Event

Amherst and Bouquet on smallpox, July 1763

Letters in which General Amherst and Colonel Bouquet discussed sending smallpox to the Indian nations around Fort Pitt.

3 links, 0 backed by primary records

Connections 3

Jeffery Amherst asked whether smallpox could be sent among the "Disaffected Tribes", in a memorandum Fenn dates to 7 July 1763 Scholarship & press 1
Henry Bouquet replied on 13 July that he would try to infect the Indians by blankets "that may fall in their hands" Scholarship & press 1

Biological Warfare in Eighteenth-Century North America: Beyond Jeffery Amherst Scholarship & press 1
Fenn writes that the Fort Pitt act came before the letters and was not ordered by them.

Timeline 1 date

Proof 1 source

Biological Warfare in Eighteenth-Century North America: Beyond Jeffery Amherst, The Journal of American History, 2000. Scholarship & press
Could it not be contrived to Send the Small Pox among those Disaffected Tribes of Indians? We must, on this occasion, Use Every Stratagem in our power to Reduce them.
try to inocculate the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself.
Unbeknownst to both Bouquet and his commander in chief, their subordinates at Fort Pitt had already conceived and executed the very plan proposed.

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