But the patriot cup of woe was not yet filled, and there was still
another evil to fight. This was smallpox, which together with dysentery,
rheumatism, and assorted “fevers” had victimized hundreds of American
troops in 1776. Now the dread disease threatened to run like wildfire
through the whole army, old and new recruits alike.
Medical knowledge of that day offered but one real hope of saving the
Continental forces from this “greatest of all calamities,” namely, to
communicate a mild form of smallpox by inoculation to every soldier who
had not yet been touched by the contagion, thus immunizing him against
its more virulent effects “when taken in the natural way.” Washington
was convinced of this by the time he arrived at Morristown on January 6.
He therefore ordered Dr. Nathaniel Bond to prepare at once for handling
the business of mass inoculation in northern New Jersey, and instructed
Dr. William Shippen, Jr., to inoculate without delay both the American
troops then in Philadelphia and the recruits “that shall come in, as
fast as they arrive.” During the next 3 months, similar instructions or
suggestions were sent to officers and civil authorities connected with
recruitment in New York, New Jersey, New England, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia.
Undertaken secretly at first, the bold project was soon going full swing
throughout Morristown and surrounding villages. Inoculation centers were
set up in private houses, with guards placed over them to prevent
“natural” spread of the infection. The troops went through the treatment
in several “divisions,” at intervals of 5 or 6 days. Washington waxed
enthusiastic as the experiment progressed. “Innoculation at Philadelphia
and in this Neighbourhood has been attended with amazing Success,” he
wrote to the Governor of Connecticut, “and I have not the least doubt
but your Troops will meet the same.” As of March 14, however, about
1,000 soldiers and their attendants were still incapacitated in
Morristown and vicinity, leaving but 2,000 others as the army’s total
effective strength in New Jersey. A blow struck by Sir William Howe at
that time might have been disastrous for the Americans. Fortunately, it
never came.
The episode was not without its tragic side, however. Since smallpox in
any form was highly contagious, civilians in the whole countryside near
the camp also had to be inoculated along with the army. Some local
people, and a small number of soldiers as well, contracted the disease
naturally before the project got under way, or perhaps refused
submission to the treatment. Isolation hospitals for these unfortunates
were established in the Presbyterian and Baptist Churches at Morristown,
and in the Presbyterian Church at Hanover. The patients died like flies.
In the congregation of the Morristown Presbyterian Church alone, no less
than 68 deaths from smallpox were recorded in 1777. Those who survived
the ordeal were almost always pockmarked by it.
[Illustration: _Sketches of the Baptist Church_ (above) _and the
Presbyterian Church_ (below) _at Morristown, both used as smallpox
hospitals in 1777_.]
[Illustration: {Presbyterian Church at Morristown}]