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History Matters: Measles killed thousands of Civil War soldiers

Red River Radio | By Gary Joiner, Ph.D.
Published February 10, 2015 at 8:45 AM EST
Civil War hospitals like this one in Washington, D.C., treated soldiers for common maladies, such as malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, and measles.
Library of Congress
Civil War hospitals like this one in Washington, D.C., treated soldiers for common maladies, such as malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, and measles.

A multi-state outbreak of the measles, a highly contagious respiratory disease, has public health departments on guard. The measles outbreak reminds commentator Gary Joiner of how the disease spread during the Civil War.

Civil War hospitals like this one in Washington, D.C., treated soldiers for common maladies, such as malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, and measles.
Credit Library of Congress
Civil War hospitals like this one in Washington, D.C., treated soldiers for common maladies, such as malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, and measles.

History Matters #402 - Measles commentary

History Matters is made possible in part by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Louisiana Cultural Vistas Magazine.

Copyright 2015 Red River Radio
Louisiana News
Gary Joiner, Ph.D.
Gary Joiner is a cartographer and an associate professor of history at LSU in Shreveport. He is the author or editor of 12 books including “Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862,” “One Damn Blunder From Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign in 1864,” “Through the Howling Wilderness: The Red River Campaign and Union Failure in 1864,” “Red River Steamboats,” and “Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy: Mississippi Squadron.”
See stories by Gary Joiner, Ph.D.