The virus that killed WWI young soldiers faster than the Germans at a North Carolina camp
Published: 6 December 2025
By John Ghost
via the When In Your State website
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The 1918 Flu Outbreak at Camp Greene
Camp Greene rose from nothing in just 90 days during summer 1917.
By December, this massive WWI training site held 60,000 young soldiers, nearly doubling Charlotte’s population. Then came the flu.
It struck first on September 20, 1918, when two feverish men checked into the base hospital. Within days, the virus ripped through the camp, hitting Black troops hardest.
Leaders locked down the facility on October 3, but death soon followed. By mid-October, coffins stacked floor to ceiling at the railroad station.
In all, nearly 300 soldiers died before the pandemic ended in early 1919. The Camp Greene Memorial now stands at Wilkinson Boulevard, telling a story of war’s unseen enemy.
Charlotte’s Population Nearly Doubled When Camp Greene Opened
Workers broke ground on Camp Greene July 23, 1917. The military hired 7,856 people to build the 2,300-acre camp in just 90 days.
By December 1917, about 60,000 soldiers lived there, almost doubling Charlotte’s population of 46,000. The camp grew into its own military town with a hospital, post office, bakery, YMCA, streetcar lines, and airfield.
More than 14,000 Black troops came from northeastern states during 1918. The packed barracks created perfect conditions for sickness to spread quickly.
Two Soldiers With Fevers Sparked a Deadly Chain Reaction
On September 20, 1918, two soldiers with mild fevers checked into a white ward at the Base Hospital. Within five days, patients, nurses, and orderlies in that ward got serious flu symptoms.
Staff quickly put the ward under lockdown, which stopped it from spreading to other areas at first. On September 22, the Base Hospital recorded the first five official flu cases from different units across the camp.
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