George, your note is interesting as we have seen the same trend at Camp Moore with deaths. Of course the measles is easier to explain as men from cities probably had been exposed to it as children because of the greater population density and rural country boys probably had less chance of exposure. That does not, however, explain how such things as typhoid, dysentery and chronic diarrhea seemed to hit rural men harder. Maybe it just appears that way but then I recall the 9th La having the highest disease deaths of any La regiment and their companies were all rural parish companies. Then you take a regiment like the 6th La that were all recruited in NO and they had less than a third of the deaths from disease that the 9th had and they were in the same brigade for much of the war. Another, the 12th La, all from rural parishes, had over three hundred die of disease but the 5th La, principally from New Orleans, had less than 70 deaths from disease. My own research on the 8th La has found that every single rural company suffered greater disease deaths than the two New Orleans companies. Perhaps just exposure while growing up to illnesses of all kinds in the cities, on ships, etc. made these men have a little better immune system than these country boys that probably had very little exposure.