This letter shows that this question was submitted to Lee on or before the 12th of May, and that it was agreed to by Governor Moore and Judge Moise; and there is nothing in the “War correspondence” which shows that it was ever objected to by Lee. I ought to state what the dangers were. It is well known that persons having had the yellow fever and thus becoming acclimated, are no more liable to a recurrence of the disease than in the case of that other scourge of armies, the smallpox. In the year 1853, beginning August 1, excluding those that were not liable to have the yellow fever and those who had gone out from New Orleans for the summer, the population open to the disease was thirty thousand only. On the first week in August there were 909 deaths from yellow fever; on the second week, 1,282; on the third week, 1,575; and on the fourth week, the deaths in one day, the 22d of August, were 239; so that, from the
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I had also heard, but did not believe it true, that General Lee relied for the defence of Louisiana and the recapture of New Orleans, upon the depletion of our troops by yellow fever; but, alas!
it was true, as shown by the following correspondence:--
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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