Sanitation: for control of yellow fever, 18, 38–39, 54, 98, 114
in Galveston, 98
in New Bern, N.C., 107
in New Orleans, 38–39, 54, 98, 114, 145n5
Sarah Bruen, 86
Savannah, Ga.: Mitchel’s plans for harassment of, 48
yellow fever in, 16, 20, 117
Scott, Winfield, 19, 54, 58
Scurvy, 55, 57, 59, 74, 82, 129
Sea Foam, 86
Sea Islands, S.C., 47–50, 54, 81
Secessionville, Battle of, 66
Seddon, James, 80
Seminole Indians, 120
Seven Pines, Battle of, 74
Seward, William, 61
Shea, Daniel D., 41–42
Shelby, Joseph, 94
Sherman, William Tecumseh, 26, 56, 77, 92, 100–101, 149n2
Shiloh, Battle of, 55, 57, 116
Shuller, Miss, 110
Sickly season in South: and Grant, 114, 116
Lee on, 68–69, 70, 77, 80, 154n13
for malaria, 2–3, 7, 12, 13, 20, 58, 67–68, 74–78, 80, 83–84, 112
and southern civilians, 102, 112–13, 115
for yellow fever, 4, 7, 20, 54, 71, 76. See also Malaria
Yellow fever
Slavery: emancipation of slaves, 61–62, 152n21
fear of malaria by slaves, 13
immunity of slaves to yellow fever, 141n22
malaria suffered by slaves, 102
mosquitoes as justification for, 28
St. Domingue slave revolt, 119–20
and slave trade, 18
yellow fever as divine punishment against southerners for, 18
yellow fever in slaves, 51
Smallpox, 6, 68, 83, 99, 130
Smiley, Thomas, 48
Smith, Ashbel, 17
Smith, Edmund Kirby, 60–61, 150n10
Smith, Martin Luther, 58, 150n6
Smith, Robert, 52
Smith, William, 73–74
Smuggling of quinine, 109–11, 115
South America, 139n7
South Carolina: Battle of Secessionville in, 66
disruption of Union supply delivery to, 48–49
Hunter’s abandonment of Charleston campaign, 66–67
malaria in, 50, 70–71, 112–13
missionaries to Sea Islands, 49–50
mosquitoes in, 28, 50, 67
quarantine in, 47
quinine shortage in, 112–13
sickly season in, 12, 54, 71, 80
yellow fever in, 16, 27, 32, 39, 47–50, 54, 66–67, 71, 107
Southern civilians: and malaria, 112–13, 117, 118
and quinine shortages, 102, 112–13, 115, 117
and sickly season in South, 102, 112–13, 115
smuggling by, 109–10
and yellow fever, 108, 114–15, 117
Spaight, Ashley W., 42, 44, 146–47n11
Spanish-American War, 120
Spanish conquistadors, 6
Sperry, Andrew, 89
Spotswood, William, 100
Stanton, Edwin, 57, 81
Steele, Frederick, 89–93, 156n8
Stewart, Kensey, 106, 109
Stillwell, Leander, 90
Stripling, William, 99
Sumner, Arthur, 49
Supply lines: for Confederate army, 87
for Union army, 48–49, 77–78, 80–81, 91
Swan, Edward, 105
Swan, Samuel, 80
Tahoma, 46
Talbot, William, 45
Taliban, 120
Taylor, Mrs. Zachary, 7–8, 19
Taylor, Zachary, 9
Taylor’s Bayou, Tex., 43, 44
Tennessee: Battle of Shiloh in, 55, 57
diseases in, 55–56
Halleck’s troops in, 55–58
malaria in, 13, 55–58
Nineteenth Infantry, 63
yellow fever in, 117
Texas: malaria in, 14, 31
measles in, 44
mosquitoes in, 44
quarantines in, 42, 96, 98
Union forces along coast of, 39–45
yellow fever in, 16–17, 27, 32, 39–45, 54, 95–98, 101, 117, 147n12
Texas military units: Eleventh Battalion of Volunteers, 42, 44
Twentieth Regiment, 43
Thompson, Jacob, 105
Towle, S. K., 65
Towne, Laura, 49, 50
Trask, Captain, 110
Treasury Department, U.S., 49
Tripler, Charles, 23, 73–74
Trobriand, Regis De, 73
Tucke, Lewis, 46
Tupelo, Miss., 57
Twitchell, George, 79
Tyler, John, 73
Typhoid fever: and black soldiers, 82, 99
and Civil War soldiers generally, 3, 21, 25, 55, 66, 69
in Louisiana, 58
medical complications of malaria combined with, 50, 101
misdiagnosis of, 45, 139n9
in Mississippi, 57, 77
and Peninsular Campaign in Virginia, 74, 75
in South Carolina, 67
statistics on, 129
symptoms of, as similar to malaria, 74
in Virginia, 22, 23
U.S. Colored Infantry, Fifty-sixth, 94
U.S. Colored Troops, Second, 98–99
United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), 24, 30, 34, 55–56, 86, 89, 94
Van Dorn, Earl, 63–66, 78, 150n6, 150n14
Vermont, Seventh Infantry, 59, 65, 85
Vicksburg, Miss.: canal project near, 59–60, 71, following p. 71, 77, 78
defense of, 77, 80
Farragut’s campaign against, 58–62, 150n14
and fear of yellow fever, 79
Grant’s siege of, 28, 30, 77–80, 82–83, 95
malaria in, 59–60, 62–65, 78–80, 82–83
mosquitoes in, 28, 63, 79–80
surrender of, by Confederate army, 82, 83, 86, 87
Vietnam War, 120
CSS Virginia, 99
Virginia: and defense of Richmond, 32, 68–69, 76–77
malaria in, 22–23, 32, 72–77, 100, 113
McClellan’s failure to capture Richmond, 61, 75, 76
McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign in, 68–69, 72–77, 87, 152n21
mosquitoes in, 71, 72–74, 76, 100
sickly season in, 74–76
siege of Petersburg in, 30, 92, 113
yellow fever in, 17
Walker, John, 94, 96–98
Walker, T. H., 56
Washington, George (black soldier), 99
Washington, D.C.: biological warfare against, 103–6
malaria in, 22–23, 74
Wedge, A. C., 92–93
Weeks, Georgia, 52
Welles, Gideon, 46, 47, 99
West: Civil War in, 39–45, 88–98, 101–2
malaria in, 12, 24, 88–98, 101–2
West Indies, 34, 47, 70, 96, 114, 115, 117
White, Mrs. Clement, 110
Whitehill, J. C., 91
Whiting, William H. C., 52–53
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 13
Whooping cough, 25
Wilder, John Augustus, 98–99
Wiley, William, 27–28
Wilke’s Battery, 97
Williams, Thomas, 59–60, 62–64, following p. 71, 77, 78
Willson, George, 22 Wilmington Journal, 53
Wilmington, N.C.: Confederate forces in, 52–53, 67
smuggling of quinine into, 111
withdrawal of Union troops from, 27
yellow fever in, 16, 50–54, 107, 108, 115
Wilson, William T., 110
Winkleman, John, 32
Winters, Charles, 32–33
Wisconsin, Eighth Infantry, 83–84
Withrow, A. J., 79
Women: and cult of domesticity, 110
and malaria, 9–11, 112–13
as smugglers of quinine, 109–10
Woodbury, Daniel P., 98
Woodward, Joseph Janvier, 3, 74
>
World War II, 118, 119, 120
Worsham, W. J., 63
Wright, H. G., 66–67
Yellow fever: African Americans’ immunity to, 18, 61–62, 81, 107, 141n22
in antebellum period, 3–4, 104, 107–8
biological warfare with, 159n4
black soldiers with, 51, 98–99, 107
and blockade-runners, 160n12
in Caribbean, 15, 38, 45, 47, 51, 104, 105, 120
cause of, presumed to be environmental, 6, 79, 103–4
and Confederate soldiers, 20, 27, 44, 95–98, 101, 108
and developing countries, 118
fatalities from and fatality rates for, 15, 16, 26, 32–33, 36–37, 41, 43–54, 84, 86, 96–99, 106, 107, 108, 117
fear of, 3–4, 26–27, 37–41, 43–45, 48, 53, 85, 106–8
and immigrants, 16, 96, 97
immunity of southerners to, 18, 27
impact of generally, 7–8
map of incidence of, 128; misdiagnosis of, 32–33, 47–48
and missionaries to Sea Islands, 49–50
in New Orleans, 15–16, 36–39, 58, 84, 86, 98, 117
in North, 140n13
northerners’ responses to, 17–18, 38
physicians, ministers, and nurses with, 51–52, 107
and prisoners of war, 107, 108
quarantines and sanitation measures for control of, 18, 38–39, 42, 47, 54, 84–86, 107, 114
during Reconstruction, 117
Reed’s discoveries on, 23, 117
and St. Domingue slave revolt, 119–20
sickly season for, 4, 7, 20, 54, 71, 76
in South, 14–20, 32–33, 36–54, 85–87, 95–100, 106–9, 114–15
and southern civilians, 108, 114–15, 117
statistics on, 3, 15, 46, 53, 84, 96–99, 107
sylvatic, or “jungle,” yellow fever, 141n25
symptoms of, 15, 17, 32–33, 45, 48, 52
in Texas, 16–17, 27, 32, 39–45, 54, 95–98, 101, 147n12
transmission of, by Aedes aegypti mosquito, 15, 84, 114, 117
treatment for, 33–34
and Union blockade, 85–86, 114, 117
and Union sailors, 32–33, 39–47, 84–86, 98–100
and Union soldiers, 18–20, 26–27, 32, 47–54, 106–7
“urban” yellow fever, 141n25. See also Aedes aegypti mosquito
and specific battles, states, and cities
Yorktown, Va., 72, 75
Zitzleman, Private, 97
OF THE 620,000 soldiers who perished during the American Civil War, the overwhelming majority died not from gunshot wounds or saber cuts, but from disease. And of the various maladies that plagued both armies, few were more pervasive than malaria—a mosquitoborne illness that afflicted over 1.1 million soldiers serving in the Union army alone. Yellow fever, another disease transmitted by mosquitos, struck fear into the hearts of military planners who knew that “yellow jack” could wipe out an entire army in a matter of weeks. In this groundbreaking medical history, Andrew McIlwaine Bell explores the impact of these two terrifying mosquitoborne maladies on the major political and military events of the 1860s, revealing how deadly microorganisms carried by a tiny insect helped shape the course of the Civil War.
Soldiers on both sides frequently complained about the annoying pests that fed on their blood, buzzed in their ears, invaded their tents, and generally contributed to the misery of army life. Little did they suspect that the South’s large mosquito population operated as a sort of mercenary force, a third army, one that could work for or against either side depending on the circumstances. Malaria and yellow fever not only sickened thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers but also affected the timing and success of certain key military operations. Some commanders took seriously the threat posed by the southern disease environment and planned accordingly; others reacted only after large numbers of their men had already fallen ill. African American soldiers were ordered into areas deemed unhealthy for whites, and Confederate quartermasters watched helplessly as yellow fever plagued important port cities, disrupting critical supply chains and creating public panics.
Bell also chronicles the effects of disease on the civilian population, describing how shortages of malarial medicine helped erode traditional gender roles by turning genteel southern women into smugglers. Southern urbanites learned the value of sanitation during the Union occupation only to endure the horror of new yellow fever outbreaks once it ended, and federal soldiers reintroduced malaria into nonimmune northern areas after the war. Throughout his lively narrative, Bell reinterprets familiar Civil War battles and events from an epidemiological standpoint, providing a fascinating medical perspective on the war.
By focusing on two specific diseases rather than a broad array of Civil War medical topics, Bell offers a clear understanding of how environmental factors serve as agents of change in history. Indeed, with Mosquito Soldiers, he proves that the course of the Civil War would have been far different had mosquitoborne illness not been part of the South’s landscape in the 1860s.
ANDREW MCILWAINE BELL lives in Washington, D.C.
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS BATON ROUGE 70808
www.lsu.edu/lsupress
“This book is an important contribution to Civil War scholarship. Most students of the war are aware, in a general way, of the impact of disease on Civil War armies, and know that microbes killed twice as many soldiers as bullets did. They are also aware that disease or fear of disease impacted several campaigns either directly or by shaping strategic decisions of commanders who wanted to minimize disease casualties. But by concentrating on malaria and yellow fever, and thoroughly documenting not only the extent of these scourges but also the fears about them, Bell has added a great deal to our understanding of the impact of these diseases. Military historians will have to take his findings and arguments seriously in future scholarship on Civil War campaigns. The research is thorough and impeccable and the writing is lucid.”
–JAMES M. MCPHERSON, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom
“Far more soldiers died of disease than of battlefield wounds in all American conflicts of the nineteenth century—including the Civil War, where the ratio was roughly two-to-one. Often lost in the immense literature on bloody battles such as Gettysburg and Shiloh, this grim fact lies at the heart of Bell’s superb study of malaria and yellow fever. All students of Civil War military history will profit from this book, which demonstrates that the mosquito, as much as the minié ball, wreaked havoc in Union and Confederate armies.”
–GARY GALLAGHER, author of Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War
Mosquito Soldiers Page 26
