Report on epidemic cholera and yellow fever in the Army of the United States, during the year 1867 / By Brevet Lieut. Col. J.J. Woodward.
- Joseph Janvier Woodward
- Date:
- 1868
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report on epidemic cholera and yellow fever in the Army of the United States, during the year 1867 / By Brevet Lieut. Col. J.J. Woodward. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![MEMPHIS, TENN. MemarJcs on Monthly Bcport of Sick and Wounded, Menvphis, Tenn. W. S. Tremaine, Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A., November, 1867. Two cases of yellow fever occurred this month. I was attacked October 31st and returned to duty November 24th. The other was the case of a man detailed to nurse me. He was under the care of A. A. Surgeon R. McGowan, who has left for Nashville; consequently, I am unable to furnish any detailed account of his sickness beyond the fact that he died on the fourth day, having had a suppression of urine for forty-eight hours. These were the only cases in the command, although the disease prevailed extensively in the city. I had visited a number of cases, during October, by invitation of different physicians in civil practice. During the months of October and November, many of the cases I have reported as remittent and intermittent fever simulated yellow fever. The health of the command, as regards malarial diseases, is improving; due, in my opinion, to the daily administration of quinine and whiskey at reveill6. ALEXANDKIA, EA. Extract from Monthly Report of SicTc and Wounded, Alexandria, La. Acting Assistant Surgeon J. F. M. Forwood, October, 1867. Sergeant Bazine was admitted on the 27th from the steamer Fannie Gilbert. The disease was evidently contracted from other cases on this steamer while en route from Baton Rouge to join his command at Jefferson, Texas. Symptoms of black vomil had already set in, and death followed in eight hours after his admission to hospital. Extract from Monthly Beport of Sick and Wounded, Alexandria, La. Acting Assistant Surgeon J. F. M. Forwood, November, 1867. Private Malan, yellow fever, was admitted from steamer; had been sick at Baton Rouge; was on steamer ten days while en route to this post. Beport of the Epidemic of Yellow Fever at Alexandria, La., during 1867. Acting Assistant Surgeon J. F. M. Forwood. Alexandria is situated on the right bank of Red river, about 80 miles from its mouth and 360 miles from New Orleans; lat. 31° 17', long. 15° 27' west. Tlie barracks are on the opposite side of the river, at a distance of three-quarters of a mile from Alexandria and within a few hundred yards of Pineville. The quarters occupied by the troops are hewed log cabins 12 by 18 feet, and formerly used as officers' quarters. The country on the right bank of the river, and opposite tlie camp, is cleared level farm land, partly under cultivation. On this side (the left bank) it is rolling and thickly wooded with pine, except a space of less than a mile nearest the camp, one edge of which is a lake or cypress swamp, extending up to the houses in the village of Pineville and within a short distance of camp. From the overflow during the summer and the rains of the spring, the margins of these swamps are left covered with vegetable matter, which undergoes decomposition as the waters recede, making it exceedingly unhealthy until washed off by the next rains. The soil is a sandy loam, readily washed by the rains as they fall, the water running off into the bayous and swamps. Spring water sufficient for use is found, and well water can be obtained at from ten to twenty feet from the surface in a stratum of quicksand. Alexandria is the parish seat; consequently it is visited by those living within a circuit of 40 or 50 miles for business purjioses and to obtain provisions landed by steamers en route up the river from New Orleans. During the low stages of the river navigation is obstructed by the rapid current of the few inches of water over the falls, a short distance above this point- This renders it necessary to reship the freight at this point on boats of less draught of water. From this fact, steamers, during the epidemic, direct from New Orleans, an infected city, were compelled to remain several hours here, the passengers, of necessity, detained, and liable to be left here sick with yellow fever. The mail routes via mouth of Red river, and from Opelousas, through Cheneyville, were additional indirect routes of communication with New Orleans. When I reported at this post, March 2d, 1867, the command consisted of Company B, 20th U. S. Infantry, numbering 76 enlisted men and 2 commissioned officers; with the exception of 20 recruits, they were men that had been serving in Virginia, and the entire command was in good condition. During the month of March there were 19 on sick report; in May there was an aggregate of 11. About the first of May, three detachments were sent to adjoining parishes, leaving at the post about 40 in all. Early in September it became evident that the epidemic, then in New Orleans, would soon reach this post; it had already made its appearance along the Mississippi, apparently through the constant travel between New Orleans and these points. The sanitary condition of both Alexandria and Pineville at this time was exceedingly bad, being overflowed in the beginning of summer, and piles of filth left by the receding water. No rain had fallen in a long time, and the pools of stagnant water left by the overflow filled the air with gases of the most offensive and unhealthy chai-acter: this was markedly the case after sunset and before sunrise. To improve the condition of the town sufficiently would be a work not easily accomplished, since there seemed to be no inclination to assist on the ])art of the citizens to guard, by cleanliness, against the approaching epidemic. 4](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21366044_0188.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
