Washington's Other War

Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast · Sep 29, 2026 · 25m · transcript

We remember the American Revolution through its battlefields: Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown. We picture Washington crossing the Delaware, Continental soldiers enduring brutal winters, and British redcoats marching across the colonies.

But George Washington was fighting another war at the same time.

Smallpox was moving through North America, and the Continental Army was extraordinarily vulnerable. Thousands of men lived together in crowded camps. Recruits arrived from rural communities where exposure to the disease had been limited. One outbreak could…