weatherbook.com/1814.htm Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982. Ludlum, David M. Early American Tornadoes 1586-1870. Boston, MA: American Meteorological Society, 1970. Myatt, Kevin. “Did Tornado Wreck Havoc on War of 1812?” Roanoke Times, 8-26-2006. Accessed at: http://www.roanoke.com/weather/wb/79760 Watson, Barbara (Warning Coordination Meteorologist). “History of Tornadoes in Washington D.C.” Sterling Reporter, Vol.1, Issue. 5, Spring 2003, p. 6. http://www.erh.noaa.gov/lwx/reporter/spring2003.pdf

–26  Wardsborough (Wardsboro), Windham County. Blanchard tally based on breakouts below.

–23  Gallup. Sketches of Epidemic Diseases in the State of Vermont. 1815, p. 79.

 

—  3  End of May (one family). Allen. “Memoir of an Epidemic Fever…at Wardsborough…” 1815.

—  7  June, from among first 200 cases treated by Dr’s Allen and Wheeler. Gallup, 1815, p. 78.

—  6  Under “unfavourable circumstances;” apparently not under care or untreatable. Gallup, 78-79.

–10  Under the “treatment of a noted quack.” Gallup, 1815, p. 79.

 

Narrative Information

 

Allen: “In the winter and spring preceding the epidemic, the diseases of this place were similar to those which occasionally occurred, at the time, in other parts of the country. They varied little or none from the disorders of 1812-13….

 

“Typhus mitior[1] appeared in several instances. None proved fatal. Several cases put on very alarming symptoms. Hemorrhages were common. Blood was discharged by the mouth, nose, and per anum et uterum….

 

“The bloom of May was marked by a change of diseases. Typhus gravior[2] in a few instances appeared. Three cases terminated fatally in one house….

 

“At the termination of the two last cases, which happened within a few hours of each other, the weather was unusually humid and warm. The corpses suddenly run into the putrefactive process, and most unfortunately as it was, they were not deposited in sufficiently close coffins. The effluvium evolved from the diseased was very offensive to the people who attended the funeral ceremonies. Here were sown the first seeds of the epidemic. Nearly all those who were exposed to those septic gases had an attack of the disease; and from the sick it was communicated to their attendants throughout the season, except instances in which much caution was used. The interim of time from exposure to an attack, was from ten to twenty-one days. In some instances the attack was sudden; in others, the person would be lingering a number of days.

 

“The disorder commenced with a stiffness and pain in the nape of the neck, severe pain in the head, especially over the orbits; pains wandering and acute in different parts of the body, resembling rheumatism or membranous inflammation; chills, rigours, anxiety, cold, and hot paroxysms quickly alternating; numbness and coldness of the extremities; the palpebrae[3] swollen and tunica adnata of the eyes suffused with tears; a wild, vacant stare with the eyes, and the head always preternaturally hot; the pulse somewhat increased in frequency, and generally soft and small in the extremities….The tongue was commonly covered with a yellowish coat, except in some cases, of a very disagreeable nature, in which last it was smooth, red, and dry. In these cases hemorrhages were to be expected.

 

“There was always nausea at the stomach, and very disagreeable bitter taste in the mouth….The breath was very offensive and hot, though in the first stages of the disease, there was seldom apparently any disease in the chest. The skin communicated to the hand a burning sensation, essentially different from common inflammation.

 

“In almost every instance, the functions of the animal organs were deranged. This was characterized by impaired sensation and volition. In some instances perception from external impulses was almost obliterated; in others, the most exquisite sensibility prevailed, and occasionally these extremes would alternate. Delirium and stupor were common symptoms; either denoted a high degree of diseased excitement, but did not always portend death….

 

“As the summer season advanced, bilious symptoms became more predominant. The typhoid nature of the complaint increased. A sinking diarrhoea more generally ushered in the disease, which continued more or less troublesome during the disorder. The skin assumed a more sallow hue; but yet the disease retained the distinctive characteristics of the epidemic at its commencement….” (pp. 228-231.)

 

Gallup: “By the politeness of Dr. Jonathan A Allen, I am favoured with an account of the severe sickness in Wardsborough, in Windham county. This town is situated about twenty miles west of Connecticut river, and east of the high lands….Many springs of pure water; no swamps or meadows of any size; no stagnant waters; land moist and a dark loam soil….” (p. 77.) [next several paragraphs are similar to Dr. Allen’s narrative above.]

 

“The number of those who have had regular fevers, after the first of June, was about two hundred, and about as many more had the disease arrested by bleeding, emetics, cathartics, &c. The account is dated Sept. 27^th. It appears, the disease had not left the place at the time of writing. Our correspondent was confined eight weeks himself by the disease, and part of the statement was furnished by Dr. Wheeler, his partner in business. The treatment seemed to consist of a mixed kind, varying according to the circumstances of the case. Of the two hundred cases submitted to these gentlemen’s directions, seven died. Six others also died under unfavorable circumstances; one, for instance, bled to death at the nose; one was unmanageable; one died of cynanche maligna;[4] one not seen by any physician; two under adverse circumstances.

 

“Also ten others died under the treatment of a noted quack, who used hot rooms, copious sweating, rum, ether, &c. But a very few recovered by this method. The whole number of deaths was twenty-three….” (Gallup. .Sketches of Epidemic Diseases in the State of Vermont; From its First Settlement to the year 1815… 1815, pp. 77-79.)

 

Blanchard note: According to the 1800 U.S. Census the population of the North District of Wardsboro was 868. That of the South District was 612. The total comes to 1,481.

 

Sources

 

Allen, Jonathan A. M.D. “Memoir of an Epidemic Fever which prevailed at Wardsborough, Vermont, and its vicinity, during the summer and autumn of 1814, together with some Observations relating to its Remote Causes and Mode of Treatment.” New-England Journal of Medicine and Surgery (Boston: Bradford and Read), Vol. IV, No. 5, July 1815, pp. 228-234. Google preview accessed 2-18-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=8jskj3DgeEUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Gallup, Joseph A., M.D. Sketches of Epidemic Diseases in the State of Vermont; From its First Settlement to the year 1815, with a Consideration of their Causes, Phenomena, and Treatment. Boston: T. B. Wait & Sons, 1815. Accessed 2-7-2018 at: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-2555005R-bk

 

United States Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce and Labor. (Second Census, 1800). Return of the Whole Number of Persons within the Several Districts of the United States. “Schedule of the whole number of Persons in the District of Vermont.” Washington, DC: Printed by order of the House of Representatives. Accessed 2-12-2018 at: https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1800-return-whole-number-of-persons.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

[1] “A mild or abortive typhus.” Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary. 2012.

[2] “Epidemic Typhus. A severe species of typhus {Hooper 1822.}” English Glossary of Causes of Death and other Archaic Medical Terms.

[3] “Elevating muscle of upper eyelid. Wikipedia. “Levator palpebrae superioris muscle.” 2-11-2018 edit.

[4] Fatal sore throat. (“English Glossary of Causes of Death and other Archaic Medical Terms.” Antiquusmorbus.com)

–20 Lettens, Jan. “USS Gun Boat no. 164 (+1813).” Wreck Site.
–20 NWS FO, Philadelphia/Mount Holly. “Historical Weather Facts…,” Oct 17, 2005.
–20 US Dept. Navy. “Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured…”
–20 US Dept. Navy. “Hurricanes…the War of 1812, Charleston, SC, Hurricanes Aug & Sep”
–20 US Dept. Navy. “U.S. Navy Ships Lost in Selected Storm…’

Blanchard note on type of event: The loss is variously attributed by sources below to a gale (Lettens; Commodore Campbell in US Dept. of the Navy), squall (NWS Philadelphia WFO; Navy, “Casualties”), storm (Lettens) or hurricane (Naval Historical Center, US Dept. of the Navy). The letters to the Secretary of the Navy transcribed below persuade us that this event could well have been a hurricane or tropical storm.

Narrative Information

Lettens/Wreck Site:
Nationality: American
Type: frigate
Propulsion: sailing ship
Cause lost: gale/storm
Date Lost: 16/09/1813
….
History “Gun Boat #164 sank in a squall at St. Mary’s Georgia, 20
drowned.”

(Lettens, Jan. “USS Gun Boat no. 164 (+1813).” Wreck Site.)

National Weather Service, Philadelphia/Mt. Holly Weather Forecast Office:
“….Sep 16…1813… Navy Gun Boat #164 sank during a squall in the Chesapeake Bay, 20 drowned. (N) [United States Navy.”

US Dept. of the Navy, Casualties: “Gun Boat #164 sank in a squall in Chesapeake Bay. 20 drowned. 16 Sep. 1813.” (U.S. Dept. Navy. “Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured…”)

US Dept. of the Navy Naval Historical Center: Hurricane Damage to the Southeastern Stations.
“Over a three-week period in August and September 1813, in the middle of a war against Great Britain, two successive hurricanes rocked the naval stations at Charleston, South Carolina, and St. Marys, Georgia.. Damage these gales caused would hamper naval operations along the southeastern coast well into the new year.

Commodore Hugh G. Campbell to Secretary of the Navy Jones
St Mary’s 18 Sept. 1813

Sir

We had yesterday morning and night proceeding one of the most severe Gales I have ever witnessed–It commenced about 6 PM at NNE and veered to NBW when it blew with the greatest force and continued until about 1 A,M, at which time the tide, which had risen to an uncommon height ceased to flow, and for about one hour we were favored with a calm–About two o’clock the Gale recommenced at SW and blew until daybreak with equal, indeed I think increased violence–here the destruction commenced, every Vessel in harbor drove on shore or sunk at their moorings–Gun Vessel No. 164 Jno. R Grayson commander, that had just returned from convoying troops to Beaufort, upset at an anchor and of 26 souls on board at the time she went down only six were saved — Mr. Grayson and two men reached the marsh on the Florida side and with great difficulty supported themselves through the night and until 11 o’clock next day, when they were discovered and taken off….No. 161 in ordinary lies sunk a little above the harbor, I am in hopes she will be got up–No 62 the Vessel which was reported as condemnable, which lay off the Town, having on board the men attached to vessels in ordinary, sunk at her anchors, but fortunately no lives were lost — Nos. 160, 158, 63 and 165 are on shore above high water mark, they will be got off with little damage the two former are in ordinary– No. 3 Hospital Vessel parted her cables and drifted over a body of marsh about 3 miles, and is now on the Florida shore have sent her assistance and hope she will be got off….The Gun Vessels and almost every Vessel on shore lay in the street — No. 63 has lost her rudder and channels, Nos. 160 and 165 the Iron work of their rudders–the saucy Jack, Privateer of Charleston laying ready to sail is now laying high and dry on a marsh that must be at least 5 feet above the line of Low Tide. She draws 14 feet, seven feet being the common Rise.

“This town has suffered much. Seven inhabited houses blown down and several in frame, but no lives lost,–much more fortunate than its neighboring town Fernandina, where I am told by a gentleman just from that place, that 20 houses are blown down every Vessel in port drove on shore, except a Swedish Brig, and a considerable amount of Mercantile property destroyed I have the honor to be With Great Respect Sir your obedient servant

Hugh G Campbell

(US Navy, Naval Historical Center. Hurricanes and the War of 1812: Documents on Selected Storms Affecting Naval Operations; cites Dudley, William S., et al. The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Vol. II, 1813 (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1992): 399-408.)

Sources

Dudley, William S. (Editor). The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History Volume II, 1813. Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, Dept. of the Navy, 1992. Accessed 8-16-2022 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Naval_War_of_1812/18l6dGT15DUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22captain%20john%20h.%20dent%22

Lettens, Jan. “USS Gun Boat no. 164 (+1813).” Wreck Site. Posted 12-11-2007. Accessed 8-16-2022 at: https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?15873

National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, Philadelphia/Mount Holly. “Historical Weather Facts for the Philadelphia/Mt. Holly, NJ Forecast Area.” Mount Holly, NJ: NWS FO, Oct 17, 2005 update. Accessed 1-4-2018 at: https://www.weather.gov/phi/hist_phi

United States Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center. “Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured in Selected Accidents and Other Incidents Not Directly the Result of Enemy Action.” Washington, DC: Washington Navy Yard. Accessed at: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/NHC/accidents.htm

United States Department of the Navy. Hurricanes and the War of 1812: Documents on Selected Storms Affecting Naval Operations. “Charleston, South Carolina, Hurricanes of August and September 1813.” Letter of Commodore Hugh G. Campbell to Secretary of the Navy Jones, dated September 18, 1813, at St. Mary’s, SC. Washington., DC: Navy Department Library, Naval Historical Center, Washington. Navy Yard, September 13, 2005 entry. Accessed at: http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/hurricane_1812.htm

— 9-24 Nine known and 15 believed drowned at Sullivans Island. USACE, p.15.
— >23 Fraser, Walter J. Jr. Lowcountry Hurricanes: Three Centuries of Storms… 2006, p. 66.
–15-20 Letter to Philadelphia newspaper, in Rubillo. Hurricane Destruction in [SC], 2006.
— 15 Jordan, Dukes, and Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. P.22.

Narrative Information

Dunn and Miller: “1813 Aug 27-28 S.C. …Extreme [intensity]…Tides very high, many drowned.” (Dunn, Gordon E. and Banner I. Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised). 1964, p. 311.)

Fraser: “….At the opposite end of the harbor, on Sullivan’s Island, where Fort Moultrie was located, the ocean surged over the sand dunes and covered the island in four to five feet of seawater. Swirling waters swept furniture out of dwellings. Fierce winds knocked over twelve houses that were carried away into the ocean. Four Moultrie was the only place of refuge that was not awash or threatened with inundation. Soldiers hurried to save families in danger of being swept away. But they could not rescue everyone needing assistance. Nineteen people drowned, among them five of six young white women in one house and ‘seven or eight negroes.’ The bodies of some were strewn among the wreckage of homes, furniture, and small boats. They provided ‘an awful remembrance of the horrors the [survivors] had escaped.’ Deaths on Sullivan’s Island and in the city reached at least twenty-three, but this was only a ‘reckoning’ of the minimum number of fatalities from the tropical cyclone at sea and ashore….” (Fraser, Walter J. Jr. Lowcountry Hurricanes: Three Centuries of Storms at Sea and Ashore. 2006, p. 66.)

Jordan: “1813 Aug. 27-28 (3) …Landfall near Charleston, where tide surged beyond 12 feet; Sullivan’s Island virtually submerged; 15 lives lost; damage to property in Charleston estimated at $2 million – buildings, wharves, and ships: [lists over 29 vessels – ships, schooners, barges, sloop, tender, and boats].”

Naval History and Heritage Command:
“Charleston, South Carolina, Hurricanes of August and September 1813.

“Hurricane Damage to the Southeastern Stations

“Over a three-week period in August and September 1813, in the middle of a war against Great Britain, two successive hurricanes rocked the naval stations at Charleston, South Carolina, and St. Marys, Georgia. . Damage these gales caused would hamper naval operations along the southeastern coast well into the new year.

“Captain John H. Dent to Secretary of the Navy Jones

The Honorable William Jones Charleston 28 Augt 18

Sir,

It is with regret, I have to inform you, that the weather for some time past has indicated a gale–which came on yesterday about noon from the N.E. and by 9. P.M. increased to a hurricane, which blew with greater violence until 12, than I have ever recollected, to have experienced; the City and wharves present this morning a melancholy aspect; it is impossible as yet to give any idea of the damage, but it has been greater than that Sustained in 1804, the Nonsuch, Carolina, and Hospital Ship, are the only vessels safe, the latter dismasted, some of the barges in seeking safety in the docks were carried in the streets, with the general Wreck, and are much damaged, the tide rose so high that Ships are now on the wharves–the beautiful new Bridge over Ashley river is entirely destroyed, and washed away. the Prison Ship parted her cable and is now on shore at James Island, a wreck of a vessel on fort reef–not Known whether the people on board were saved….

Rubillo: “The storm of August 1813

“….the ‘dreadful storm’ of August 27 and 28, 1813…was one of the most destructive storms to hit post-Columbian South Carolina to its date. As described by one eyewitness writing after the storm from Charleston to a newspaper in Philadelphia

The very foundations of the houses shook. My bedstead had so much motion, that it was not till morn and with incessant fatigue that I got to sleep. In the morning I made a sortie from my lodgings to survey the ravages the storm had made, and the sight was distressing. The trees which afforded a shelter from the scorching rays of the sun were blown down, and lay in every direction in the streets. Slates, tiles, window shutters, signs &c. were scattered over the pavements in quantities.

When I reached the wharves the sight was distressing beyond expression. Every wharf was tore up and at least, one half destroyed. Some were entirely washed away, the logs and timbers washed up into the streets and against the stores; where shallops, boats, shingles, hogsheads, spars, and every individual article that was in or near the wharves was washed promiscuously one over the other, and crushed to pieces.

Every vessel appeared to be more or less damaged, some were thrown partly in the wharves, some sunk in the river, others at the wharves, some were up in the very streets; one large ship was driven against the market and stove part of it in, the smaller vessels were all either up on top of the wharves, or sunk along side.

The guard ship and prison ship drove ashore in James Island, high and dry. I have not heard yet whether any prisoners escaped. Nearly half a mile of Charleston bridge washed away, and drifted on James Island. For want of boats there is no information from Sullivan’s Island till the afternoon. I learned that 12 dwelling houses have been blown down and washed away, and 15-20 persons drowned. The whole Island was completely inundated four to five feet – the furniture was washed out of many houses. The soldiers from the fort were sent out to afford assistance to some families who were in danger of being washed away. A great many ladies were rescued and taken to the fort, which was the only place of security that was not under water.

Fort Johnson is very much injured; considerable part of it is destroyed. The men’s barracks were washed to sea. Many stands of arms, clothing, provisions &c. were also lost. One of the officers told me last evening that they were up to their breasts in water several hours during the night, saving men, women, and children, who were in the barracks, and it was only at the point of the bayonet that they were forced to seek other shelter, although the barracks were then washing away by the sea. To repair the damages and losses sustained at the Fort will require $150,000.

The damage sustained by this city and shipping in rough calculation estimated at near two million.

(Rubillo, Tom. Hurricane Destruction in South Carolina: Hell and High Water. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2006.)

USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers): “34 [paragraph]. Loss of life.

“Storm Date Associated Deaths
….
27 August 1813 9 known, 15 believed drowned at Sullivans Island.”

(U.S. Army Engineer District, Charleston. Corps of Engineers. Subject: Interim Report on Hurricane Survey, Isle of Palms, Sullivans Island, and Charleston, South Carolina.)

Sources

Dunn, Gordon E. and Banner I. Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised Edition). Baton Rouge LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1964, 377 pages.

Fraser, Walter J. Jr. Lowcountry Hurricanes: Three Centuries of Storms at Sea and Ashore. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2006.

Naval History and Heritage Command, US Department of the Navy. Hurricanes and the War of 1812: Documents on Selected Storms Affecting Naval Operations; cites Dudley, William S., et al. The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Vol. II, 1813 (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1992): 399-408.) Accessed 8-17-2022 at: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/h/documents-on-selected-storms-affecting-naval-operations.html

Rubillo, Tom. Hurricane Destruction in South Carolina: Hell and High Water. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2006. Accessed 8-17-2022 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hurricane_Destruction_in_South_Carolina/Rw9_CQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=dreadful+storm+of+1813&pg=PA6-IA9&printsec=frontcover

U.S. Army Engineer District, Charleston. Corps of Engineers. Subject: Interim Report on Hurricane Survey, Isle of Palms, Sullivans Island, and Charleston, South Carolina. To: Division Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer Division, South Atlantic, Atlanta, Georgia.

— ~93 McNeil. “General Hamilton (Schooner), sunk capsized, 8 Aug 1813.” Mar. His. Great Lakes.*
— ~84 Mansfield. History of the Great Lakes, Vol. 1, 1899, pp. 146 and 152.
— >80 US Dept. Navy. “Casualties: US Navy…Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured…”
— >80 US Dept. Navy, Naval Historical Center. “U.S. Navy Ships Lost in Selected Storm…”
— >80 Spectre. Mariner’s Book of Days 2007. p. 67.
— 53 Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive.

USS Hamilton.
— “many” Swayze. Shipwreck! 1992, p. 105.

USS Scourge.
— 40 McNeil. “Scourge (Schooner), sunk, 8 Aug 1813.” Maritime History of the Great Lakes.
— >40 Swayze. Shipwreck! 1992, p. 212.

*Mansfield: Our number (Blanchard) based on Mansfield’s note on p. 146 that each vessel had a crew of 50, and on p. 152 that “…a heavy gust struck the Hamilton and Scourge…carrying away the heavy guns through the careening of the vessels, and they both foundered and lost all of their men but 16.”

*McNeil: Our number (Blanchard) based on McNeil’s transcription of a Buffalo Gazette article “Schooners Gen. Hamilton & Scourge Lost on Lake Ontario.” 8-17-1813, in which it is noted that 60 men were on board the Hamilton and 45 on the Scourge when the vessels went down, of whom but “about a dozen of the crews” were rescued. We added 60 and 45, for 105, and subtracted 12, to obtain 93.

Narrative Information

Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News: Fifty-three of the 72 crewmen aboard the Hamilton and Scourge were killed when the ships went down during a squall in August 1813, north of Port Dalhousie. Their gravesite, 90 metres deep, was discovered in 1975 and explored separately by Jacques Cousteau and the National Geographic Society.” (Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. “Report News. Ontario Government Limits Diver Access to Storied Shipwrecks.” Cites Associated Press.)

Michigan Archaeological Society: “In the early hours of August 8, 1813, the schooners Hamilton and Scourge capsized in a sudden squall, sending them 300 feet to the bottom of Lake Ontario.” (Michigan Archaeological Society. Michigan Archaeologist, Vol. 37, 1991, page 28.)

Swayze: “Hamilton or General Hamilton. Armed schooner of 76 t. [tons] and 112 ft., launched in 1809 at Oswego, NY as the merchantman Diana. Lake Ontario: A War of 1812 veteran, this schooner and her fellow warship Scourge (qv) were anchored off the mouth of the Niagara River when they were blasted by a summer storm. The August 8, 1813 blow sent both ships to the bottom. The exact number of lives lost when the Hamilton went down is not known, but it is said that many sailors and marines stationed aboard were lost. The wreckage was rediscovered by sonar in 1975, explored by camera in 1980 and was the subject of an experimental satellite television show in 1990.” (Swayze. Shipwreck! 1992, p. 105.)

Swayze: “Scourge. Armed schooner of 45 t. [tons] and 110 ft., launched in 1811, near Niagara as the Royal Navy schooner Lord Nelson. Lake Ontario: This small warship was anchored off the mouth of the Niagara River with her fleet-mate Hamilton (qv), when the two vessels were sunk by a storm. They went down on August 8, 1813, the Scourge with the loss of about 40 lives. She had been captured from the Royal Navy during the War of 1812 and was a subject of a live underwater television exploration in 1990.” (Swayze. Shipwreck! 1992, p. 212.)

US Navy: “Schooners USS Hamilton and Scourge capsize in a heavy squall on Lake Ontario. Over 80 drowned. 8 August 1813.”

Sources

Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. “Report News. Ontario Government Limits Diver Access to Storied Shipwrecks.” Cites Associated Press. Accessed 1-11-2021 at: http://www.boatnerd.com/news/archive/1-06.htm

Mansfield, John Brandts (Ed. and Compiler). History of the Great Lakes (Vol. 1). Chicago: J.H. Beers & Co., 1899. Google digitized. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=iHXhAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

McNeil. “General Hamilton (Schooner), sunk capsized, 8 Aug 1813.” Maritime History of the Great Lakes. Accessed 1-11-2011 at: https://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/38355/data?n=3

McNeil, William R. “Scourge (Schooner), sunk, 8 Aug 1813.” Maritime History of the Great Lakes. Accessed 1-11-2011 at: https://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/38356/data?n=1

Michigan Archaeological Society. Michigan Archaeologist, Vol. 37, 1991, page 28.

Spectre, Peter H. Mariner’s Book of Days 2007. Sheridan House, Inc. 2006, 112 pages. Partially digitized by Google; Accessed 1-11-2021 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ICXhAlBXx7YC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Swayze, David D. Shipwreck! A Comprehensive Directory of Over 3,700 Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. Boyne City, MI: Harbor House Publications, Inc., 1992.

United States Department of the Navy. Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured in Selected Accidents and Other Incidents Not Directly the Result of Enemy Action. Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center. 2008. Accessed 1-11-2021 at: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/c/casualties-usnavy-marinecorps-personnel-killed-injured-selected-accidents-other-incidents-notdirectly-result-enemy-action.html

United States Department of the Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command. U.S. Navy Ships Lost in Selected Storm/Weather Related Incidents. 7-29-2009. Accessed 1-11-2021 at: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/us-navy-ships-lost-in-selected-storm-weather-related-incidents.html