At the stroke of noon on New Year's Day, 1899, the Spanish flag on the Governor-General's palace in Havana was lowered and the Stars and Stripes went up. Officially, the Spanish-American War was over. But for the soldiers of the medical corps in charge of the health of the American occupation forces, the "fighting" had just begun. For lurking on rooftops, in narrow alleyways, and in a thousand dark corners of the city was Yellow Jack, an enemy far mightier than Spain.

This was the enemy that the United States Medical Corps had to fight—an enemy that attacked suddenly and ruthlessly, and that had been ravaging Africa, Europe, and the Americas for nearly two centuries.

It was on a Cuban farm, a mile away from the army camp in Los Quemados, that Major Walter Reed, of the United States Medical Corps, and a specially appointed group of men conducted one of the most dangerous and dramatic experiments in the history of medicine to prove the theory that yellow fever was carried and spread by a species of mosquito that lived in and around human dwellings.

The fight was carried on by a long line of valiant men who dedicated their lives to conquer yellow fever. They were heroes in one of the greatest battles ever fought—heroes to whom the entire world will be forever grateful. This is their thrilling story.

From the dust jacket