Amherst, Jeffrey

The first use of smallpox as a biological weapon dates back to the American Revolution, when Lord Jeffrey Amherst, the British commander of the Army fighting against a contingent of French soldiers, which together with the Delaware Indians were helping the Continental Army, decided to contaminate the tents of the... 

An early example of biological warfare is also alleged to have occurred when Sir Jeffrey Amherst, who was commander of the English forces in North America, ordered that smallpox-contaminated blankets be distributed to the local native people. The effects on a population that had never been exposed to this virus were devastating. 

In between, a sort of bioterrorism came to the New World in the fifteenth century, aimed to defeat the Indians. Spanish conquistador Pizarro gave clothing contaminated with the smallpox virus to natives in South America. During the French and Indian War (1754-1767) Sir Jeffrey Amherst, commander of British forces in North America, suggested the deliberate use of smallpox to reduce Native American tribes hostile to the British [116]. An outbreak of smallpox at Fort Pitt results in the opportunity to execute Amherst s plan. On June 24, 1763, Captain Ecuyer, Amherst s subordinate, gives blankets and a handkerchief from the smallpox hospital to the Native Americans and records in his journal, I hope it will have the desired effect. This was followed by an epidemic of smallpox among Native American tribes in the Ohio River valley, which may also have been spread by contact with settlers. Transmission of smallpox by fomites (on blankets) is inefficient compared with respiratory droplet transmission. 

Henry Bouquet and General Jeffrey Amherst, undertook to spread smallpox among their Indian foes in the hope of achieving the Total Extirpation of those Indian Nations. British traders were enlisted in a scheme to give the Indians blankets and clothing taken from a hospital that treated smallpox victims. Though this plot appears to have had only limited effect, it is a milestone in the history of biological warfare. 

Peter d Errico, Jeffrey Amherst and Smallpox Blankets Lord Jeffrey Amherst s Letters Discussing Germ Warfare Against American Indians, http //www.nativeweb.org/pages.legal.amherst/lord JefF.html. 

Sir Jeffrey Amherst, Commander in Chief of the British Army in North America, orders smaUpox-contaminated blankets to be distributed to Native Americans. 

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