Smallpox in Washington’s Army

Ann M. Becker. “Smallpox in Washington’s Army: Strategic Implications of the Disease during the American Revolutionary War.”  The Journal of Military History, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Apr., 2004), pp. 381-430.

By December 1776, contagion was all around the troops. … In January 1776, the army established a hospital at Dorchester, Massachusetts, to isolate American officers and soldiers who contracted the disease.  To do so, the army needed local permission, and Colonel Joseph Ward reported to General Artemas Ward that he had “sent to the Selectmen of Dorchester to provide a Hospital to put them in directly.”

Source: Joseph Ward, letter to Artemas Ward, 6 January 1776, Ward Family Papers, MHS.

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December 15, 2021

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