There were comparatively few cases of yellow fever during the Civil War. Peacetime brought a boom of trade as improved rail service and shipping allowed people and goods — as well as disease ...

Victims suffered from jaundice, high fever and black vomit ... But increased mobility in the period after the Civil War enabled the disease — through infected carriers — to travel farther ...

Yellow fever killed more than 150,000 people in New Orleans between the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Civil War, according to Olivarius. “Once you see it, every single source is covered ...