I had the honor of laying wreaths on veteran’s graves today. One of the gravesites belonged to a very young soldier from Norton, MA named Derick Cobb. I had made a general assumption that because he died in a military hospital that he died of wounds and I was determined to find out where and when he was wounded. It turns out that I found out he died of disease. I then found out he was not alone, that shortly after he died many soldiers from his company died of disease. Was 1863 a very virulent influenzas year? What was likely the cause of their deaths?

He was in the 4th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, Company F