<P> The majority of the British soldiers sent to Haiti in the 1790s died of disease, chiefly yellow fever . There has been considerable debate over whether the number of deaths caused by disease was exaggerated . </P> <P> In 1802--1803, an army of forty thousand sent by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte of France to Saint Domingue to suppress the Haitian Revolution mounted by slaves, was decimated by an epidemic of yellow fever (among the casualties was the expedition's commander and Bonaparte's brother - in - law, Charles Leclerc). Some historians believe Napoleon intended to use the island as a staging point for an invasion of the United States through Louisiana (then newly regained by the French from the Spanish .). Others believe that he was most intent on regaining control of the lucrative sugar production and trade in Saint - Domingue . Only one - third of the French troops survived to return to France, and in 1804 the new republic of Haiti declared its independence . </P> <P> Nearly 700 people in Savannah, Georgia died from yellow fever in 1820, including two local physicians who lost their lives caring for the stricken . Several other epidemics followed, including 1854 and 1876 . </P> <P> The 1853 outbreak claimed 7,849 residents of New Orleans . The press and the medical profession did not alert citizens of the outbreak until the middle of July, after more than one thousand people had already died . The New Orleans business community feared that word of an epidemic would cause a quarantine to be placed on the city, and their trade would suffer . In such epidemics, steamboats frequently carried passengers and the disease upriver from New Orleans to other cities along the Mississippi River . </P>

When did the yellow fever start and end