Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Trial Jeopardy

[Leon Greene]

(05-07-2016 12:12 PM)Anita Wrote:  Thanks Dr. Greene. A carefully thought out plot based on Blackburn's understanding of how the disease was transmitted. Are there other diseases transmitted by contaminated clothing and bedding that would have resulted in the outcome Blackburn intended?

Yes, smallpox would have been the ideal agent. Even during the Civil War era, there were prior historical examples of smallpox being used as a weapon of mass destruction. Epidemics had been spread purposefully in 1763 and 1812, and Blackburn was aware of them. Blackburn was seeking outbreaks of both yellow fever and smallpox for his diabolical scheme. Fortunately for the North, only yellow fever was rampant during 1864, the year that Blackburn began his plot using germ warfare. Sporadic cases of smallpox occurred in the Spring of 1864, but not in a frequency that would yield him large quantities of contaminated articles, which he wanted for wide distribution in the North. Had he been able to find an outbreak of smallpox for his scheme, the result likely would have been very different.