In the post-September 11 world, bioterrorism is the stuff of nightmares. During the Cold War arms race, the United States and the Soviet Union developed vast stockpiles of biological and chemical agents.
The fear is that terrorists could get their hands on a man-made strain of smallpox, anthrax or the plague and unleash it in a city. At the very least, such an outbreak could derail an entire region. At worst, it could end civilization as we know it.
However, this fear is far from a modern preoccupation. Medieval armies threw plague-infected corpses over enemy walls to spread disease, and the plague of smallpox (in some cases deliberately spread) among Native Americans is well documented.
A lesser-known bioterrorism incident occurred during the American Civil War, when a Southern sympathizer attempted to spread yellow fever among Northern cities.
Dr. Blackburn: Doctor… and terrorist?
Dr. Luke Blackburn was a Kentuckian, physician, and Southern sympathizer. That was him known for his treatment of yellow fever outbreaks in Louisiana and Mississippi, making him more than qualified to help when the dreaded disease broke out in Bermuda.
It was 1864 and the South was bearing the brunt of its war against the Union. From the start, the country lacked the industrial capacity and manpower of its northern neighbor, a fact that took its toll three years after the start of the conflict.
Desperate for resources, the Confederacy could not afford the outbreak in Bermuda, a key partner in its trading network.
So Dr. Blackburn, eager to aid the Confederate cause, was sent to Bermuda, where he offered his services free of charge. Little did his patients know that his expertise was not offered solely out of the goodness of his heart.
Dr. Blackburn collected their bedding, clothing, vomit-encrusted rags, and other similar disgusting articles. He put them in suitcases, which he placed in the care of a co-conspirator named Mr. Swan.
The plan was to ship the suitcases first to Halifax, Nova Scotia and then to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Norfolk and Washington, where the plague-ridden items would be sold to clothing merchants, who would inadvertently spread yellow fever to their customers .
A witness claimed that the good doctor had prepared a suitcase full of nice shirts for none other than Abraham Lincoln himself.
Since there was no massive outbreak of yellow fever that derailed the entire war effort and gave the South victory, it should be clear that the entire plot failed.
Witnesses to Dr.’s nefarious actions. Blackburn came forward, and the Union consul in Bermuda got wind of the plan. The operation was stopped and Dr. Blackburn fled back to Canada.
A futile attempt, and its aftermath
When Dr. Blackburn returned to Canada, so was he arrested and charged with violating Canada’s Neutrality Act. However, the charges were dropped because there was no hard evidence proving that the plague tribes had ever crossed the Canadian border.
In a strange twist, especially in light of current attitudes toward terrorism and terrorist threats, the U.S. government never followed up on the case, even though the newspapers had a good day. Although a connection to the Confederacy was suspected, any record was destroyed in the aftermath of the Southern defeat.
What Dr. As for Blackburn, he declined to talk about the plot. He continued his work with yellow fever and combated an outbreak in Louisiana in 1878.
He was elected governor of his home state of Kentucky from 1879 to 1883, where he was highly regarded for his work on prison reform. The only time he spoke about the matter, Blackburn denied any involvement, saying the plot was too ridiculous for a gentleman to be involved.
In that respect it turned out that he was right. The yellow fever plot failed from the start because yellow fever cannot spread directly from person to person. Instead, it is spread by mosquitoes. But because of that technical aspect, you shouldn’t be too hard on Dr. Blackburn.
First, the germ theory had not yet been discovered. Second, the vector for yellow fever wasn’t discovered until 1911, so Dr. Blackburn had no way of knowing that his little plan was doomed from the start.
