February 5, 1777 – General George Washington Notifies John Hancock of His Plans for Mandatory Smallpox Vaccinations

Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky wrote in an article for “Governing, The Future of States and Localities,” that during the Revolutionary War, smallpox was the biggest threat to the Continental Army. She observed that the disease killed one-third of all who contracted it.

On this day in history General Washington sent a letter to John Hancock, President of the Second Continental Congress, informing Hancock he was planning to enforce mass inoculation, “that the Army may be kept ⟨as clean as possible⟩ of this terrible disorder.” He wrote:

The small pox has made such Head in every Quarter that I find it impossible to keep it from spreading thro’ the whole Army in the natural way. I have therefore determined, not only to innoculate all the Troops now here, that have not had it, but shall order Docr Shippen to innoculate the Recuits as fast as they come in to Philadelphia.”

President George Washington here seen as Major General and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army

On February 10, Washington sent a similar letter to the New York Convention (Fourth Provincial Congress) apprising all the members of his plans.