Pontiac's Rebellion

May 1763

An Ottawa war leader named Pontiac coordinated a pan-tribal uprising against the British forts that had replaced French ones. Eight posts fell; Detroit and Fort Pitt held. It was at Fort Pitt that British commanders sent blankets from smallpox patients to besieging Delawares - biological warfare, conducted by memo. The rebellion forced London to issue the Proclamation Line of 1763, banning colonial settlement west of the Appalachians.