In the 1890’s the South endured annual plagues of yellow fever, borne by mosquitoes. Even though the Army Yellow Fever Commission headed by Major Walter Reed confirmed in 1901 the hypothesis of Cuban scientist Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay that yellow fever was caused by a mosquito, most of the South ignored its implications. Mosquito control was difficult and expensive, especially in the marshy coast lands. Another deterrent to control was the proliferation of cisterns and stagnant pools which provided the insect with a perfect breeding ground.
Yellow fever was reported as early as May 1905 in New Orleans. But the news didn’t reach Mississippi until July 22 when Dr. John F. Hunter, Secretary of the Mississippi State Board of Health, announced that he had learned from “a private source” of its existence. Once confirmed, Dr. Hunter ordered a state quarantine against the City of New Orleans. Authorities in Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas charged that the Louisiana State Board of Health had been reluctant to announce the presence of the fever, and these states established quarantines to protect their citizens. Louisiana felt that these reactions were extreme, and Edward Sanchon, president of the Louisiana State Board of Health and Quitman Kohnke, City of New Orleans Health Officer, announced that the two deaths cited could not be attributed to the fever until autopsies were conducted.
On July 22, 1905, Dr. Sanchon released information of a man who had developed yellow fever near St. Philip Street. Kohnke announced preventive measures for citizens to take during the summer: eliminate all stagnant water; put a teacup of “insurance oil” on the surface of cistern water, on cesspools, and on privy vaults; put mosquito nets on beds; and install screens on doors and windows.
While Texas and Alabama declared interstate quarantines and Louisiana communities adopted intrastate quarantines against New Orleans, it was the Mississippi quarantine that caused particular concern to New Orleanians since many of them sent their families to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the summer. Within two days the Coast’s hotels and cottages were empty.
The Jackson Clarion Ledger reported on July 25, 1905, that Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, and others around the Coast complained that the quarantine was discriminatory. It reported further that Coast citizens “have almost threatened to secede from the state if the Health Board does not permit citizens of New Orleans to visit their families in Coast towns.” Ultimately their appeal was denied.
Louisiana governor Newton C. Blanchard held a conference attended by representatives from Louisiana, New Orleans, Texas, Tennessee, and the U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. The consensus was that the epidemic had slowed and that mosquito control measures had been adopted.
Despite the prevention campaign underway, in Mississippi the quarantine was in place, detention camps were under construction, and state and federal agencies were cooperating. New Orleans settled in for the siege, expected to be brief.
On July 26, 1905, Mississippi Governor James K. Vardaman fired the opening salvo that would most severely damage the cordial relations between the sister states and eventually escalate into the “War of the Waters.”
“Epidemics are usually resultant of placing commercial interests above the public health, and in the effort to suppress the truth, the disease gets a foothold and ere it is known, the whole community is infected with it,” Vardaman said.
Under Adjutant General Arthur Fridge, Mississippi military personnel were sent to the Gulf Coast and Louisiana borders with orders to maintain the quarantine “at the point of a bayonet.” Thus began the “shotgun quarantine.” S. G. Thigpen recalled that when Justice John Seal started to Bay Springs with a prisoner he was given ten minutes by a quarantine guard to turn around or he and his prisoner would be shot.
While the governors of Louisiana and Mississippi were exchanging recriminations, Surgeon Eugene Wasdin of the U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service had been placed in charge of the maritime quarantine along the Gulf, using the U. S. revenue
cutter Winona to assist Mississippi authorities in preventing the landing of vessels from New Orleans and sending quarantine violators to Ship Island for detention and fumigation.
Mississippi quarantine boats lay at anchor in the Rigolets to waylay outbound schooners. The powerboat Grace and a boat from the Biloxi oyster fleet had detained 118 vessels until the Wynona arrived to tow them to Ship Island. One schooner even entered Lake Borgne, in Louisiana territory, with enough “arrogant usurpation of authority than [sic] would make even a pirate blink,” said the Daily Picayune. While Louisiana and federal authorities ordered an investigation, some St. Bernard Parish residents were recommending outfitting a tug with cannon and firing at any vessel entering Louisiana waters. Meanwhile, numerous Mississippi citizens went to Jackson to volunteer to fight.
Governor Blanchard ordered armed vessels to Lake Borgne, Chef Menteur, the Rigolets, and the mouth of the Pearl River. “It is not my purpose to make an offensive movement against Mississippi,” he said. But the purpose is “to protect rights of Louisiana fishermen and boatmen who have been harassed, annoyed, and assailed by Mississippi quarantine guards.”
The Daily Picayune favored asking the federal government to “call off the sea dogs and give Louisiana oystermen a chance to earn a living….Louisiana could tackle the Mississippi navy, but when the grim smuggler-hunters of the U. S. bear down upon our oyster squadrons, they must haul down their colors and surrender.”
What especially angered the Louisiana fishermen was that armed soldiers had crossed the Pearl River and were hanging around in Louisiana territory. This “armed invasion” of Mississippians thereby violated the Constitution of the United States which forbade an armed force of one state from entering another without first securing permission.
While the conflict raged, yellow fever spread. On August 4, 1905, a conference of leading citizens resolved to ask the federal government to take control. Governor Brandon and New Orleans Mayor Martin Behrman wired President Theodore Roosevelt asking for assistance. Many citizens expressed concern about the threat of federal invasion on states’ rights.
The Louisiana-Mississippi Quarantine War of 1905 ended in recriminations, criticism, and convoluted explanations of who was to blame; in addition, it ended in a defense of state sovereignty. Federal authority had placed itself between the two combatants, and an armistice reigned.
There were no battle casualties in the War of the Waters. But the 1905 yellow fever epidemic, the last the South experienced, left 870 cases with 70 deaths in Mississippi and 9,321 cases with 988 deaths in Louisiana.
SOURCE:
Legan, Marshall Scott. “The War of the Waters: The Louisiana- Mississippi Quarantine War of 1905.” The Journal of Mississippi History, 50 (1988): 89— 110.