09/04/2026
By September 1776, some of the dangers of the campaign season had subsided for the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga. The number of smallpox cases dropped, and the British army was still 100 miles away. But soldiers who served at Ticonderoga, like Josiah Blood, were still risking their lives. Blood was likely one of the oldest soldiers at Ticonderoga. A resident of Hollis, NH, he was around 60 years old by the time he joined Colonel Joshua Wingate’s militia regiment. Despite his age, Blood made the journey to Ticonderoga with Wingate’s regiment, arriving sometime in mid- or late August. Soon after, though, things began to go wrong.
On September 4, 1776—250 years ago today—Blood wrote this letter from Mount Independence to his wife Sarah and his six children. “I take this Opportunity to inform you that I am in Somthing of Low Circumstances of helth at Preasant and by Reason of Old age I find my self unable to undergo the feteagues of a Campaign,” he began. “I intreet that you would hire a man and send up to take my place as soon as possible & furnish him with a horse So that I may Ride home if God Should be pleasd to Spare my Life So Long”.
Blood had signed up to serve for a specific period, likely 3 months. If he could not get a discharge on medical grounds, he needed to find a replacement who could serve out the rest of his term while he returned home. He stressed the urgency of the situation to his family: “Pray Spare no pains or money and I will See that is paid or Order the same paid as my life is at Stake if I Continue here Long.”
Blood found space in his letter for some more mundane requests, passing along one from a neighbor: “Thomas Patch Desires that if any man should take my place that he would Call at his house and Bring up a Cheese & pair of Mittens for him.” He also requested honey, which “would be of Grate Service here for hunting Be[es]”. The honey, the cheese, the horse, and the substitute would all be too late for Blood. He died, probably of a camp disease, between September 7 and 16.
Learn more about this letter (object ID MS.6005) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30208
