Making history an eternal return.
Everybody has heard about the plague epidemic during Jaffa siege that spread over Egypt, but what about other epidemics that occured during napoleonic times that needed quarantine for troops or sailors or civilians?
François
(still searching everything about Guillaume Dode de la Brunerie...)
Typhus was a major problem among Napoleon's troops in Russia in 1812. It is possible that as many troops died from typhus as were killed in combat.
Typhus was a huge concern among the leadership of Wellington's Army as they pursued Marshal Massena's Army as it retreated from the Lines of Torres Vedras to Santarém in November 1810. The Allied Army followed closely behind them and were very concerned about catching fevers.
From my forthcoming book on the Light Division in 1810:
"After seeing the squalid and filthy buildings that the French had abandoned during their retreat, Wellington was concerned that they might cause his own troops to get sick. He issued a general order to his regimental commanders requesting the they “be very cautious in occupying the quarters in which the French troops may have been quartered, to make their men clean them well out before they sleep in them; and, if possible, to have fires lighted in them, but care must be taken not to burn the houses.”[1] This was to clean the houses of fleas and lice. Although unknown at the time, they are carriers of typhus. The next day he issued orders in regards to horses. They were not to “be put into any stables or places which have been occupied by the enemy, without very carefully cleaning and washing the mangers, &c. to take every precaution against glanders.”[2]
[1] General Order dated 16 November 1810. [2] General Order dated 17 November 1810. Glanders is a disease that affects the respiratory system of animals. At the time there was no known cure. Apparently the leadership did not follow his instruction for sickness devastated the command structure of the Light Division by December 1810.
"Senior officers also began to fall sick. On 20 November, Lieutenant Colonel Beckwith [commander of the 1st Brigade] was incapacitated with a fever and by the end of the year was sharing a place in Lisbon with Lieutenant Simmons.[1] Lieutenant Colonel Georg de Korfes, the commander of the Brunswick Oëls,died on 30 December 1810 from an intermittent fever.[2] Compounding the chain-of-command problems was that Colonel Wynch, the commander of the 2nd Brigade, came down with typhus in late December and was not likely to survive." Colonel Wynch died on 6 January from typhus.
[1] Simmons; page 131 [2] von Kortzfleisch; page 163
yellow fever must be a candidate as well.
Hans - you are quite correct, even if you do not consider the West Indies. In October 1810, Carthagena, Spain had an outbreak of yellow fever and among its victims was General Jean-Baptiste Francesqui dit Franceschi- Delonne, who "In early June - 1809 . . . was sent by Marshal Soult to Madrid with dispatches describing in detail the situation in Galicia. The Marshal felt that General Franceschi would provide additional information to the what was in the dispatches. General Franceschi declined an escort set off with only his aides-de-camp. In the vicinity of Tordesillas, in a village named San Pedro de Latarce, he was attacked by 'El Capucino (the Monk) and eight guerrillas and made prisoner. In late June El Capucino and his prisoner were crossing Spain, when they came upon the British Headquarters. General Franceschi was in a foul mood when he was interviewed by Wellington. He kept repeating, 'Oh! How pitiable is it for a hussar general to be taken by a monk!' The monk refused to turn him over to the British and General Franceschi was taken to Seville, then to Grenada and eventually Carthagena. On 23 October 1810 General Franceschi died of yellow fever while a prisoner." From Charging against Wellington: Napoleon's Cavalry in the Peninsular War. Page 146
Interesting, but then Malaria was also a cause of death of thousands even in Europe - Walcheren??
True!