The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878: A Case Study

                                                        Yellow Fever Hospital

The worst outbreak of Yellow Fever in American history hit the Mississippi River Valley in 1878.  The region recorded 120,000 cases and some 20,000 deaths.  Here is how it looked to the people on the ground:

In August 1878, news reached Holly Springs, Mississippi that the neighboring town of Grenada was in the grip of the yellow fever epidemic that was sweeping the South.  The fever had stricken some one hundred and thirty one Southern towns that summer. 

Yellow fever is an acute infectious disease of tropical and sub-tropical regions, which is capable of invading the temperate zones as devastating epidemics during warm seasons.  A typical attack of yellow fever has a sudden onset with headache, backache, fever prostration and congestion of the face during the first few days.  Later there may be vomiting of black blood, bleeding gums, kidney disease and jaundice.  Mortality varies greatly, sometimes running to over fifty percent.

Yellow fever is transmitted by the bite of certain types of mosquitos, a fact unknown in 1878.  Ignorance bred fear, and those who could fled any district touched by the fever. 

On August 7, the mayor and council of Holly Springs set up a Board of Health which advised, that to protect the town, a rigid quarantine should be imposed.  The mayor and council rejected the resolution on the grounds that it would be cruel to turn away refugees fleeing from the disease.

Men, women and children, from Grenada began arriving in Holly Springs on August 17.  A Mr. Downs became ill on the day of his arrival.  As illness overtook one after another of the refugees, fear spread through the town.  In the early hours of Sunday, August 25, Mr. Downs died.  Hoping to keep Downs’ death a secret from the public, his body was removed through a back window and buried in the darkness. 

More and more of the refugees began to die, and cases of “bilious fever” developed among local citizens.  The diagnosis changed as the number of cases grew.  On September 4, yellow fever was declared “epidemic” in Holly Springs.  Streets to the train depot were jammed with townspeople trying to refugee north.  Colonel H.W. Walters took charge of relief measures.  

By September 6, Father Anacietus Oberti and twelve nuns from Bethlehem Academy had set up a makeshift hospital. There was little, in fact, that could be done to treat the yellow fever other than to provide quiet surroundings, water, and to withhold food during the height of the disease.  Six of the nuns quickly became ill and died, as did Father Oberti.  Doctors, nurses and other volunteers from New Orleans arrived in response to an appeal for help, but the death list continued to mount.

The yellow fever spread across the entire town and to nearby farms.  W. J. L. Holland, who became Chairman of the Relief Committee after Colonel Walters died from the fever,  wired the press, “The situation is worse.  It looks like every man must go down.  Only ten out of the first hundred cases live.  Two days ago, thirty news cases and ten deaths; yesterday, twenty three new cases and eleven deaths.  After having recruited five times, the Relief Committee yesterday numbered one.  Five hundred persons now lie stricken.  We pray for friends and frost.  We have a safe full of keys and valuables belonging to families that have all been swept away.”

On October 19, 1878, Mr. Holland issued the following message to the press, “Today there have been six new cases and one death.  Your correspondent happens to be one of the new cases, after having struggled with ‘Yellow Jack’ from the beginning of the epidemic, he desires, through you, in the name of this people, to express their lasting gratitude to our friends in every part of the Union who have generously contributed to us in so many ways.”

October 25, 1878.  Funeral notice: “W. J. L. Holland, late Chairman of the Relief Committee, departed this life at 2:30 A.M. aged thirty six.

November 1, 1878: “Four new cases, no deaths.  Heavy frost last night and business houses open.”

Out of a population of 3,500, some fourteen hundred citizens of Holly Springs were stricken with the fever.  Of these, three hundred and four died.

An effective vaccine for Yellow Fever was not developed for another sixty years.

Love, Sex and Marriage in Victorian America

Paperback

Ebook

What was Reconstruction Like in the South?

Holly Springs, Mississippi

From 1865 to 1875 the state of Mississippi underwent “Reconstruction”, a plan to reintegrate the South into the Union. Three companies of Federal troops, under the command of Major Jonathan Power, were stationed in Holly Springs. A circular of instruction to post commanders read, “. . .you are particularly directed not to molest or incommode quiet and well disposed citizens and will be held to strict accountability that your men commit no depredations of any sort. Houses, fences, farm property, etc. will be secure and remuneration will be compelled and punishment inflicted for all infractions of the rule. The well disposed people must be made to feel that the troops are for their protection rather than for their inconvenience.”

In 1860 the population of Holly Springs had been 5,690; by 1865 the population had declined to 2,000. The survivors found themselves without money, cotton, horses, livestock or provisions. Most had lost loved ones and many had been burned out. For the vanquished ex-Confederates it was a period in which the social order was turned up side down. Individuals prominent under the old regime were disenfranchised, while former slaves and new men from the North took the most prominent positions in the state. The ex-Confederates struggled to regain power. Elections were characterized by bribery, intimidation and trickery.

The Democratic Party was comprised of Southern whites and a few blacks who remained under the influence of their old masters. The Republican Party was comprised of a few native whites known locally as, “turncoat scalawags”, interested in the spoils of office, Northern “carpetbaggers” and ex-slaves, attracted by promises of obtaining, “forty acres and a mule.”

Blacks were in the voting majority throughout Marshall County in 1865, having 3,669 males of voting age in the county while the whites of voting age numbered only 3,025, a large number having been disenfranchised because of their activities during the war. During the entire Reconstruction period, blacks formed more than fifty percent of the total population of the county.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi 1861-1875: A Portrait

A portrait of Holly Springs, a small but prosperous town in northern Mississippi’s Marshall County, during the years of the American Civil War and the era of Reconstruction. This is a glimpse of life in Mississippi during these dramatic years, relying on the words of the people who lived during that time and on other primary historical sources to tell the story.

The Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier

The tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier is located at the Beauvoir Confederate Cemetery located on the grounds of Beauvoir House in Biloxi, Mississippi. Beauvoir was the last home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government at Beauvoir.

Link to: The Confederate Woman: Soldier and Spy

My titles on Amazon

My titles at Barnes & Noble

Download Free Kindle Reading Apps:

The best reading experience on your Android phone or tablet, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows 8 PC or tablet, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone.