The July 26, 2007 Wilmington (NC) Star-News had an article about the Friends of Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington holding a sculpture design contest to memorialize the victims of the 1862 yellow fever epidemic.
A plaque was erected in 2002 at the spot where 399 of the 654 victims were buried in what local legend says is mass graves because the people were dying so fast.
Oakdale's superintendent has surveyed that area and cemetery records to find their names. He found that three to four bodies were being buried here and at the height of the epidemic, as many as ten to fifteen. Even the cemetery's then-superintendent and his family died of it.
No one knows for sure where it came from, but the outbreak coincided with the arrival of the blockade-runner Kate from Nassau. The epidemic lasted from late September until the first frost in mid-October. There were 1,505 reported cases and 654 died, a 43% mortality rate.
Oakdale Cemetery was chartered Dec. 27, 1852 on 65 acres purchased for $1,100. There are now 165 acres.
With All Those Blockade-Runners Coming in From the Caribbean, Yellow Fever Was a Constant Threat. --B-R'er
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
