Shippen to innoculate the Recruits as fast as they come in to Philadelphia.”. The origin of smallpox is unknown. Symptoms of smallpox include fever, rash, and blisters that spread over the body. An inoculee with a mild case might feel well enough to walk around town, infecting countless others with potentially more serious infections. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. The measure staved off smallpox long enough to win a years-long fight with the British. “We went,—myself with some reluctance, as the smallpox was in his family,” wrote Washington. For example, only 23 percent of North Carolina soldiers who enlisted in 1777 had ever had smallpox. Fenn says that inoculating all troops without natural smallpox immunity was a daunting task. Cowpox served as a natural vaccine until the modern smallpox vaccine emerged in the 19th century. In the process, Washington pulled off the first massive, state-funded immunization campaign in American history. “This was not a novel idea during the Revolutionary War.”. “The hope and intent was for the person to come down with smallpox. I have therefore determined, not only to innoculate all the Troops now here, that have not had it, but shall order Docr. “Washington knew what smallpox was like and he knew how it could incapacitate his Army,” says Elizabeth Fenn, a professor of early American history of the University of Colorado Boulder and author of Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82. The quarantine did its job, isolating the sick long enough for the British to surrender Boston. Find out who should get smallpox vaccine. When George Washington took command of the Continental Army in 1775, America was fighting a war on two fronts: one for independence from the British, and a second for survival against smallpox. So during the Siege of Boston, Washington opted for a strict quarantine of both sickened soldiers and civilians. Fast forward to 1775, when Washington took the reins of a newly formed Continental Army laying siege to British-held Boston. Scars like the smallpox vaccine scar form due to the body’s natural healing process. Two weeks later, after the smallpox virus completed its incubation period, Washington was down for the count. “You either have to let people be exposed to the disease and naturally acquire immunity, which could be devastating for his troops and have devastating consequences for the war. In contrast, relatively few New Englanders and Southerners had ever been exposed to the virus. American Revolution Collection on HISTORY Vault, How an African Slave in Boston Helped Save Generations from Smallpox, Benedict Arnold’s Grueling, Failed Attempt to Conquer Canada, Winter at Valley Forge: George Washington's Dismal Christmas. Washington should have listened to his gut. “We’re all familiar with the bloody footprints in the snow, and the shortages of food and clothing. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. For hundreds of years, smallpox outbreaks cropped up around the world in nearly each new generation. The earliest written description of a disease that clearly resembles smallpox appeared in China in the 4th century CE (Common Era). If the British caught wind that large numbers of American soldiers were laid up in bed with smallpox, it could be the end. But immunization in the 1770s was not what it’s like today with a single injection and a low risk of mild symptoms. In his diary, young Washington expressed some reservations. From 1958 to 1977, the World Health Organization conducted a global vaccination campaign that eradicated smallpox, making it the only human disease t… Washington was lucky to escape with his life and few visible scars.

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