Plan of Investigation
To what extent did trials with smallpox vaccinations impact the success of the colonial American army in the Revolutionary War? In colonial America, smallpox was a rampant disease that killed many people, especially soldiers. Taking action, General George Washington approved inoculation of soldiers and that decision is debatably what led to the success of his army in the Revolutionary War. This inquiry will discuss the immediate and long term effects of inoculation, conflicts that General Washington had while implementing the inoculation program, and how smallpox affected colonial soldiers. The function of this historical investigation is to illustrate to what extent trials with inoculation led to the victory …show more content…
Soldiers and other people were “tormented with constant fear” of actually developing the disease, which would take away their focus from fighting their current battles. People called smallpox the “King of Terrors” because they knew how devastating and lethal the disease was (Mcdonald and Schneider 580-589).
Hospitals were not common in early colonial America, but during the second half of the 18th century, military hospitals began to arise. Since smallpox was such a prevalent issue, there were specific military hospitals for patients suffering from the disease (Starbuck 33).

Washington’s Conflicts:
Though physicians may not have received “proper” training, they were hesitant to try something so experimental (inoculation of a live disease), and continuing the program caused tension between preachers and physicians (Le Beau 1).
There were not many properly trained physicians, so most “medical practitioners” from the colonies had about as much knowledge of medicine as those who went to medical school. This lack of trained professionals meant that there were very few people to actually administer the inoculations (Le Beau …show more content…
Some of these slaves developed smallpox because of the high infection rate aboard British ships, so when they returned to the colonies, they spread smallpox to their families and people nearby (Pybus 38).

Immediate/Long Term effects of Inoculation:
The British were rumored to have been inoculated against the disease (with the goal of mass spreading the disease), but were still susceptible to outbreaks [undermines reputability/efficacy of inoculation] (Pybus 38)
Many doctors were unskilled and did not know much about how the body works, so their attempts at inoculation lacked sterility, cleanliness, and general sanitary conditions that we expect from modern physicians. As a result, the effects of inoculation were not clear because soldiers were still likely to die of infection (Rienti 9).
Zabdiel Boylston was the first to inoculate for smallpox, but this experimentation led to the eventual creation of a vaccine for smallpox by Edward Jenner. As a result of Boylston’s trials with inoculation, smallpox became the first disease to ever (almost) completely be eradicated from the population (Spatz