Eyewitness 1763: Bouquet's victory lifts the siege of Fort Pitt One in a series Sunday, December 16, 2007 By Len Barcousky, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette What little news arrived in the summer of 1763 at Fort Pitt, at the western edge of the Pennsylvania wilderness, was all bad. The Ottawa Chief Pontiac had British troops and settlers at Fort Detroit under siege. His successes in the Great Lakes area had encouraged a loose alliance of Delaware, Shawnee and Seneca warriors to attack and destroy British outposts in northwestern Pennsylvania at Fort Presque Isle, Fort LeBoeuf and Fort Venango. The few survivors of those attacks fled south to Fort Pitt, the keystone to British control of southwestern Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley. Why were the Indians angry? Despite the promises made to them five years earlier in the Treaty of Easton that the British would not establish permanent settlements west of the Alleghenies, the Indians saw land-hungry farmers continuing to flood into the area. Col. Henry Bouquet The brick-by-brick construction of Fort Pitt into the largest outpost on the frontier was another sure sign that the British weren't going away anytime soon. Just outside the fort, the town of Pittsburgh was developing into what historian David Dixon, of Slippery Rock University, has described as a "substantial community of traders, merchants, tavern keepers, prostitutes, speculators and laborers." Both the fort and the town were threatened with extinction after Native American warriors surrounded the settlement. At the other end of the state, Col. Henry Bouquet, a veteran of frontier fighting, was given the task of organizing a relief expedition, but as he moved farther and farther westward in the summer of 1763, he found that the Indians were aware of his every move. "The Indians had better intelligence, and no sooner were they informed of the march of our Army, than they broke up the siege of Fort Pitt," wrote an anonymous "lover of his country" in 1765. The "lover" was identified a century later as William Smith, the first provost of the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania. A partial copy of his work -- "An Historical Account of the Expedition against the Ohio Indians, in the year 1764" -- is in the archives of the Sen. John Heinz History Center. Dr. Smith's language, full of references to "savages" and "barbarians," reflects colonial-era attitudes. Col. Bouquet's relief column was near Bushy Run in Westmoreland County, about 25 miles from Fort Pitt, when it was attacked by a Native American force on Aug. 5, 1763. The first day's battle was a draw. "At the first dawn of light [the next day] the savages began to declare themselves, all about the camp, at the distance of about 500 yards," Dr. Smith wrote. "And by shouting and yelling in the most horrid manner, quite round that extensive circumference, endeavoured to strike terror by an ostentation of their numbers, and their ferocity ... "[Col. Bouquet's soldiers] saw before them the most melancholy prospect of crumbling away by degrees, and entirely perishing without revenge or honour, in the midst of those dreadful deserts. ... " Their commander realized that he needed to trick the Indians into thinking he was retreating. "For that purpose he contrived the following stratagem ... Col. Bouquet gave directions that two companies of his troops, who had been posted in the most advanced situations, should fall within the circle; the troops on the right and left immediately opened their files, and filled up the vacant space, that they might seem to cover their retreat. Another company of light infantry, with one of grenadiers, were ordered to 'lie in ambuscade,' to support the two first companies of grenadiers, who moved on the feigned retreat, and were intended to begin the real attack. The dispositions were well made, and the plan executed without the least confusion. "The savages gave in entirely into the snare. ... The barbarians mistook those motions for a retreat, abandoned the woods which covered them, hurried headlong on, and advancing with the most daring intrepidity galled the English troops their heavy fire." Within minutes, however, the Indians found themselves outgunned. They disappeared into the woods and never resumed their siege of Fort Pitt, which Col. Bouquet made the headquarters for his successful campaign the following year against the tribes in the Ohio country. Len Barcousky can be reached at lbarcousky@post-gazette.com or 724-772-0184. First published on December 16, 2007 at 12:00 am As Pittsburgh prepares for its 250th birthday next November, the Post-Gazette will publish stories every other Sunday drawn from contemporary accounts in the region's newspapers and periodicals. The stories will offer snapshots at critical -- and sometimes comical -- junctures over the past two-and-a-half centuries.