As Ann McMillan's Civil Blood opens, some Richmonders pour into the streets in celebration of a Union warship's defeat, while others--slaves, free blacks, Union sympathizers--mourn in secret. Unknown to all of them, another disaster threatens, quieter but more effective than warships: smallpox, the most contagious plague the world has ever known. The detective team of Narcissa Powers, a white widow turned Confederate nurse, and Judah Daniel, a free black herbalist, encounters a frightening possibility: the victims are being intentionally infected by tainted money flowing through Richmond's network of speculators and profiteers.