Smallpox in the Revolutionary War

Smallpox in the Revolutionary War

The disease that caused the most serious problems during the Revolutionary War in America was smallpox. There were other diseases that afflicted the soldiers, but nothing took the terrible toll that smallpox did. This paper delves into some of the issues created by the smallpox outbreaks during the Revolutionary War.

The Literature on Smallpox in the Revolutionary War

"During the American Revolution, a huge epidemic of smallpox killed more Americans than did the war itself. Rumors of the British using smallpox as an early form of germ warfare had the American soldiers and colonists living in fear" (Furgang, 2010, p. 22).

Why did the war create the opportunity for such epidemics? Author Peter McCandless explains that the British suffered from smallpox to nearly the same degree that the Americans did. The British knew the "perils of warm-weather campaigning in the southern coastal lands," McCandless writes. The fact that the British were able to beat the revolutionaries in Florida and Georgia produced "their greatest victories to date but severely undermined the health of their forces" (McCandless, 2011, p. 84). Fighting in warm weather where viruses can grow faster, created the opportunity for the British to become sick.

Also, the patriots got sick in some instances because as McCandless explains on page 87, tents were in short supply forcing men to "…sleep exposed to the damp night air" which contributed to the disease's spread. In war, supplies are not always where they are needed when they are needed. On page 93, McCandless explains that the "spread of these diseases was facilitated by the constant movement of soldiers and residents." Elizabeth Fenn writes that when people who were stricken with smallpox moved "…from one place to another…they also carried microbes" (Fenn, 2002, p. 47).

What preventative measures were possible against this killer? Some of the troops were inoculated with the smallpox vaccination (although General George Washington was against soldiers getting inoculated, many went ahead against his orders), especially those that had not been exposed to smallpox in other campaigns. (Fenn, 2002). Washington tried to prevent the spread by keeping his troops "…at a certain distance from the small pox hospital" (Fenn, 48). Washington also banned refugees ("castaways") from the Continental Army's camp, and he had letters that were sent out of Philadelphia (which had a plague of smallpox) to be "dipped in vinegar" before they were read (Fenn, 50). Both sides took preventative measures as best they could, mainly by keeping their troops away from those afflicted with the disorder or by inoculating them. Did smallpox have the potential to affect the outcomes of campaigns or the war itself? Certainly the smallpox outbreak did indeed have the potential to affect the outcome of the war. On page 85 of his book, McCandless writes that sicknesses "…killed and incapacitated large numbers of soldiers and felled key commanders at critical moments." Washington and British military leaders alike moved their troops to places that would supposedly keep them from becoming infected.