Is This The First Ever Use Of Germ Warfare?

[mawnansmiff]

Reading David McCullough's rather good '1776: America And Britain At War' I came upon the part where the British were holed up in Boston with Washington's army pretty much surrounding them.
It was wintertime and both sides were suffering from a lack of supplies, food and firewood in particular and with sickness raging in both camps.
On November 25th the British sent several boatloads of "the ragged poor of Boston", some 300 men, women and children (the majority suffering from various diseases) across Back Bay to Cambridge "for the rebels to cope with".
It was suggested to Washington that they had been sent "with the design of spreading the smallpox through this country and camp" but Washington refused to believe this.
However when another 150 of these disease stricken folks were sent over Washington concluded that it was "a weapon of defence they are using against us".
So folks, this undoubtedly is germ warfare but is it the first recorded instance of such?
Regards,
Jay.

 

[prairiedruid]

Nope.....used in medieval times and earlier. Catapult dead carcasses into a besieged fort to spread disease.

 

[toobfreak]

What a great idea! Saves burying them! Just toss the bodies back and forth. Hey you take him! No, you!

 

[ashdigger]

PrairieDruid has it right.

 

[aldecaker]

Not only flinging bloated corpses over walls, but using them to taint water supplies as well. Pretty ruthless shit back then.

 

[deathmetal]

What we consider ruthless today was considered merely efficient and wise back then, and so will be considered in the future.
We are living in a wealth bubble where the barbarity was interrupted. This was our shot at space exploration, to see if ours is a species worth perpetuating.
Now we have our answer, and it is back to barbarity for a few thousand years...

 

[warren]

I believe it's been going on ever since the first guy crapped up stream in the water supply. So, it was often self-inflicted.

 

[jitterbugdude]

Reading David McCullough's rather good '1776: America And Britain At War'

Currently I'm reading "Those Dam Rebels". A book from the perspective of the British. Looks like I'll be getting the "1776" America and Britain at War" book after I'm done reading my current one.
From what I understand it was standard practice for the British military to dump small groups of pox people in the way of the rebels. The Brits always allowed a large group of civilians to follow them. These were usually women (prostitutes), merchants and freed blacks. It was not uncommon for some of them to have pox.
Washington was so worried about the pox crippling his army that he usually gave orders that only pocked faced troops were allowed to go into town.

 

[warren]

I believe Washington followed the various European army practices and ordered inoculations for his army as it passed through Philadelphia.

 

[toobfreak]

We are living in a wealth bubble where the barbarity was interrupted. This was our shot at space exploration, to see if ours is a species worth perpetuating.

Interesting take. So you think that it was the momentary creation of the comfortable middle-class that has given us civility? And what are your conclusions on our perpetuation via space? If we get hit by a nuke or EMP taking out the electric grid, we may find ourselves back in the dark ages quicker than we might imagine.

 

[aldecaker]

Mankind's civility is a thin veneer indeed, but it does go back quite a way.

 

[mso489]

Despite deathmetal's "optimism" about this, all weaponry and ill intent has the tendency to backfire. Even simple neglect of the poor ravaged by disease in the 19th Century tended to come back and afflict the comfortable classes, even when they escaped to the countryside. Sadly, the murderous intent has come to be read as strength and resolve, and the more compassionate intent as wimpy and milktoast. Sometimes enlightened self-interest in preserving lives ends up being the hardest hearted of all in facing the self-destruction in bad will.

 

[pagan]

PrairieDruid has it right

Ive also read stories of Catapulting dead carcasses into a besieged fort to spread disease

 

[akfilm]

In the medieval times germ warfare was common especially with plague corpses. But it's been used a long time. During the First Sacred War in Greece, about 590 BC, Athens and the Amphictionic League poisoned the water supply of Kirrha with hellebore. There are several mentions of poisons or infected people and corpses for warfare in antiquity.

 

[toobfreak]

In a sense, hurling gas-bloated, diseased corpses at your hated enemies in its day was probably better sport and more fun than tumbling down a hill breaking your neck just to win a broken-up grass-stained wheel of warm cheese. :mrgreen:
I think part of modern society's ill is in the fact that we have largely removed justice from our society to where few ever get satisfaction from the court. At best, it costs the victim a fortune to get a ruling, which might only be a fine collected that the victim does not ever see any of!
Seems to me that if folks could still seek out justice on their own, there would be a lot less general stress and happier people. Personally, I've got a few neighbors I'd like to catapult a dead body or two at their house, or at the very least a few bags of rotten fruit. ::

 

[aldecaker]

@MSO- In all fairness, compassion is generally well-viewed. I posit that compassion is not considered "wimpy and milktoast" until it becomes extremely obvious to everyone that the takers of compassion are looking at those givers and saying, "Hey, look, the more we take, the more these fools give! Hahahaha!". Even then, if the funds being poured down a rabbit hole aren't stolen from the public coffers, no one usually begrudges the do-gooders their various wastes of time and money.

 

[tuold]

There are other ways refugees can be "weaponized" and it's still being done today. Witness the creation of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees pouring into NATO countries. It creates hardship and internal chaos in those places forced to deal with them. This has not been a mere accident or random outcome of war, but a Russian strategic goal. It has worked well for them. It's terrible for everyone else involved including the refugees, but that's how I see it. I could be wrong. I hope so.

 

[brian64]

@tuold: I mostly agree, except IMO it is a strategy of the globalists, not the Russians.

 

[mawnansmiff]

"Mankind's civility is a thin veneer indeed."
Aldecaker, you have it 100% correct there chum. An absolute fact is that!
Yes, now reading about it I do recall that in medieval wars, and sieges in particular, rotting bodies, excrement etc was catapulted into the camp of the enemy but was it purely for spreading disease or just because they could?
In the above it was clearly stated that the purpose was to spread disease.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[toobfreak]

You don't have to look too hard to find much of that today in many 3rd world countries! And they are not even fighting a war.