Court Square became command-central for the campaign to preserve the city. The Howard Association had their office on one side of the park and the Citizen’s Relief Committee had their office on the other side. Modern residents of Memphis can walk past the locations where the organizations operated and tread the ground on which the McClellan Guards bivouacked. Activation of the militias and solicitation of relief became the first rational responses that the Citizens Relief Committee initiated. The world did not ignore the debacle. Aid poured in from all over America even though large cities such as New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh contributed the lion’s share. Contributions came from Europe, Australia and India. Citizens of Washington D.C. formed the Yellow Fever National Relief Commission to give logistical support to the distribution of aid. The relief came by train and by riverboat. River traffic carried 23,000 pounds of crackers, 333,000 pounds of beef, 33,000 pounds of coffee and 200 gallons of whiskey. Shipments of 1,500 quarts of champagne and 288 cases of Budweiser beer poured into the stricken city. Nothing like a sudsy bottle of beer to deaden the pain! All of this activity became a primer for future disaster relief operations. It became an exercise in national cooperation for a young country needing the experience. Memphis probably would not have survived without it. The aid came at a most desperate time. As the autumn approached, the saffron scourge took no prisoners. Over one-third of the Howard Association nurses had died. The epidemic killed seventeen of the twenty members of the Citizens Relief Committee. Charles G. Fisher, the leader of the organization, died of the fever. Yellow fever struck down doctors with a vengeance. Dr. R. Tate, a black man, died of the disease. Folk wisdom maintained that he should have survived the disaster. Dr. John Erskine, opponent of quarantine, also fell. Lieutenant Hiram Benner commanded a relief boat named the John M. Chambers. This vessel left Saint Louis, Missouri on October 4 and delivered supplies through restricted waters. Bronze John showed no mercy to the bringers of mercy. Lieutenant Benner died on October 17, 1878 and the government ordered the ship back to port.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 20:47:51 +0000
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