Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania) - Pontiac's Rebellion

Pontiac's Rebellion

After the war and in the face of continued colonial encroachment, in 1763 the western Delaware and Shawnee took part in Pontiac's Rebellion, an effort to drive the settlers out of the region. The Indians' siege of Fort Pitt began on June 22, 1763, but they found it too well-fortified to be taken by force. In negotiations during the siege, Captain Simeon Ecuyer, the commander of Fort Pitt, gave two Delaware emissaries blankets that had been exposed to smallpox, in hopes of infecting the surrounding Indians and ending the siege. The attempt was probably unsuccessful. On August 1, 1763, most of the Indians broke off the siege to intercept an approaching force under Colonel Henry Bouquet. In the Battle of Bushy Run, Bouquet fought off the Indian attack and was able to relieve Fort Pitt on August 20.

After Pontiac's War, the British Crown no longer needed Fort Pitt. They turned it over to the colonists in 1772. At that time, the Pittsburgh area was claimed by the colonies of both Virginia and Pennsylvania, which struggled for power over the region. After Virginians took control of Fort Pitt, they called it Fort Dunmore, in honour of Virginia's Governor Lord Dunmore. The fort served as a staging ground in Dunmore's War of 1774. Notice was given to area residents of an auction of all salvagable remains of the fort on August 3, 1797 after the U.S. Army decommissioned the site.