Question: What caused the yellow fever outbreak that hit North Carolina during the Civil War?
Answer: The 1862 yellow fever outbreak in Wilmington, North Carolina, during the Civil War was caused by a blockade-running vessel from Nassau, Bahamas. The ship, carrying infected individuals, docked after quarantine laws were ignored amid urgent cargo unloading. The disease, spread by Aedes mosquitoes, rapidly infected the port city, killing about 1,000 people before a November snowstorm ended the epidemic.
