June 5, 1861---The Black Measles

JUNE 5, 1861:    

Illness is becoming a prevailing problem for Union troops. Almost 4,000 cases of measles have broken out this week alone, and many of the rural-born troops, who have no natural immunity to pandemic diseases, sicken and die.

Twice as many men were to die of disease in the war than of combat wounds, particularly in the South. 

Recently, William Meacham, an epidemiologist, has theorized that what many Civil War soldiers suffered from (“The Black Measles”) was a strain of influenza similar to or identical to the Spanish Flu of 1918, which similarly broke out two generations later among close-packed troops in World War I. One in three human beings came down with the Spanish Flu; and 1 in 10 of the victims died.