Casualties of War: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918

Nurses of the Red Cross Chapter of Morristown, taken at the Morristown Green, May 30, 1917, Morristown, NJ.

Jeffrey V. Moy, North Jersey History and Genealogy Center

During the spring of 1918, the long and protracted stalemate on the front lines had finally tipped in favor of the Allies with the United States’ entry into World War I, in which the British, French, Russian, and other Allied nations were pitted against the Axis powers of Germany, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire.

A crowd of Morristown residents welcome their fellow returning citizen and wounded soldier, Joe Lombardi on August 3, 1918. As is the case in most wars, immigrants comprised a significant number of those who fought for the United States; born in Italy, nineteen-year old Lombardi served as a Private in the 23rd Infantry. The Flagler Street resident was wounded by machine-gun fire at the Battle of Château-Thierry on June 7, 1918 and was evacuated by the Red Cross.  Despite the best efforts of field surgeons, Joseph lost his leg.

As if to deprive the nations of the world of the hard fought peace, a global pandemic claimed the lives of those young men and women who were lucky enough to have escaped death. The Influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919 killed more individuals worldwide than had died in the Great War — an estimated 50 million people — and it became one of the deadliest epidemics in recorded history.

Elbert Decker lived on Mount Kemble Avenue with his parents and four siblings. Decker had served for only a month when he succumbed to influenza at camp.
A heartfelt note from Elbert Clark Decker’s mother describes his untimely death from influenza while he was stationed at Camp Meade in Maryland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While influenza is typically only fatal among some infants and elderly victims, the 1918 strain was deadliest among those between the ages twenty and forty years old, with 28% of Americans contracting the disease that ultimately killed approximately 675,000 (many times the number of servicemen who died in combat)[1].

Soldiers leaving Morristown for training at Sea Girt prior to deployment overseas, July 25, 1917. Collection of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center.

As troops deployed thousands of miles overseas the virus traveled with them, spreading faster than medical professionals and authorities could react. Most governments censored any news that negatively affected morale, thus, citizens were unaware of the epidemic until it was too late.[2] The epidemic was initially referred to as “Spanish Flu” because neutral  Spain still possessed a free press and was the first country to report the pandemic as it spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula.

Dr. Jennie Dean stationed at the Red Cross Bacteriology Laboratory in Evreaux, France where she served as a Laboratory Physician. At a time when infectious disease was a significant cause of wartime casualties, her work saved the lives of countless American and Allied troops. Collection of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center.

Unlike today, in 1918 there were no laboratory tests, vaccines, or antiviral medications with which to treat influenza, and no antibiotics to tame its lethal companion pneumonia; thus, preventative techniques were limited to encouraging good hygiene, placing the infected under quarantine, and closing public settings such as schools and theaters.[3]

Despite earlier government censorship of the influenza outbreak,the speed with which the lethal virus spread prompted local governments to close all public gathering spots. The Jerseyman, October 11, 1918.

Morristown’s Board of Health banned large gatherings in response to the increasing number of fatalities throughout the state. Schools, saloons, dance halls, and cinemas shuttered, and even public funerals were prohibited. Church services and battalion drills were also halted. By January, 1919, over 18,300 deaths had already been reported by The Jerseyman newspaper.

Nurses of the Red Cross Chapter of Morristown, taken at the Morristown Green on May 30, 1917. Doctors and nurses carried no protection or immunity to the deadly flu virus and courageously treated America’s servicemen and civilian population. Scientific breakthroughs in detecting and treating illness elevated physicians and scientists to celebrity status. Collection of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center.

Dedicated doctors and nurses served on the front lines of the war against the influenza pandemic, fighting to ascertain disease vectors and determine treatment methods all while knowing they could fall victim themselves. Poor conditions on the battlefield helped the virus proliferate as soldiers’ immune systems were weakened by malnourished, injury, and stress. Many victims suffered death from an extreme form of pneumonia that caused violent coughing[4].

Morristown’s World War I Memorial, on the grounds of what was then Town Hall. Residents collected the funds to construct the stone cenotaph (Latin for “empty tomb”) as a memorial to those whose remains were never repatriated to the United States, as well as to honor all of Morristown’s war dead. Collection of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center.

Long after hostilities ceased, when the Armistice was signed, and the final parades had dispersed, towns across the nation built memorials to their war dead. Lost among the etched names of those killed in combat were the victims of influenza, since most monuments excluded soldiers who died of illness or other non-combat related causes. Similarly, no physical memorials exist to the millions of civilians who died in one of the world’s greatest holocausts.

Sources:

  • David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980, pg 189.
  • CDC.gov/features/1918-flu-pandemic.

Additional information on the contributions of Morris County’s men and women to the war effort, at home and abroad, can be found in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center.

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1 COMMENT

  1. My dad Thomas Hennion was in the ambulance corps… 1917…he never talked to me about the war or the Epidemic… Now I realize going through this period myself… He didn’t want me to know such horrors could exist.

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