Henri Bouquet

See also: Bouquet

Henri Bouquet (1719 - September 2nd 1765) is an officer mercenary of the British Armée noticed in the Guerre Seven Year old between French and the British and the war of Pontiac. Bouquet is better known for its victory over Amerindian with the battle of “Bushy Run”, being released from the seat of the Fort Pitt during the war against Pontiac.

It was born with Rolle in Suisse, wire of an officer of army. As much as military officers of its time, it was used as mercenary for other foreign countries. It began its military career in the army of the Netherlands and was later with the service of the Sardinia. In 1748, it returned to the service of the Netherlands, as lieutenant-colonel of the Swiss mercenaries.

It took service of the British army in 1756 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. It served under the orders of the General John Forbes in forwarding against the French garrison of the Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania currently) in 1758, and on its opinion that the army built a new road by the central Pennsylvania, instead of using the road of the Maryland made during the failure of the forwarding of Braddock. Bouquet and its troops were attacked by French and the Amerindians with Loyalhanna, close to current the Ligonier in Pennsylvania, but the pushed back attack, they moved towards the Fort Duquesne, which abandoned and had been shaved by the French during their retirement.

In 1763, the war of Pontiac burst at the border. Pontiac, a war leader of the Outaouais, started to raise the Indians who had been combined of the French to fight the British. The true reason is that Améridiens wanted to preserve their grounds. The attacks launched by Pontiac on forts, if they had succeeded, according to him proved the influence of French in rising. The conflict began with the seat of the Fort Strait the May 10th 1763. The Strong Sandusky, the Strong Michillimakinac, the Strong Peninsula and of many frontier outposts were quickly overflowed.

Several forts had fallen to the allied tribes, strong Pitt, strong Ligionier, and the Fort Bedford along the Chemin Forbes. Bouquet which was found in Philadelphia, gathered with haste 500 men, the majority of them of the mountain mercenaries of Scotland, to release these forts. The August 5th 1763, bouquet and its troop were attacked by warriors of the tribes of the Lenape-Delaware, of Mingo, Shawnee and Wyandot close to a small outpost called Bushy Run, in what is now the county of Westmoreland, in Pennsylvania. A battle which lasted two days, the tribes were defeats by Bouquet and strong Pitt was released.

The countryside against Pontiac was worth in Bouquet to grant a reputation of and precursor war criminal of the biological weapons. In a series of letters exchanged during the summer of 1764 between Bouquet and its commander, the General Jeffrey Amherst, it conceives the idea to infect the Indians of the small pox (variola) in their giving covers contaminated by this disease which prevailed at the hospital of the fort. It designated the Amerindians under the infâmant term of " vermine" and of the texts show that the project was indeed put in action by distributions of covers. An epidemic of variola was actually spread among the Indians, causing thousands of deaths. If this epidemic with good maintained by artificial means aiming at killing a certain population, it is not any doubt that it is about the first act of racist bioterrorism in North America. It should however be admitted that the epidemics of variola at all do not require for additional help to be propagated and that in all the cases it does not make any difference between the Indians and the white… Several exchanges of correspondences of the summer 1763 between the military governor of News-France Jeffrey Amherst and the Swiss mercenaries Henri Bouquet and Siméon Écuyer are preserved in files in English language.

The racist letters treating the Amerindians of “vermin” show an unquestionable will to exterminate the Indian population rebels, with the exeption of the Indian allies: • " … that Vermine… cuts forfeited all claim to the rights off humanity" (Bouquet with Amherst, 25 uin • " I would rather thing the liberty to kill any Savage… " (Bouquet with Amherst, 25 juine) • " … Measures to Be taken ace would Bring Total butt the Eradication off those Indian Nations" (Amherst with the Lord William Johnson, Superintendent off the Northern Indian Department, on July 9th • " … to their Total Eradication is scarce sufficient Attonement… " (Amherst with George Croghan, Deputy Agent for Indian Affairs, on August 7th • " … could has most Effectual Stop to their very Being" (Amherst with Johnson, on August 27th emphasis in original).

With the autumn of 1764, Bouquet was named ordering strong Pitt. To subdue the rising of the Indian tribes with a clear mandate. It carried out a force of 1.500 militiamans and soldiers regular starting from the fort in the area of the Ohio. The October 13rd 1764, the army of Bouquet reached the river of Tuscarawas. Shortly after the shawnee, the Sénéca S and Lenape-Delaware came to go by fear of the British exactions. Like conditions for the peace treaty, Bouquet required the return of all the British prisoners against the promise not to destroy the villages of the Indians or not to adapt their grounds. The exchange of the prisoners badly proceeded and much of Europeans having adopted the lifestyle and the values of the Amerindians have being taken against their liking. This because much of bitterness among the indigenous groups. Bouquet moved its army of the river of Tuscarawas towards the river of Muskingum current the Coshocton, Ohio. It positioned in the middle of the tribal grounds and that would enable him to strike the villages of the autochtones quickly if they refused to cooperate.

In 1765, Bouquet was promoted brigadier general and was placed at the orders of all the British forces in the southernmost colonies. He died in Pensacola, in the south of the Florida the September 2nd 1765, probably of the yellow fever.

http://www.umass.edu/legal/derrico/amherst/lord_jeff.html
Peter d' Errico: Jeffrey Amherst and Smallpox Blankets

http://www.umass.edu/legal/derrico/amherst/lord_jeff.html quotation: " " … if all the trees changed into an Indian… " Colonel Henry Bouquet to General Amherst, on June 29th, 1763.

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