Bacteria and Bayonets

For hundreds of years men have fought and died to expand and protect the United States relying on martial skill and patriotism. Various powerful enemies, from the British to the Nazis, and legendary individuals including Tecumseh and Robert E. Lee have all fallen before the arms of the American soldier. Yet the deadliest enemy faced by the nation, one which killed more soldiers than all of its foes combined, has been both unrecognized and unseen. The war waged by the United States against disease, and by disease against the United States, has impacted the country more than any other conflict and continues to present a terrible threat to this day.

Illness has been more than just a historical cause of casualties for the American military, in numerous wars it has helped to decide battles, drive campaigns, and determine strategy. In fact the Patriots owed pestilence as much for their victory in the Revolution as they did their own force of arms. Likewise disease helped to prevent the conquest of Canada in 1812, drove strategy in the Mexican War, handicapped Lee’s 1862 advance, and helped lead to World War II. Disease also provided an edge in the wars against Native Americans, yet just as soon turned on the US when unacclimated US troops were dispatched to the southern Pacific.

This book not only traces the path of disease in American military history but also recounts numerous small episodes and interesting anecdotes related to the history of illness. Overall it presents a compelling story, one that has been overlooked and under appreciated. Yellow fever, malaria, tuberculosis, glanders, bubonic plague, smallpox, and numerous other bacteria and viruses all conspired to defeat America, and are enemies that need to be recognized.

Table of Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

One - Columbus Day or Contagion Disease “Arrives” in America

Two - “Deus Flavit Nasus et Dissipati Sunt”: The Protestant Wind and the Catholic Flu

Three - Pocahontas and the The English and Disease in the Conquest of the Colonies

Four - “the Paths to Glory Lead but to the Grave”: Disease in the Early French and Indian Wars

Five - “Pestilence Gave them a Common Death”: Disease and the English Conquest of North America

Six - typhus and Disease and the American Revolution

Seven - A Nation Forged in Gout and expanded by Venereal A Medical Look at the Early Republic

Eight - Montezuma’s Disease and Manifest Destiny

Nine - Johnny Dysentery and Billy Disease and the Civil War

Ten - Remember the maine, to Hell with Yellow Imperialism and Illness

Eleven - Love in the Age of Cholera, Warfare in the Age of Progressivism and Pestilence

Twelve - Bullets, Bayonets, and Biological Warfare in the Twentieth Century

Thirteen - Al-Qaeda, Anthrax, and Terrorism and Disease in Post-Cold War America

CONCLUSION

ENDNOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX