Supplies for the Quarantine Camp, 1899

Many of the casualties among American forces who fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War were the result of disease, not wounds. Daufuskie Island became a quarantine detention camp for soldiers returning from battle to ensure that they would not infect the civilian population when they returned home. This 1899 photograph from the Office of the Quartermaster General shows the loading of firewood and other supplies that were needed by the quarantine camp, onto mule wagons at Daufuskie.

Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Standards

• 5.1.P Summarize how the United States’ involvement in the Spanish American War led to increased U.S. economic expansion and imperialism.