From Europe where it had prevailed for many weeks the cholera crossed the ocean, making its first appearance in America at Quebec in the early part of June.[822] From here it quickly passed up the St. Lawrence to Montreal and then southward to Albany. The legislature of New York met in special session, June 21, to devise measures for preventing the spread of the disease, but less than two weeks later it reached New York City, and by July 4 eleven deaths from it had occurred there. The next day was observed as a day of fasting and prayer by many of the churches of the city but the plague rapidly increased in virulence and in the two weeks ending July 28 over fourteen hundred deaths occurred. By the end of August the disease had practically spent its force in New York, but meanwhile the pestilential wave was passing southward and westward over the country. By late autumn it was estimated that one thousand deaths from cholera had occurred at Philadelphia and an equal number at Baltimore, and at New Orleans over a hundred persons a day were dying from cholera and yellow fever combined, a rate which, if continued, would depopulate the city in a year's time.[823]
[822] New York Mercury, June 20, 1832, November 21, 1832, et passim.
[823] Ibid., November 21, 1832.
During the latter part of June the various detachments of regulars from the Atlantic Coast were proceeding toward Chicago.[824] At Buffalo the troops embarked on board the steamers, "Henry Clay," "Superior," "William Penn," and "Sheldon Thompson."[825] While passing up the lakes the cholera made its appearance among the soldiers. More potent than the hostile red man, it disrupted the expedition.[826] Two of the vessels got no farther than Fort Gratiot, where the virulence of the pestilence compelled the soldiers to land.[827] The others continued, after a period of delay, to Chicago, where the troops were compelled to halt until the pestilence had spent its force and the survivors were again fit for the field.
[824] Drennan Papers, Fort Dearborn post returns. Six companies of artillery from Fortress Monroe left New York June 26, and on June 30 were at Clyde in that state. Company E, Fourth Artillery, started from Fort McHenry, June 18. The route followed by the seaboard companies was by way of New York City to Buffalo and thence by vessel around the lakes.
[825] Letter of Captain A. Walker, October 30, 1860, in Chicago Weekly Democrat, March 23, 1861.
[826] For an account of Scott's expedition and the cholera outbreak see Stevens, op. cit., chap, xxxvi; Scott's own narrative is given in his Memoirs, I, chap, xviii; additional material occurs in Wentworth, Early Chicago, passim; Niles' Register, Vols. XLII and XLIII, passim; the New York Mercury for 1832, passim.
[827] Letter of Captain A. Walker in Chicago Weekly Democrat, March 23, 1861; letter from an officer on the Henry Clay, in New York Mercury, July 18, 1832.
The ravages among the men of the detachment of Colonel Twiggs which was landed at Fort Gratiot were so awful as to banish discipline to the winds.[828] Those of the command who were not stricken dispersed in every direction. Many, stricken later, died in the woods or along the roadway, the terrified inhabitants refusing them shelter or assistance. According to a letter from an officer of the Second Infantry, dated July 11, of Twiggs' three hundred and seventy men, twenty or thirty had died and about two hundred had deserted.[829] From another contemporary newspaper report it appears that the detachment consisted of both infantry and artillery, and that the great majority of desertions occurred in the former branch of the service.[830] Of two hundred and eight recruits, thirty had died and one hundred and fifty-five had deserted; while of one hundred and fifty-two artillerymen, twenty-six had died and but twenty had deserted.
[828] Letters of John Nowell in Niles' Register, July 28, 1832; of Captain A. Walker in Chicago Weekly Democrat, March 23, 1861; letters from Detroit (unsigned) in New York Mercury, July 18, 1832.