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 mosquito-borne 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 ground-breaking medical history, Andrew McIlwaine Bell explores the impact of these two terrifying mosquito-borne 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 non-immune 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
“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