As smallpox sweeps through Richmond in 1862, Narcissa Powers, a young widow-turned-nurse, Judah Daniel, a freed slave and herbalist, and British journalist Brit Wallace begin to suspect that the plague may not be accidental.
Read More
As Ann McMillan's Civil Blood opens, some Richmonders pour into the streets in celebration, while others - slaves, free blacks, Union sympathizers - mourn in secret. Unknown to all of them, another disaster threatens, quieter but more effective than the Union warships: smallpox, the most contagious plague the world has ever known. Narcissa Powers, a white widow turned Confederate nurse, and Judah Daniel, a free black herbalist, joining forces against the outbreak, encounter a frightening possibility: the victims are being infected by tainted money flowing through Richmond's network of speculators and profiteers. Then the disease reaches a Union encampment, leading to accusations of germ warfare. But for Narcissa and Judah Daniel, smallpox strikes its cruelest blow against the city's most vulnerable population: its children.
Read Less