From “The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal” July 1851 by A.P. Merrill
Notes taken by Emma Clay of Medical Officer with 8th U.S. Infantry who was not named.
An epidemic occurred not named but believed to be Yellow Fever.
At the time of the appearance of this epidemic I held a commission in the Medical Staff of the Army and was stationed at the cantonment near the village of Shieldsborough, Mississippi.
With the expectation that it might become my duty to contend with this fatal disease, I had taken some pains on my arrival in the South the year previous (1819) to inform myself as to the most improved methods of treatment as pursued by the physicians of New Orleans. Up to the time of its appearance at the Bay of St. Louis I had not met with an opportunity to witness a case of it.
The settlement upon the Gulf Coast then called the Bay St. Louis extended along the seashore for some three or four miles. The whole extent is a mere sand bank too sterile for successful cultivation and in some parts almost bare of vegetation.
The settlement is indeed upon the margin of a sand plain, which extends with very little undulation for many miles back. But after the Gulf shore it is covered by a forest of scattering pines and a thin coating of coarse grass, which affords an indifferent pasture.
The Garrison at which I was stationed occupied the Southwestern extremity of the settlement, some scattering cottages the Eastern, while about mid-way between was the little village of Shieldsborough. It was mostly for the accommodation of families resorting there in the Summer and Autumn for health and recreation. A small number of families, mostly descendants of the ancient French and Spanish settlers, remained there during all the year.
The place had been up to that time (1820) remarkably healthy at all seasons and consequently had come to be considered a safe and agreeable summer retreat from New Orleans during the prevalence of sickness in that city.
At the Garrison was stationed the 8th Regiment of Infantry commanded by Lieut. Col. Zachary Taylor numbering about seven hundred men who were mostly from the Northern states and strangers to the climate. For this body of men I was the only medical attendant.
There was nothing remarkable in the character of the diseases prevalent in the Garrison during the Spring and Summer until about the middle of August when cases of remittent fever became somewhat frequent and very soon alarmingly violent. Not many days elapsed before some of my patients died, and to my great surprise, with all the symptoms detailed in the books as characteristic of Yellow Fever.
The neighboring residents, being without a physician, required some portion of my time and attention.
Deaths in General Ripley’s Family
The disease had scarcely made progress in the Garrison before it appeared in the family of General Ripley, then recently arrived from New Orleans and living in the neighborhood.
A German girl, a servant in the family, was the first victim who died after 48 hours. Mrs. General Ripley died a few days afterwards.
Others followed this death after two days illness. Most of these were the patients of Dr. Bell of the Army who was also taken sick and his patients placed under my care.
It is generally true of Yellow Fever that when it attacks a small town, a much larger proportion of the inhabitants are attacked than in larger cities. Frequently it is the case that the disease runs its course to a fatal termination more rapidly.
A large majority of the local inhabitants escaped the disease entirely. At the Garrison the common soldiers were much more generally attacked than the citizens in the village. The former were all strangers while the latter were mostly inured to the climate. To the first it might be objected that the first cases of the disease occurred at the Garrison among the common soldiers who had had no intercourse with New Orleans or no communication with the trading vessels. But it appeared almost simultaneously in all parts of the Settlement, principally among the females in the higher classes of society.
A stranded vessel was found and upon the orders of Colonel Taylor I visited it and made a report.
Some weeks previously some bottles of wine and port had been recovered from the hold by diving and one or two of the men engaged in the business were among the early victims of the disease.
I have already remarked the Bay St. Louis settlement is upon a sand bank with a nearly level pine barren extending many miles in the rear, all imperfectly drained by the natural rivers and Bayous. The Spring of 1820 was uncommonly wet and rainy, converting large portions of the extensive plain into a marsh. This state of things was followed by a parching drought, which continued, from June until October.
Source: WPA – 1937 “Health”