♪ it was the winter of 1777. george washington's army camped out in a field in northernrn new jersey facing incredible hardships. winter was frigid. they were hungry and battle weary but washington had bigger concerns. >> it was probably washington's greatest fear that disease would destroy his army, not british soldiers, so he took necessary means to have his armies inoculated against smallpox so the men who were i sick needed to be placed under a roof and taken care of. it was a very hard time. >> jon: they would deliberately expose the soldiers to smallpox to try to prevent it from spreading within the wider army? >> the regiments were ordered, certain regiments at certain times, to be inoculated.