"Dysentery 5 Diorrhoea 2 Rheumatis 2 Intermit. 2 B. Remit. 5 Asthma 1 Ophthalnia 2 Ulcers 2 Wounded 11 --- Total 30"[106]
"Wounded 6 Intermitting fever 0 Dysenteria 1 Diarrhoea 1 Asthma 1 Ophthalnia 1 Rheumatism 3 Ulcers 2 --- Total 15"[107]
If the above tables are any index at all the most dangerous season was summer in spite of the crowded unsanitary conditions of the winter quarters. They also show that the number in hospitals due to sickness was larger that the number due to injuries received in battle.
Smallpox was one of the most dreaded of all the diseases, mostly because there were few ways of combating the disease. Inoculation was only slightly known and there was much opposition to it, even sermons were preached on the question it was so much discussed.[108] The British knew the New England people were especially opposed to it and were known to send out spies to spread the disease in the American camp which Shreve wrote "killed more Yankees than they did".[109]
The disease was especially serious in the Northern army causing greater dread than the enemy.[110]
Thacher in his _Military Journal_ emphasizes another disease which caused a great deal of suffering but strange to say there was only one remedy for it and that was a furlough for the disease was home-sickness. In reality that was a fact which caused anxious moments for General Washington for the men were continually trying to bribe the physicians to declare that they were unfit for duty.[111]
Other provisions were made for the health of the soldiers besides the establishment of hospitals. The others were along the line of prevention, such as keeping the tents and huts clean and dry, the careful preparation of food, the washing of clothes, caring for refuse,[112] and the soldiers own personal cleanliness.[113]
[Footnote 83: _Journals of Congress_, Vol. II, pp. 209, 210, 211.]
[Footnote 84: _Journals of Congress_, Vol. III, p. 294.]
[Footnote 86: Ford, _Writings of Washington_, Vol. V, p. 204.]
[Footnote 87: _Journals of Congress_, Vol. II, p. 568.]
[Footnote 88: The country was divided into departments or divisions and in each department there was what was called a general departmental hospital, in distinction to the regimental hospitals where the soldier received immediate care, before being sent to the general hospital.]