He was fine on Thursday. By Saturday night, he was gone. It’s kinda wild how fast it happened, honestly. When you look at the George Washington date of death, December 14, 1799, it feels like a lifetime ago, but the details of those final forty-eight hours are so vivid they feel like a modern medical drama. Only without the modern medicine.
Washington was sixty-seven. He was a big guy, physically imposing, and famously tough. He’d survived smallpox, dysentery, and literal hails of bullets during the Revolution. Everyone thought he was invincible. Then he went for a ride in the snow.
The Cold That Killed the General
It started with a routine inspection of his farm. On December 12, Washington spent several hours on horseback. The weather was miserable—a mix of rain, hail, and snow. He was a stickler for punctuality, so when he got home, he didn't change his wet clothes before sitting down for dinner. Big mistake.
The next morning, he had a sore throat. He went out again anyway to mark some trees for cutting. By the middle of the night on Friday, he could barely breathe. It’s hard to imagine the panic in that bedroom. Martha was there, terrified. The overseer, Albin Rawlins, was called in.
Washington was a product of his time, and back then, "medicine" often meant draining the "bad blood" out of you. He literally asked to be bled. Rawlins made an incision. Washington told him to make it deeper. This was just the beginning of a very long, very painful Saturday.
Why the George Washington Date of Death Matters to Science
If you ask a modern doctor what killed the first president, they won't say "a cold." Most medical historians, like Dr. Morens from the National Institutes of Health, point toward acute epiglottitis. It’s a bacterial infection that causes the flap at the base of the tongue to swell up and block the airway. Basically, he was suffocating from the inside out.
The doctors who arrived—James Craik, Gustavus Richard Brown, and Elisha Cullen Dick—did what they were trained to do. They bled him four more times. They gave him blisters of Spanish fly to try and "draw out" the humors. They made him gargle vinegar and sage tea, which nearly choked him.
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By the time the George Washington date of death arrived on that Saturday night, he had lost about 40% of his total blood volume. He was dehydrated, exhausted, and literally gasping for air.
The Final Hours at Mount Vernon
Washington knew he was dying. He was remarkably calm about it. Around 4:30 in the afternoon, he called Martha to his bedside and asked her to bring his two wills. He had her burn one and keep the other.
Tobias Lear, his personal secretary, sat by him the whole time. Lear’s diary is basically our only window into those final moments. It’s raw. It’s not the "heroic" death you see in paintings. It was a man struggling for every single puff of air. Washington whispered to Lear, "I am just going. Have me decently buried; and do not let my body be put into the Vault in less than three days after I am dead."
He was terrified of being buried alive. It was a common phobia back then.
At about 10:00 PM on December 14, 1799, he stopped struggling. He felt his own pulse. His hand fell from his wrist. Lear caught his hand and laid it on the bed. Martha was at the foot of the bed. She asked, "Is he gone?" Lear couldn't speak, but he lifted his hand as a sign.
"Tis well," she said. "All is now over. I shall soon follow him. I have no more trials to pass through."
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Myths vs. Reality
People love to romanticize history. You've probably heard that he died of a simple cold, or that the doctors murdered him. It's more complicated than that.
- The "Cold" Myth: It wasn't just a chill. It was a violent, rapid-onset infection.
- The "Bloodletting" Debate: While taking 80 ounces of blood definitely didn't help, the infection likely would have killed him anyway given the lack of antibiotics in 1799.
- The Last Words: While people like to quote "Tis well," he spent much of the day giving practical instructions about his papers and his burial.
What Happened After December 14?
The news didn't travel fast. There was no Twitter, no breaking news alerts. It took days for the word to reach Philadelphia, which was then the capital. When it did, the nation went into a state of shock.
The funeral happened on December 18. It was a modest affair at Mount Vernon, just as he wanted, though there were military honors. But the ripple effect of the George Washington date of death changed American culture. It triggered a massive period of national mourning that lasted for months. People wore black armbands. Mock funerals were held in cities he had never even visited.
He became a myth almost immediately.
A Lesson in 18th Century Medicine
Looking back at 1799 helps us appreciate how far we've come. If Washington had lived today, a simple course of antibiotics and maybe a steroid shot would have had him back on his feet in a week. Instead, the greatest figure of the age was taken out by a throat infection and some well-meaning doctors with lancets.
Dr. Elisha Dick actually suggested a tracheotomy—cutting a hole in the windpipe so he could breathe. It was a radical idea for 1799. The older doctors, Craik and Brown, said no. They stuck to the traditional methods.
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We often wonder "what if." What if they had listened to the younger doctor? What if Washington hadn't gone out in the snow? But the reality is, by the time he woke up struggling to breathe on Saturday morning, his fate was likely sealed.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs
If you're looking to truly understand the impact of Washington's passing beyond just a date on a calendar, there are a few things you should do to get the full picture of the era.
First, read the Tobias Lear diary entries from December 1799. It is the most direct, unvarnished account of a person’s final moments you will ever find from that century. It strips away the "Founding Father" marble statue image and shows the human being.
Second, if you ever visit Mount Vernon, pay attention to the layout of the bedroom. It’s surprisingly small. Seeing the space where the George Washington date of death actually occurred makes the history feel much more personal and much less like a textbook entry.
Lastly, look into the specific medical practices of the late 1700s. Understanding the "Four Humors" theory explains why the doctors thought they were helping him by bleeding him. It wasn't malpractice by 1799 standards; it was the gold standard of care. This shift in perspective helps you judge the historical figures by the context of their time, not ours.
The end of Washington's life wasn't just the end of a man; it was the end of the Revolutionary era. He was the glue holding a very fragile new country together. When he died, the United States had to figure out how to survive without its "father" for the first time.