Life of George Washington The Christian death painted by Junius Brutus Stearns (Source: Library of Congress)
December 14 is a sad day at Mount Vernon. Or at least it was in 1799 when George Washington, the father of our country, died of an unknown illness, which came on quickly.
The beginning of the end for Washington came two days earlier when he went for a long horseback ride around his plantation in snowy, 30-degree weather. He awoke the next morning with a severe sore throat and the symptoms got progressively worse from there: hoarseness, cough, chills, difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, fever and loss of voice.