The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1947-06-19
", low-voiced and with choking


|ly, low-voiced and with choking
throat. ~
We had scarcely wei one.
enough to attend the sick and
bury the dead" DR.. Mudd rerli.
"a. They were not allowed to
row cold before they were hur-
He'd off to the graveyard over
across there on Bird Key. Nc
more respect was shown the vic.
TINS. whether they were Officer
a. Soldiers, than to the putrid re-
mains of a dead dog. We gave
tie burial parties whisky both
before and after that distilled
a little more life into them.
. "They moved quickly. In hall
al hour after a man died his
body was nailed in a coffin, load
ca on boat, rowed half ! mile
to the burial island, q shallow
grave dug and covered. and the
party was back at the fort again,
IN the best of humor. II might
be the turn Of any one Of them
next. "
"You finally fell sick, Or.
MuQ0. ~ 49, 49, s4ss4ss se. asss3
He nodded EYES," thoughtful
". The first of October in 1857,
that was. ! hadn't feared the
disease. ] had felt, and I wrote
my wife, that my lack Of fear
would keep me from being at
tackled. DIR. Whitehurst had come
over from Key West to help
me- and he pulled me through,
thanks to a merciful God! ! got
up the 18th Of October, fully re-
covered from the dreadful fever
except for flesh and strength"
"And in recognition Of your
sacrifice and service? z"
They put me back in that
little cell beside the sallyport for
two years more!"
Nobody said a word in your
behalf?"
Every officer and soldier Of
the decimated Post signed a pc
tition to the Government setting
forth my services i was never
ambitious of preferment 4. and
it was dispatched to Washington,
but it never reached there!''
Destroyed"
Il suppose so; nothing els"
"You wrote a report on the epi-
denic ). its cause?"
eyes. A fatal miasma from the
standing water Of the moat. The
first case occurred August 18th
1857. in Company X, located
in the classmates on the south
side of the fort directly over the
unfinished moat. The Post COM
mandant ordered the company
removed. An old cloak, soaked
by a tropical storm, hung in the
neighboring room, and mechan-
ically, by adhering formites, the
disease worked along through the
whole company without a skip.
Our hospital supply Of beds
gave out and we were thereafter
compelled to bring the patients
in on infected ones. Then the
were afflicted all al
one time. But the most remarks
able spread of the disease. was on
tn night of the 10th Of September
in Company M, CHARTERED in the
classmates Immediately above the
hospital.
'For twenty-nine days the
company had remained wholly
exempt from yellow fever, owing
no doubt to the fact that it lay
entirely behind the bastion which,
with the prevailing southeast
wind, produced a downward 81
opposing current of air. But on
the morning Of the 10th a small
raincloud arose to the. south oil
the fort, coming up rapidly with
a heavy wind that lasted about
twenty minutes. This blew di.
rectly from the hospital and Com.
pany L, towards Company M.
. "The night following every
man went to bed in his usual
health; but between IL and /
O'Clock nearly one-half the com.
pany was attacked with the few.
Ier in its most malignant form
beginning at the point nearest tht
hospital and extending thirts