As to drove to Rosewell Plantation, we passed by Dr. Walter Reed’s birthplace.
Watching the evening news for years, I’ve often heard of Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Since moving to Northern Virginia, there are numerous times I’ve been to the military center for medical appointments for myself or my son.
Recognizing the name, I certainly didn’t expect to see this.
After our day of journeys to Rosewell Plantation and Gloucester Point, we returned to the birthplace on the way home.
BOYHOOD YEARS
While the house was built in 1825, Walter Reed was born here in 1851.
Since his father was a traveling Methodist minister, Reed’s boyhood years were spent in North Carolina with his mother’s family.
Eventually he and his family moved to Charlottesville, where he attended the University of Virginia Medical School. He was their youngest graduate, at the age of 18.
Reed joined the Army in 1875.
YELLOW FEVER
In 1896, Reed discovered the cause of Yellow Fever among the men stationed near the Potomac River.
Mosquitoes, he confirmed, and not the ingestion of river water, was the cause.
In 1898, Reed traveled to Cuba during the Spanish American War to study typhoid fever in the American encampments.
As a result, he discovered the cause, related to fecal matter and food and drink contaminated by flies.
While in the encampment, yellow fever again raised its ugly head.
Further research led to significant improvement for those in tropical areas.
Beleaguered builders of the Panama Canal finally conquered the building project at last with lower mortality rates.
MOSQUITOES
While researching all this, I recalled how the kids and I both were bitten by a million mosquitoes while at Gloucester.
At the time we thought about different American Revolution soldiers we had learned about who suffered from various diseases related to mosquitoes while near the swampy areas along the York River, James River, etc.
Interesting that Reed’s birthplace had a common condition that he ended up tackling later in life and became the hallmark of his medical career.
NAMESAKE HOSPITAL IN WASHINGTON DC
Dying of a ruptured appendix in 1902, Dr. Walter Reed was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center opened seven years later, in 1909.
