There are three possible explanations for how yellow fever arrived in Wilmington. The first and most widely held was that the blockade-runner Kate brought it. The second is that it was already in Wilmington. Yet a third, as suggested in a September 29th letter (150 years ago today), to the Wilmington Journal saying that the Union conspired to spread it.
On Nov. 17th, the Journal reported 654 dead out of an estimated 1500 cases. The Rev. Pritchard continuing preaching at his church and was among one of the last to die, on November 14th and is buries beside Dr. Dickson in Oakdale Cemetery.
Four hundred of the poorer dead are buried together at Yellow Fever Hill in Oakdale. More affluent victims were buried in individual plots elsewhere in the cemetery.
Quite an Epidemic. --Old B-Runner
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