John Parke Custis died on November 5, 1781, after contracting the illness called camp fever during the Yorktown campaign. He had joined George Washington as a civilian aide and was close to the crowded army camps during the siege. After becoming seriously ill, he was taken to Eltham, the home of relatives in New Kent County, rather than dying in battle at Yorktown itself. His mother Martha Washington, his wife Eleanor and his stepfather were with him near the end, according to the family account. The historical term camp fever does not establish one modern infection with certainty, so a specific diagnosis should remain qualified. The material does not supply a complete course of treatment or a dependable transcript of the final conversations. His death came shortly after Cornwallis's surrender and transformed a public victory into a private family loss. He was twenty-six and left four children. The two youngest later became part of the Washington household at Mount Vernon, but that arrangement belongs to the aftermath. The supported final-days sequence is illness acquired during the campaign, removal to a family home and death under care, with the exact medical mechanism less securely documented than the date and setting.