In 1862, Wilmington, North Carolina was hit with a Yellow Fever epidemic that caused half the city’s population to flee. While the disease outbreak seems forgotten today, it was devastating at a time when the Civil War was already underway. The city was an important port for blockade runners, and when the first cases were reported in July 1862, many pointed to the blockade runner Kate as the source of the infection. Dr. W. T. Wragg was sent by the Confederate government to investigate the outbreak. He concluded that there were several cases of Yellow Fever in the city before the Kate entered the port.
In February, 1864, Wagg published an abridged report on the Wilmington Epidemic in the Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal. Dr. Wagg, like most doctors of his day, did not understand that Yellow Fever was transmitted by mosquitos. He believed that “bad air” caused the disease. However, many of the conditions that led to odiferous air foster the increase in mosquito reproduction. Wagg describes the health conditions in the city in 1862: “The hygenic condition of the city is…terrible in the extreme. The streets and yards were filled with heaps of filth and ordure, rotting in the sun.” According to Wagg, the problems of generally poor hygiene were exacerbated by the wartime conditions. Drainage systems were not maintained because workers had been diverted to constructing fortifications. In addition, the weeks prior to the outbreak had been particularly wet. This combination of factors resulted in stagnant pools of water proliferating.
Yellow Fever is a virus for which there is now a vaccine. In 1862, there was no vaccine and limited effective therapies. Roughly 15% of cases progressed to a stage at which the virus attacked the liver, giving the patient’s skin a yellow tint. Among those displaying the characteristic yellow skin, a quarter to half would die. Patients in this stage often vomited black liquid. The mortality rate and the great suffering of even those who survived led this to be one of the most feared of 19th Century diseases. In Wilmington, 43% of the identified cases resulted in death. Half of the city’s population fled during the epidemic.
Confederate soldier Lemuel Hoyle wrote to his mother that “The reported appearance of this deadly contagion…created a tremendous panic in the city. The citizens were leaving by scores and hundreds in every manner of conveyance that could be obtained.” [Lemuel J. Hoyle to mother, September 18, 1862, L.J. Hoyle Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill]
Of Wilmington’s pre-war population of 10,000, about 1,500 were infected. More than 650 deaths were reported. The Kate had arrived in August. By September 27, 1862 the Confederate armory in the city had to shut down and it did not reopen for two months. A few weeks later, the salt works close due to the virus. Work on two Confederate naval vessels, the CSS Raleigh and the CSS Neuse, was halted when workers fled the city. Work did not resume on the ships for nearly four months. By October, many of the local railroad workers were sick with the virus and operations were repeatedly interrupted on the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. Since the railroads carried the mail, postal service was curtailed.
Many local retail businesses closed during the outbreak, and the city’s pharmacies closed when the pharmacists sickened or died. The supply chain for all kinds of goods, including food, collapsed. The Wilmington Journal reported on October 1, 1862 that “It has been one of the aggravations of our present difficulties that our people could hardly obtain any article, even of the most absolute necessity…The stores have been all closed, their proprietors gone – the doors locked. Provisions shut up.”
City officials imposed strict quarantine rules on the blockade runners. Ships had to undergo inspection and quarantine for thirty days after arrival in the port. Whether the Kate brought the virus to Wilmington or not, blockade running would come to be associated with Yellow Fever.
It was only the arrival of hard frosts, which killed off the mosquito populations, that ended the epidemic.
Report from the Richmond Dispatch on the Yellow Fever Epidemic:
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Note: I found the quotes from the Wilmington Journal in this paper.
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