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32-801: Burd, the son of Colonel James Burd and Sarah (Shippen) Burd, was born February 5, 1749, in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . He studied law with his uncle, Pennsylvania Chief Justice Edward Shippen , whose daughter Elizabeth he married on December 13, 1778. He was a member of the Berks County Bar, and had a law practice in Reading, Pennsylvania . Upon the outbreak of the Revolution, Burd volunteered and eventually rose to major in Colonel Henry Haller's Pennsylvania Battalion of

64-616: A fort associated with the name "Hangard" which French and Native American forces burned repeatedly. Burd felt ill-advised to repeat the blunder, and directed his engineer, instead, to erect the bastion fort on a high bluff overlooking both the Monongahela River and Dunlap's Creek . From this site, at the Western terminus of Nemacolin Trail would develop Brownsville, Pennsylvania , and this former trading Post would grow to serve as

96-707: A historic depot for river transport to Fort Pitt during the war and as the settlement expanded came to build many of the keel boats and later, steam boats that transported settlers to the Northwest Territory , Ohio Country and via the Missouri Valley , the far west and the Oregon Country . He returned to Fort Augusta in 1760, where he remained until the dissolution of the Pennsylvania Regiment. From 1764 to 1770 he held

128-668: A house in Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River , which he named Ormiston after the birthplace of his father. Edward Burd died July 24, 1833, in Philadelphia, where he was interred in Christ Church Burial Ground . James Burd James Burd (March 10, 1725 – October 5, 1793) was a colonial American soldier in the French and Indian War , during which he played an important role in fortifying

160-425: A small outpost called Bushy Run , in what is now Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania . In a two-day battle, Bouquet defeated the tribes and Fort Pitt was relieved. The battle marked a turning point in the war. It was during Pontiac's War that Bouquet gained a certain lasting infamy, when he ordered the men under his command to distribute smallpox-infested blankets from the infirmary to besieging Native Americans during

192-659: A trustee of the University of Pennsylvania from 1791 until his death. In 1820, Burd sat for a portrait by Charles Willson Peale . Peale gave the portrait as a wedding present to Burd's niece, Eliza Burd Patterson, who was married in March 1820 to Peale's son, Rubens Peale . It was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1822 and hung for a time at Peale's Museum, New York City . Burd built

224-618: Is not clear, however, whether the smallpox was a result of the Fort Pitt incident or the virus was already present among the Delaware people as outbreaks happened on their own every dozen or so years and the delegates were met again later and they seemingly hadn't contracted smallpox. Smallpox was highly contagious among the Native Americans, and – together with measles , influenza, chicken pox , and other Old World diseases –

256-677: The Flying Camp . During the Battle of Long Island (1776), Burd was in command of an American pickets stationed at the Red Lion Inn , in the early morning hours of August 27, 1776 after an initial exchange of gunfire with British advance troops, he was taken prisoner along with 16 other Americans under his command. After his release, ill health prevented him from reentering military service, and he returned to his legal practice in Reading. He

288-492: The Ohio Country had fallen to the allied tribes, and Fort Pitt , Fort Ligionier , and Fort Bedford along Forbes's road were besieged or threatened. Bouquet, who was in Philadelphia , threw together a hastily organised force of 500 men, mostly Scots Highlanders, to relieve the forts. On 5 August 1763, Bouquet and the relief column were attacked by warriors from the Delaware , Mingo , Shawnee , and Wyandot tribes near

320-627: The Pennsylvania frontier. Born in Ormiston , near Edinburgh, Scotland , the son of Edward Burd, James Burd came to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania in 1747 or 1748 where he worked as a merchant. On May 14, 1748, he married Sarah Shippen, daughter of former mayor Edward Shippen of the prominent Shippen family of Philadelphia . The couple had eleven children, eight of whom lived to maturity, including Edward Burd . In 1752, he moved his young family to manage his father-in-law's vast land holdings in

352-641: The Siege of Fort Pitt in June 1763. During a parley in midst of the siege on June 24, 1763, Captain Simeon Ecuyer gave representatives of the besieging Delawares small metal boxes containing two blankets and a handkerchief that had been exposed to smallpox, in an attempt to spread the disease to the Natives in order to end the siege. After the end of the war, Levy, Trent and Company , of which William Trent

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384-601: The Chain of friendship. Out of our regard to them we gave them two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital. I hope it will have the desired effect. They then told us that Ligonier had been attacked, but that the Enemy were beat of. A month later in a series of letters between Bouquet and his commander, General Jeffery Amherst , the idea of using smallpox blankets was proposed and agreed upon to infect

416-712: The Indian tribes that had been allied to the French during the French and Indian War to join together to continue the fight to remove the British from the territory. Pontiac initiated attacks on the westernmost frontier forts and settlements, believing the defeated French would rally and come to their aid. The start of the conflict is usually described as the siege of Fort Detroit on 10 May 1763. Fort Sandusky , Fort Michilimackinac , Fort Presque Isle , and numerous other frontier outposts were quickly overrun. Several frontier forts in

448-561: The Indians by giving them infected blankets. Amherst wrote to Bouquet, then in Lancaster , on about 29 June 1763: "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." Bouquet agreed, replying to Amherst on 13 July: "I will try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get

480-581: The Old Presbyterian Cemetery in Middletown, Pennsylvania . Henry Bouquet Henry Bouquet (born Henri Louis Bouquet ; 1719 – 2 September 1765) was a Swiss mercenary who rose to prominence in British service during the French and Indian War and Pontiac's War . He is best known for his victory over a Native American force at the Battle of Bushy Run , lifting the siege of Fort Pitt during Pontiac's War. During

512-482: The area now known as Shippensburg . In 1756, he settled on a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania , but soon joined the military as an officer at the outbreak of the French and Indian War. He was commissioned a major at Fort Augusta (at present-day Sunbury, Pennsylvania ) in 1756, and on December 8, 1756, after the resignation of Lt. Col. William Clapham , he took command of the fort. Under his command

544-557: The conflict Bouquet gained lasting infamy in an exchange of letters with his commanding officer, Jeffery Amherst , who suggested a form of biological warfare in the use of blankets infected with smallpox which were to be distributed to Native Americans. Despite this indictment historians have praised Bouquet for leading British forces in several demanding campaigns on the Western Frontier in which they "protected and rescued" settlers from increasingly frequent attacks. Bouquet

576-645: The construction of Fort Ligonier . After the fall of Fort Duquesne , Burd was sent to the Erie area, where he supervised the construction of roads and fortifications. Most importantly, upon his return from the Great Lakes region he oversaw the erection, with Joseph Shippen , of Fort Burd (later confusedly called Redstone Old Fort due to its proximity to the Monongahela River tributary Redstone Creek ). The confusion comes from its being mistaken for

608-402: The disease myself." Amherst responded on 16 July: "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." By the autumn of 1764, Bouquet had become the commander of Fort Pitt . To subdue the ongoing Indian uprising, he led a force of nearly 1,500 militiamen and regular British soldiers from

640-664: The fort into the Ohio Country . On 13 October 1764, Bouquet's men reached the Tuscarawas River . Shortly thereafter, representatives from the Shawnees, Senecas , and Delawares came to Bouquet to sue for peace. Bouquet then moved his men from the Tuscarawas River to the Muskingum River at modern-day Coshocton, Ohio . This placed him in the heart of tribal lands and would allow him to quickly strike

672-585: The fort's construction was completed, as well as the Provincial Road between the fort and Tulpehocken, the location of Conrad Weiser 's homestead (near present-day Reading ). In 1758, Burd was promoted to colonel. He went with General John Forbes on the Duquesne Expedition under Colonel Henry Bouquet , and 360 of the 400-man garrison participated in the expedition, leaving 40 men at Fort Augusta. During that campaign, Burd contributed to

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704-424: The natives' villages if they refused to cooperate. As part of the peace treaty, Bouquet demanded the return of all white captives in exchange for a promise not to destroy the Indian villages or seize any of their land. The return of the captives caused much bitterness among the tribesmen, because many of them had been forcibly adopted into Indian families as small children, and living among the Native Americans had been

736-590: The office of Justice of Lancaster County. In 1774, a year before the outbreak of hostilities with Great Britain , Burd was instrumental in garnering local support for the colonial congress in its opposition to the Crown, and by the following year he was assisting in the military organization of Lancaster County as a member of the Committee of Safety. His direct military involvement in the Revolutionary War

768-506: The only life they remembered. Some 'white Indians' such as Rhoda Boyd managed to escape back into the native villages; many others were never exchanged. Bouquet was responsible for the return more than 200 white captives to the settlements back east. In 1765, Bouquet was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command of all British forces in the southern colonies. He died in Pensacola , West Florida , on 2 September 1765. Bouquet

800-434: The road from Fort Bedford, his troops were attacked by French and Indians at Loyalhanna , near present Ligonier, Pennsylvania , but the attack was repulsed and they continued on to Fort Duquesne , only to find it razed by the fleeing French. In 1763, bands of Native Americans joined forces to remove the British from their territory in what is most often called Pontiac's War . Pontiac , an Ottawa war leader, began urging

832-558: Was a major cause of death since the arrival of Europeans and their animals. The journal of Trent, who served the commander of the militia at the fort, has provided evidence that this plan was carried out: [June] 24th [1763] The Turtles Heart a principal Warrior of the Delawares and Mamaltee a Chief came within a small distance of the Fort Mr. McKee went out to them and they made a Speech letting us know that all our [POSTS] as Ligonier

864-581: Was a member of, submitted a reimbursement invoice on which was written: "To Sundries got to Replace in kind those which were taken from people in the Hospital to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians Vizt." General Thomas Gage approved reimbursement to the company. A reported outbreak that began the spring before left as many as one hundred Native Americans dead in Ohio Country from 1763 to 1764. It

896-838: Was again in Dutch service as lieutenant colonel of the Swiss guards. In 1756, Bouquet entered the British Army as a lieutenant colonel in the 60th Regiment of Foot (Royal American Regiment), a unit made up largely of members of Pennsylvania's German immigrant community. After leading the Royal Americans to Charleston, South Carolina to bolster that city's defences, the regiment was recalled to Philadelphia to take part in General John Forbes ' expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758. While Bouquet travelled down

928-622: Was appointed as Prothonotary of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on September 1, 1778, and served with great distinction until his resignation December 29, 1805. Elected in 1785, Burd was a member of the American Philosophical Society . From 1790 to 1791, Burd served as a trustee of The Academy and College of Philadelphia , which became the University of Pennsylvania in 1791. He continued as

960-656: Was born in Rolle , Switzerland, in 1719. He was likely the son of Isaac-Barthélemy Bouquet, a mercenary in the service of the Kingdom of Sardinia , and Madeleine Rolaz. Like many military officers of his day, Bouquet traveled between countries serving as a professional soldier. He began his military career in 1736 in the army of the Dutch Republic , and later in 1739 joined the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In 1748, he

992-512: Was brief, however, as he resigned his post in December 1776 because of a dispute concerning rank and insubordination in his command and some criticism from the Committee of Safety. He retired to civilian life, as a county judge. He died at "Tinian", his farm near Highspire, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania , on October 5, 1793. He and his wife (d. September 17, 1784) are buried near the entrance in

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1024-785: Was destroyed, that great numbers of Indians [were coming and] that out of regard to us, they had prevailed on 6 Nations [not to] attack us but give us time to go down the Country and they desired we would set of immediately. The Commanding Officer thanked them, let them know that we had everything we wanted, that we could defend it against all the Indians in the Woods, that we had three large Armys marching to Chastise those Indians that had struck us, told them to take care of their Women and Children, but not to tell any other Natives, they said they would go and speak to their Chiefs and come and tell us what they said, they returned and said they would hold fast of

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