(Valley Forge)

Autograph letter signed ("Josiah Long"), one page with integral address leaf (7 7/8 x 6 5/8 in.; 200 x 170 mm), Camp Valley Forge, 2 April 1778, to Mrs. Isaac Coller in care of the Danbury Bethel Society, Connecticut, relating the death of her husband that morning; browned and silked. Blue cloth folding case, blue morocco spine, blue morocco lettering pieces.

Death of a soldier at Valley Forge. "Madam—This is a Disagreeable Task to me that I am Calld upon to Pen these Lines that must Bring Suchey Mallincolley News to you. Nothing Less Does these Bring than the Mallincolley Sound of Death—your Husband Departed this Life this Morning about 8 oClock and was Decently Buried this Evening." Long adds in a postscript that Coller succumbed to small pox.  

Undernourished, poorly clothed and living in crowded, damp quarters, many soldiers took ill during the six-month encampment. As many as 2,000 men perished from typhus, smallpox, dysentery, and pneumonia. There was satisfaction expressed by the Commander-in-Chief concerning inoculation against smallpox but a warning was issued: 18 March 1778. "Innoculation for the small pox having been haply performed in all the subjects in camp it is necessary to guard the fatal effects of that disorder taken in the natural way." It's plausible that Isaac Coller died from that procedure.