The “Yellow Fever Plot”: Biological Warfare in the American Civil War

The American Civil War was unprecedented in both its brutality and bloodshed. Disease and the threat of biological warfare played a key role in the conflict, most notably in a Confederate plot to create an epidemic of yellow fever in the Union. Other instances of biological warfare included the Confederate’s hopes that endemic diseases would offer a military advantage, the poisoning of wells, accusations of the deliberate spread of smallpox, and even unsubstantiated rumors of entomological warfare. In this narrative review, we examine the role that biological warfare played in the American Civil War.