Thanks Due the Marquis on Yorktown Day - and the Mosquito?

By WYDaily Staff Tuesday, October 19, 2010

For 229 years credit has been given to the French for seeing America through its Revolution, which ended major battles with the Victory at Yorktown on Oct. 19, 1781.

Now, a Georgetown University professor of environmental history and author has written in the Washington Post that the Americans had a little more help than what the French provided: mosquitos.

J.R. McNeill, in a piece in the Washington Post, says malaria-carrying mosquitos "conducted covert biological warfare" against the British troops. If the mosquitos carried malaria, they passed it along with every bite. If they bit a malaria-afflicted human, they passed it along with subsequent bites.

For many in the American South at the time, malaria was a disease they'd grown up with. Those who survived it generally gained more resistance with every bout. For the British, it wasn't quite so familiar and, as a result, claimed more casualties - especially when the British employed their "southern strategy."

No one knew at the time that malaria was transmitted by mosquitos, making the insects buzzing accomplices in the ultimate American victory. Click here to read the whole Washington Post story.

Yorktown Day schedules
October 19 is a big day in Yorktown, so expect the following schedules at various offices:

Closed: York County offices, York County Public Libraries, York-Poquoson Social Services, the Virginia Cooperative Extension and the county’s Waste Management Center offices.

Open: York-Poquoson General District Court, Circuit Court and Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court.

Unaffected: Garbage and recyclables collection; also the compost facility and transfer station located on Goodwin Neck Road will be open, although the administrative offices of the Waste Management Center will be closed.

Special events: For a full schedule of the day's events, including the parade and cemetery ceremonies, click here.