Additionally, during periods of expansive death in Philadelphia, Washington Square was used to inter those victims. During 1763, Christian Native Americans rounded up by British soldiers were being housed in army barracks in Philadelphia (supposedly for their protection), but an outbreak of smallpox swept the barracks. 63 Native Americans were buried together in one corner of Washington Square. In the winter of 1777-1778, under British occupation, more than 2,000 American prisoners of war & British soldiers died of cold, hunger, and disease over a particularly hard winter. The soldiers were buried together in pits the length of Washington Square. The last major event was in 1793 when 1,334 residents of Philadelphia, who died during a yellow fever outbreak, were buried together in Washington Square. After the yellow fever mass burial, Washington Square was officially closed for all public burials. A minimum of 3,397 people were buried in Washington Square. But individual internments or exact numbers of buried Revolutionary War soldiers were not documented, so the number is anticipated to be closer to 5 or 6,000.