Pittsburgh Allegheny Pennsylvania United States
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A company of the 77th, under a Captain McDonald, approaches the fort with drums beating and pipes playing as a decoy.
A force of four hundred men lies in wait to ambush the enemy when they go out to attack McDonald, and several hundred more under the Virginian Major Andrew Lewis are concealed near the force's baggage train in the hope of surprising an enemy attack there.
The French and native force is in fact much larger than anticipated, and moves swiftly.
They overwhelm McDonald's decoy force and overrun the party that had been meant to ambush them.
Lewis's force leaves its ambush positions and goes to the aid of the rest of the force, but the French and natives have by now then gained a point of high ground above them and force them to retire.
The natives use the forest to their advantage.
In the one-sided battle in the woods, the British and American force suffers three hundred and forty-two casualties, of whom two hundred and thirty-two are from the 77th Regiment, including Grant, who is taken prisoner.
Out of the eight officers in Andrew Lewis’s Virginian contingent, five are killed, one is wounded and Lewis himself is captured.
Nevertheless, most of Grant's force escapes to rejoin the main army under Forbes and Bouquet.
The Franco-native force suffers only eight killed and eight wounded.
A plaque on the Allegheny County Courthouse, erected in 1901 commemorates the site of the battle, and the hill where the battle was fought is today called Grant Street, in Pittsburgh.
The French had continued to occupy Fort Duquesne until November 26, when the garrison set fire to the fort and left under the cover of darkness.
As the British march up to the smoldering remains, they are confronted with an appalling sight.
The natives had decapitated many of the dead Highlanders and impaled their heads on the sharp stakes on top of the fort walls, with their kilts displayed below.
The British and Americans will rebuild Fort Duquesne, naming it Fort Pitt after the British prime minister William Pitt, who had ordered the capture of this strategic location.
William Trent, the militia commander, leaves records that show the purpose of giving the blankets was "to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians."
Turtleheart and Killbuck will later represent the Delaware at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768.
On July 22, Trent writes, "Gray Eyes, Wingenum, Turtle's Heart and Mamaultee, came over the River told us their Chiefs were in Council, that they waited for Custaluga who they expected that Day".
He orders subordinates to "immediately ... put to death" captured enemy native warriors.
To Colonel Henry Bouquet at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who is preparing to lead an expedition to relieve Fort Pitt, Amherst writes on about June 29, 1763: "Could it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them."
Bouquet responds to Amherst (summer of 1763):
P.S. I will try to inocculate [sic] the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself.
As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard's Method, and hunt them with English Dogs.
Supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermine.
In a postscript, Amherst replies:
P.S. You will Do well to try to Innoculate [sic] the Indians by means of Blankets, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present.
Officers at the besieged Fort Pitt had already attempted to do what Amherst and Bouquet were discussing, apparently on their own initiative.
Too strong to be taken by force, the fort is kept under siege throughout July.
Meanwhile, Delaware and Shawnee war parties raid deep into Pennsylvania, taking captives and killing unknown numbers of settlers in scattered farms.
Two smaller strongholds that link Fort Pitt to the east, Fort Bedford and Fort Ligonier, are sporadically fired upon throughout the conflict, but are never taken.
Nearly five hundred and people have crowded inside, including more than two hundred women and children.
Simeon Ecuyer, the Swiss-born British officer in command, wrote that "We are so crowded in the fort that I fear disease...; the smallpox is among us."
Colonists had also caught smallpox from natives at a peace conference in 1759, which had then led to an epidemic in Charleston and the surrounding areas in South Carolina.
Historians are at odds as to how much damage the attempt to spread smallpox at Fort Pitt caused.
Historian Francis Jennings will conclude that the attempt was "unquestionably successful and effective" and inflicted great damage to the natives.
Historian Michael McConnell will write that, "Ironically, British efforts to use pestilence as a weapon may not have been either necessary or particularly effective", noting that smallpox was already entering the territory by several means, and natives were familiar with the disease and adept at isolating the infected.
Historians widely agree that smallpox devastated the native population.
On August 5, these two forces meet at the Battle of Bushy Run.
Although his force suffers heavy casualties, Bouquet fights off the attack and relieves Fort Pitt on August 20, bringing the siege to an end.
His victory at Bushy Run is celebrated in the British colonies—church bells ring through the night in Philadelphia—and praised by King George.
European expansion into the upper Ohio valley has increased.
Beyond the Appalachians, colonists have begun to settle the area around Fort Pitt (modern Pittsburgh), extending the dominion of the Pennsylvania colony.
An estimated four thousand to five thousand families had settled between 1768 and 1770 in western Pennsylvania, of which about a third were English, a third were Scots-Irish, and the rest were Welsh, German and others.
These groups tend to settle together in small farming communities, but often their households are not within hailing distance.
The life of a settler family is one of relentless hard work: clearing the forest, stumping the fields, building cabins and barns, planting, weeding, and harvesting.
In addition, almost everything has to be manufactured by hand, including furniture, tools, candles, buttons, and needles.
Settlers have to deal with harsh winters, and with snakes, black bears, mountain lions, and timber wolves.
The settlers often build their cabins near, or even on top of, springs, because of the fear of raids by Native Americans.
They also build blockhouses, where neighbors rally during conflicts.
Increasing violence with especially the Shawnee, Miami, and Wyandot tribes had led to Dunmore's War in 1774, and conflict with Native Americans is to continue throughout the American Revolution.
Fort Pitt had become a United States fort in 1777 when Brigadier General Edward Hand had taken command.
Colonel Daniel Brodhead, From his headquarters at Fort Pitt, has directed numerous raids against hostile native tribes, often leading the expeditions personally.
His most famous raid comes against the Seneca tribe between August 11 and September 14, 1779, when Brodhead leads six hundred and five soldiers and militia into the trackless wilderness of northwestern Pennsylvania to destroy Seneca villages along the upper Allegheny.
Large producers, who are businessmen, are more willing to accept the new tax.
They can make an annual tax payment of six cents per gallon.
A smaller producer, who only occasionally makes whiskey, must make payments throughout the year at a rate of about nine cents per gallon.
Because large producers can reduce the cost of the excise tax if they produce even larger quantities, the new tax gives the large producers a competitive advantage over small producers, who are generally in the western counties.
Therefore, acceptance of the excise tax varies with the scale of the production.
The western small farmers detest the excise because it is only payable in cash, in short supply on the western frontier.
Due to the effort required to transport any product over the mountains back to the markets of the East, farmers feel it makes greater sense to transport the distilled spirits of their grain rather than the raw grain itself.