Notable Wilmington Anniversaries This Year: 1862 Yellow Fever Epidemic

From the December31, 2021, Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News  "The year ahead:  11 Wilmington anniversaries we'll be marking in 2022" by John Staton.

YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC : 160 YEARS

Back in 1862,  hundreds of Wilmington residents died and thousands more, about half the  Port City's population, fled the city when there was an outbreak of yellow fever spread by mosquitoes. 

Kind of reminds you of our present-day troubles with COVID-19.

There is a marker in Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery showing where some 400 of those deaths are buried in a communal grave.

It reads:

1862 Burial Site of Yellow Fever Victims.

Communal burial site of approximately  400 people who died of yellow fever during Wilmington's epidemic between September and the frosts of November 1862.  Few yellow fever  victims' burials are marked with headstones.

In 1862, Wilmington's population, black and white, was approximately 10,000.  About half the population fled the city to avoid the epidemic.

Of the reported 1,505 cases , 654 (43%) died of yellow fever.

--Old B-Runner