The notice of a ceremony to recognize those prisoners of war who were disgorged onto the Long Island to die by a British warship, reminded me of how horrific the threat of smallpox was during the Revolutionary War, yet it is rarely mentioned as a cause of so many casualties. But this ceremony to honor those who died of smallpox is a story that will make you grimace.
The American soldiers were captured in the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, the first major battle on American soil after the USA declared independence in July. By December 1776, the British must have decided the prisoners of war, who were all sick with smallpox, would just be left to die when they dumped them on the shore of Long Island Sound. Note the temperature was probably in the 20s given the historical record of the Battle of Trenton in December 1776.
There were no governing laws of war in 1776 other than international humanitarian customary laws of war, some of which had begun to build on humanitarian customs. Gen. George Washington, after the Battle of Princeton, January 1777, put in charge Lt. Col. Samuel Blatchley Webb, to ensure British soldiers were treated in a humanitarian manner. Gen. Washington wrote, "You are to take charge of privates of the British Army . . . Treat them with humanity, and Let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutual example of the British Army." (See, Gary D. Solis, The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War, p.14, Cambridge Univ Press, 2016). One can only assume, Gen. Washington might have included in his reference the treatment of smallpox-infected prisoners of war.
So, what was the motive in dropping off 46 smallpox-infected prisoners of war on the shores of Connecticut in Milford, a heavily populated area for the time, if not in hopes that they might all disperse to their homes and infect the civilians of Connecticut? A possible biological attack that has been overlooked? The British were fans of biological terrorism which we know from Sir Jeffrey Amhearst's letter outlining his plan to give infected smallpox blankets to the Pequots. We may never know.
The American soldiers were captured in the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, the first major battle on American soil after the USA declared independence in July. By December 1776, the British must have decided the prisoners of war, who were all sick with smallpox, would just be left to die when they dumped them on the shore of Long Island Sound. Note the temperature was probably in the 20s given the historical record of the Battle of Trenton in December 1776.
There were no governing laws of war in 1776 other than international humanitarian customary laws of war, some of which had begun to build on humanitarian customs. Gen. George Washington, after the Battle of Princeton, January 1777, put in charge Lt. Col. Samuel Blatchley Webb, to ensure British soldiers were treated in a humanitarian manner. Gen. Washington wrote, "You are to take charge of privates of the British Army . . . Treat them with humanity, and Let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutual example of the British Army." (See, Gary D. Solis, The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War, p.14, Cambridge Univ Press, 2016). One can only assume, Gen. Washington might have included in his reference the treatment of smallpox-infected prisoners of war.
So, what was the motive in dropping off 46 smallpox-infected prisoners of war on the shores of Connecticut in Milford, a heavily populated area for the time, if not in hopes that they might all disperse to their homes and infect the civilians of Connecticut? A possible biological attack that has been overlooked? The British were fans of biological terrorism which we know from Sir Jeffrey Amhearst's letter outlining his plan to give infected smallpox blankets to the Pequots. We may never know.
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