American War of Independence
| Date | April 19, 1775 - September 3, 1783 |
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The American War of Independence, also known as the American Revolutionary War was a military conflict between the British Army and American and French forces, to decide the issue of independence for the United States.
Biological warfare
The Americans suspected the British of waging biological warfare against them.
General George Washington believed that the British were waging germ warfare by deliberately infecting American troops with smallpox. Before closing a letter to Congress reporting on a variety of topics, Washington passed along information that he had heard from a sailor: that British Gen. William Howe was sending people out from Boston who had been deliberately infected with smallpox so that they might pass on the disease to the Americans surrounding the city. After seeing an increased number of cases in people coming out of Boston, Washington came to believe that smallpox was indeed "a weapon of Defence they Are useing against us."[1]
In 1776,Thomas Jefferson was appointed to a congressional investigating committee and, according to his notes, one witness before the panel claimed, "The small pox was sent out of Quebeck by [Guy Carleton|Carleton]], inoculating the poor people at government expence for the purpose of giving it to our army."[2]
British officers had already demonstrated their willingness to use biological warfare in 1763, when Indians organized under the Ottawa leader Pontiac had threatened the safety of Fort Pitt, on the Pennsylvania frontier. "Out of our regard to them," wrote a trader on the scene, "we gave them two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital. I hope it will have the desired effect." This act had the sanction of high British officers, including Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander in chief at the time, and General Thomas Gage, who replaced Amherst and signed off on reimbursements for the "Sundries" used "to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians".[3] There are doubts as whether the attempt was technically feasible.[4]
