MARTHA AVOIDS THE POX

WE’RE SORRY

1777

Morristown, New Jersey

The state of New Jersey would like to formally apologize to Marth Washington. She was gracious enough to pay a visit to our fair state, and we reciprocated by subjecting her to a communicable disease.

Where are our manners?

Mrs. Washington almost caught smallpox while visiting her husband, General George Washington, at Morristown, one of our fine towns (and normally a pleasant tourist destination).

As happy as we are that the general chose Morristown as the winter headquarters of the colonial army, we are saddened by the outbreak of smallpox among the troops. And we’re mortified that Mrs. Washington had to witness the effects of the inhospitable ailment.

Again, we apologize, and we’d like to invite Mrs. Washington to return to New Jersey in the Spring, after small pox season and before dysentery season.

But seriously…

6/17/24

Each year of the eight years of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington set up winter camp, to keep an army in the field. And each year, his wife Martha visited him- lifting his spirits, encouraging the other officers’ wives, and inspiring the fighting men.

During the winter of 1777-78, the army camped at Morristown, New Jersey, where they experienced all the challenges they had grown so used to: privations, bitter cold, and diseases.

That winter, it was smallpox. 500 men died of it while retreating from Canada. It swept through the camp, despite the general’s best efforts to instill cleanliness among his men.

And that winter, Martha was present during the outbreak.

Already a hero to the men as much as her husband was, this was one more reason for them to love and appreciate the woman who would become the first lady of the country.

Always concerned about disease, George had already experimented with inoculation, with great success.

While sixteen percent of those who contracted smallpox along the Atlantic seaboard died, the death rate at Morristown was less than one percent.

Martha herself had been inoculated in Philadelphia the previous year, on her way home from the previous winter camp.

Source

The General and Mrs. Washington, Bruce Chadwick