Amherst wrote to Bouquet in 1763: 'Could it not be contrived to send the Smallpox among those disaffected tribes of Indians?' Bouquet replied that he would 'try and inoculate them with some blankets' and Amherst answered that Bouquet would 'do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race.' The article also quotes Fort Pitt commander Simeon Ecuyer writing on 24 June 1763 that 'we gave them two blankets and a handkerchief out of the Smallpox hospital. I hope it will have the required effect.'

This fear may have been well-founded, because the Native Americans were victims of what was probably one of the earliest episodes of biological warfare. Evidence from historical accounts, particularly exchanges between General Jeffrey Amherst and Colonel Henry Bouquet, indicates intentional efforts to spread smallpox among Native Americans during Pontiac's Rebellion.

The National Archives record includes a receipt stating: 'To Sundries got to Replace in kind those which were taken from people in the Hospital to Convey the Small-pox to the Indians Vizt. 2 Blankets 1 Silk Handkerchief and 1 linnen.' The article states that the expense was approved by Captain Simeon Ecuyer, Fort Pitt's commander, and other British officers.

Fort Pitt commander Simeon Ecuyer wrote in his journal: 'Out of regard for them [two Indian chiefs] we gave them two blankets and a handkerchief out of the Smallpox hospital. I hope it will have the required effect.' This is the contemporaneous record most often cited for the Fort Pitt incident.

The analysis additionally reveals that Churchill fabricated events that never occurred—namely the U.S. Army's alleged distribution of smallpox infested blankets to the Mandan Indians in 1837… In short, there is no evidence at all to support the key elements of Ward Churchill’s tale. There is no evidence that U.S. Army officers or doctors were anywhere in the vicinity in June 1837. There is no evidence that any blankets were shipped from a military smallpox infirmary in St. Louis. There is no evidence that anyone passed out infested blankets to Indians with genocidal intent.

This study examines the use of smallpox as a biological weapon during the European colonization of the Americas, focusing on its deployment against indigenous populations as an early example of unethical human experimentation and biowarfare. Evidence from historical accounts, particularly exchanges between General Jeffrey Amherst and Colonel Henry Bouquet, indicates intentional efforts to spread smallpox among Native Americans during Pontiac's Rebellion. In conclusion, the intentional use of smallpox as a bioweapon during European colonization represents an early instance of biowarfare.

In the Amherst–Bouquet correspondence, Amherst urged using smallpox against Native peoples, writing that it might be 'contrived to send the Smallpox among those disaffected tribes of Indians.' Bouquet replied that he would 'try and inoculate them with some blankets' and Amherst approved trying 'to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets.'

The earliest documented use of the smallpox virus being used as a biological weapon was during the French and Indian Wars of 1754-67. British soldiers fighting in North America at that time distributed blankets that had been contaminated with smallpox amongst the native American Indians. Epidemics followed, killing more than 50% of the affected tribes.

During Pontiac's War, Colonel Henry Bouquet conspired with his superior, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, to infect hostile Native Americans through biological warfare with smallpox blankets. The letters exchanged between Bouquet and Amherst during the Pontiac War show Amherst writing to Bouquet that the indigenous people needed to be exterminated: "You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race." Historians regard this as evidence of a genocidal intent by Amherst, as well as part of a broader genocidal attitude frequently displayed against Native Americans during the colonization of the Americas.

Neither Amherst nor Bouquet actually tried germ warfare. The attempt to disseminate smallpox took place at Fort Pitt independent of both of them. Since, as appears likely, the smallpox at Fort Pitt originated with the Indians, the blanket gambit had to have been a complete failure. Trying to infect Indians with smallpox that came from them in the first place was doomed to fail, because the Indians vulnerable to the disease had just been exposed to it. The smallpox incident has been blown out of all proportion, given that it was likely a total failure.

The first well-documented use of smallpox as a biological weapon was by British troops in the French and Indian Wars. In 1763 Captain Ecuyer of the Royal Americans presented 2 blankets and a handkerchief laced with smallpox to the Native Americans as gifts. Four years later the British general, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, gave more contaminated blankets to Native Americans loyal to the French, killing as many as half of the population of the infected tribes.

In the nineteenth century, the U.S. Army sent contaminated blankets to Native Americans, especially Plains groups, to control the Indian problem, wrote archaeologist Ann F. Ramenofsky. This statement has been widely quoted, but specific documentary evidence tying particular smallpox epidemics among Plains tribes in the 1830s directly to a deliberate U.S. Army blanket policy remains contested and is not detailed in the article.

Yet, the most infamous records of intentionally spreading smallpox to Native Americans occurred in 1763 at Fort Pitt (present day downtown Pittsburgh). He stated that they had given the emissaries food, and as Trent wrote, “Out of our regard to them we gave them 2 Blankets and an (sic) Handkerchief out of the Small pox (sic) Hospital.” Bouquet responded, “I will try to inoculate [them] with some blankets that may fall in their hands and take care not to get the disease myself.” The term inoculation then meant deliberate infection. Documented outbreaks occurred from contact with the dirty linen of smallpox patients, indicating that blanket transmission is possible. The article also notes that later claims about U.S. Army distribution of smallpox blankets to Mandan Indians in 1837 are based on Ward Churchill’s account and that historians have challenged the evidence for those specific allegations.

The article says the precise details are unclear, but it describes a Fort Pitt proposal to give contaminated blankets from smallpox patients in the fort to a diplomatic party, notes that Amherst apparently approved, and adds that 'there is no evidence that Amherst’s genocidal intentions and Ecuyer’s abominable act actually succeeded in spreading smallpox among the Shawnees and Delawares who besieged Fort Pitt, for smallpox was already endemic in both groups at the time.'

During Pontiac's Rebellion, in June 1763 a group of Native Americans laid siege to British-held Fort Pitt. During a parley on June 24, Captain Simeon Ecuyer gave representatives of the besieging Delawares two blankets and a handkerchief enclosed in small metal boxes that had been exposed to smallpox, in an attempt to spread the disease to the besieging Native warriors in order to end the siege. William Trent, the trader who had come up with the plan, sent an invoice to the British colonial authorities indicating that the purpose of giving the blankets was "to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians"; the invoice was approved by General Thomas Gage, then serving as Commander-in-Chief, North America.

Following instructions of his superior, Colonel Henry Bouquet, the commander of Fort Pitt, Swiss-born Captain Simeon Ecuyer, ordered his men to take smallpox-infested blankets from the infirmary and give it to a Lenape delegation during the siege in 1763. This act was intended to spread the disease among the Native Americans besieging the fort. The incident at Fort Pitt is widely cited as a documented example of deliberate smallpox transmission to Native Americans by British forces.

The page describes the 1763 Fort Pitt exchange as giving Delaware dignitaries 'two blankets and a handkerchief out of the small pox hospital' and says it is commonly believed that these items carried smallpox and were intended to spread the disease among Native populations.

At the time of the Pontiac rebellion in 1763, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America, wrote to Colonel Henry Bouquet: "Could it not be contrived to send smallpox among these disaffected tribes of Indians? We must use every stratagem in our power to reduce them." The colonel replied: "I will try to inoculate the [Native American tribe] with some blankets that may fall in their hands, and take care not to get the disease myself." This correspondence is often cited as evidence that British military leadership considered and discussed using smallpox-infected blankets against Native Americans.

Contemporary historical accounts frequently attribute the smallpox blanket incident to Sir Jeffery Amherst, British commander in chief in America. In July 1763, amid the Indian uprising known as Pontiac's Rebellion, he communicated with officers at Fort Pitt suggesting the idea of biological warfare, asking if it could be contrived to send smallpox among disaffected tribes. However, Amherst was not the first to consider this tactic: soldiers at Fort Pitt had already distributed two contaminated blankets and a handkerchief to local Shawnee and Delaware tribes on June 24, without any encouragement from their leader.

The only well-documented instance of Europeans deliberately attempting to infect Native Americans with smallpox occurred in 1763 at Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania. English General Jeffrey Amherst recommended it: “Could it not be contrived to send the smallpox among the disaffected tribes of Indians?” Colonel Henry Bouquet agreed to implement the plan: “I will try to inoculate the bastards with some blankets that may fall into their hands.” A diary written the same day said: “We gave them two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital. I hope it will have the desired effect.” Later, an invoice recorded: “taken from people in the Hospital to Convey Smallpox to the Indians viz; 2 Blankets, 1 Silk Handkerchief.”

During the French and Indian War, British forces used smallpox as a biological weapon to weaken the Indigenous tribes that assisted the French. This included the distribution of smallpox-infected blankets, an episode that has been documented by historians and is often cited as an early example of biological warfare. The article situates this within the broader context of smallpox and inoculation practices during the Revolutionary War era.

Earlier that year, William Trent, a trader of Fort Pitt, documented an attempt to infect tribes in his journal. He had gifted Indian emissaries with two blankets and a handkerchief from the on-site smallpox hospital. Despite the widespread belief that foreign militaries employed biological warfare to decimate Native peoples, these two examples are the only recorded cases of colonialists attempting to infect tribes with smallpox using blankets.

The commander of Fort Pitt, Simeon Ecuyer, refused to abandon the fort during the siege of 1763. Instead, Ecuyer gave as gifts two blankets, one silk handkerchief and one piece of linen that were believed to have been in contact with smallpox-infected individuals, to two Delaware emissaries, allegedly in the hope of spreading the deadly disease to nearby tribes, as attested in William Trent's journal. The page also notes a different claim by Reverend Isaac McCoy that settlers deliberately spread smallpox among natives of the southwest, including the Pawnee tribe, and that this was reported to General Clark and the Secretary of War.

This article says the Fort Pitt incident is 'widely believed to be the first documented case of biological warfare' and that British military men gave blankets from their smallpox hospital to two Delaware Indians in hopes of purposefully spreading smallpox. It also notes that the documentary evidence comes from British military correspondence.

But one method they appear to have used—perhaps just once—shocks even more than all the bloody slaughter: the gifting of blankets and linens contaminated with smallpox. Most historians agree that the best-documented case occurred at Fort Pitt in 1763, when British officers discussed and executed a plan to give smallpox-exposed blankets to Native Americans during Pontiac’s Rebellion. The article also notes that while smallpox devastated Native Americans, most of this was due to accidental spread rather than deliberate biological warfare, and later stories involving American forces are more contested.

The sole documented instance of smallpox in the blankets was approved by an Englishman and instigated by a brace of Swiss mercenaries. The dreadful epidemic of 1837–38 and smallpox in general did not come to American Indians through any scheme of the U.S. Army. The only documented attempt to infect Indians with smallpox was the dirty work of Swiss mercenaries serving the British crown before the United States’ founding as a constitutional republic.

The "preponderance of evidence" standard of proof strongly indicates that Churchill fabricated events that never occurred—namely the U.S. Army's alleged distribution of smallpox infested blankets to the Mandan Indians in 1837. "In short, there is no evidence at all to support the key elements of Ward Churchill's tale. There is no evidence that U.S. Army officers or doctors were anywhere in the vicinity in June 1837. There is no evidence that any blankets were shipped from a military smallpox infirmary in St. Louis. There is no evidence that anyone passed out infested blankets to Indians with genocidal intent. Ward Churchill has invented all of this." The article argues that at Fort Clark on the upper Missouri River, Churchill wrongly claimed "the U.S. Army distributed smallpox-laden blankets as gifts among the Mandan," and concludes that the Army had no involvement in Chardon's business at Fort Clark and that Churchill has no evidence for Army involvement.

Our research reveals that British and American traders recognized this fear, and on at least eight occasions between 1811 and 1864 used the threat of releasing smallpox to coerce Indigenous people into doing things they would otherwise not have done. These "smallpox chiefs" used their supposed access to the disease as a form of bioterrorism, even when they may not have had the ability to actually spread it. The article focuses on the use of threats rather than confirmed successful transmission, but shows that smallpox was understood and exploited as a weapon of power.

Two Delaware dignitaries, in the fort for a parlay, were given “two Blankets and a Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital” when they left, wrote trader William Trent in his diary. Threats of infection were also certainly used, and not just by military forces, against indigenous peoples. The article emphasizes that while deliberate smallpox infection did occur, it was not as common as sometimes portrayed, and much of the devastation among indigenous peoples was caused by unintentional disease spread.

The page describes the June 24, 1763 parley during the siege of Fort Pitt, stating that Captain Simeon Ecuyer gave representatives of the besieging Delawares two blankets and a handkerchief exposed to smallpox 'in an attempt to spread the disease to the Natives so that they would end the siege.'

Bouquet indicates intentional efforts to spread smallpox. The plan involved distributing smallpox-infected blankets and a handkerchief to Native American delegates during peace negotiations at Fort Pitt (modern-day Pittsburgh). Two blankets and a handkerchief were deliberately handed over to the Native American representatives with the intent to spread the disease… More than half a century later, the potential deliberate transmission of smallpox to the Pawnee tribe in 1831 is considered another potential act of bioterrorism. Settlers reportedly designed to communicate smallpox using a present of tobacco or an infected article of clothing, and soon after, the Pawnee community suffered a catastrophic smallpox outbreak.

This page says the event is known for a possible attempt at biological warfare, in which William Trent and Simeon Ecuyer may have given items from a smallpox infirmary as gifts to Native American emissaries with the hope of spreading the deadly disease to nearby tribes.

Native communities have numerous stories that were passed down through the generations about receiving or trading blankets and subsequently experiencing a deadly smallpox epidemic. The Hidatsa tell of a smallpox epidemic in 1837 that resulted after receiving blankets in trade with the colonizers. That’s impossible to prove, of course; these oral histories suggest possible intentional infection but lack corroborating written documentation tying the U.S. Army directly to blanket distribution.

The story is that blankets with smallpox were given to Native Americans by European settlers… The Swiss mercenary, a Captain Simeon Ecuyer, dreamed up the idea of giving blankets from people who had recently fallen ill with smallpox to the Native tribes in a sort of biological warfare act. One of those epidemics was triggered in 1837 when a steamboat—the St. Peters—docked in Fort Union (modern day North Dakota); an attempt at inoculation at the fort ended up spreading the disease further, rather than any documented U.S. Army smallpox blanket scheme.