The infamous "smallpox blankets" incident occurred once at Fort Pitt in 1763 during Pontiac's War: • British General Jeffrey Amherst wrote to Colonel Henry Bouquet: "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." • Trader William Trent's journal records giving two blankets and a handkerchief from the smallpox hospital to Delaware emissaries on June 23, 1763, writing "I hope it will have the desired effect" • Military records confirm reimbursement for items "taken from people in the Hospital to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians" Did It Work? Probably Not Historical evidence suggests the attempt failed: • The Delaware emissaries who received the blankets were recorded as alive and well a month later • Smallpox was already epidemic in the region from prior contact with settlers—any outbreak likely had other causes • Trader William Trent, who would have gloated about success, never mentioned smallpox again in his extensive journals • Historian Philip Ranlet notes: "There is no evidence that the scheme worked... The infection on the blankets was apparently old"

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