The 1775–1782 North American smallpox epidemic was a smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 epidemic

Epidemic

In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...

 that spread across most of the continent of North America. The epidemic coincided with the years of the American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

 (1775–1782), which was gripping much of the continent from the colonies, western frontiers, and southern Canada. By its end the epidemic had spread as far west as the pacific coast, as far north as Alaska and as far south as Mexico, infecting virtually every part of the continent.