Once an infected mosquito bit a person,
the onset of
the disease began within a few days. The
patient
suffered head and
body aches, along with high fever and
nausea;
damage to the liver resulted in a
yellowing of the
skin and eyes. More
than half the victims of yellow fever
died within a
few days; those who survived gained an
immunity
against the disease.
Southern ports established stations of
quarantine
where ships arriving from tropical ports
were
required to wait, often
three or four weeks, until they were
certified free
of the disease and allowed to proceed to
the wharves
and unload
their cargo.
There were many severe epidemics of
yellow fever
during the Civil War. The disease was
common in the
swamps around the
Mississippi River as well as the
Southern ports.
Coastal North Carolina was swept by an
epidemic in
1864; of the 763
cases reported in New Bern, 303 died.
Wilmington
traced its epidemic to the arrival of
the blockade
runner Kate.
From October 20 to November 15, yellow
fever
claimed 710 lives, about 15 percent of
Wilmington's
population.
Yellow fever was one of the dreaded
diseases
spread by mosquitoes. Yearly summer
epidemics of
yellow fever had
plagued and devastated American cities
as far north
as Boston for years. Doctors of the
Civil War era
knew that the
disease was brought to North America
each year by
infected seamen on ships from tropical
ports, but
they had no idea
that the great plagues were spread by
mosquitoes.