The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1862
Matagorda, Matagorda County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of the most important port cities of Texas’ early history, Matagorda served as an exit point for goods such as cotton shipped down the Colorado River. During the Civil War, it was also an important point for Confederate blockade runners to move goods and bypass Union ships. It was also at this time that Yellow Fever made its way into the city. Much like the tropical storms, cases of Yellow Fever swept through Texas coastal communities periodically, doing particular damage to cities like Galveston as part of a larger-scale epidemic that haunted the coast for decades. The worst epidemic period for Matagorda was in the fall of 1862. During the Civil War, the continual movement of contraband through Matagora’s port likely introduced the Aedes Egypti mosquito species to the populace, This species, still a danger today, thrived in the wetlands of Matagorda County. It carried the deadly Yellow Fever, causing extreme symptoms such as jaundice and kidney failure. From September 27 to November 27, 1862, Yellow Fever ravaged the city. Research suggests that as much a one third of the city’s population died from the disease. Further deaths occurred among slave populations throughout the county, but no names of these victims have been recovered. The disease also caused the death of many soldiers throughout the county and neighboring areas. By the time it had subsided, many had been buried in Matagorda Cemetery. Matagorda continues to be an important location for bio-archaeological research into viral outbreaks. (2015)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A leading Gulf port, Matagorda thrived on cotton shipped down the Colorado River, and during the Civil War it became a busy channel for Confederate blockade runners slipping past Union ships. That same wartime traffic likely carried the Aedes aegypti mosquito into the wetland port, and in the fall of 1862 the yellow fever it spread ravaged the town. From late September to late November, the epidemic is estimated to have killed as much as a third of the population, filling Matagorda Cemetery and claiming enslaved residents and soldiers whose names largely went unrecorded.
Why it matters
The epidemic captures how war, commerce, and disease intertwined along the antebellum Gulf Coast, where the same shipping that built a town's fortunes could also carry its deadliest threat.
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Related events
- · Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1862
Themes & tags
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