From Benjamin Franklin to Anthony Todd, 6 November 1764
To Anthony Todd
Extract: Public Record Office
Philadelphia Novr. 6. 1764
Sir
Col. Bouquet marched from Pittsburgh the 4th of October,5 with 1500 Men, down the Ohio, to attack the Shawana Towns; the Peace made by Col. Bradstreet at Presqu’isle not being confirmed.6 We have not since heard from either of those Armies. I am &c.
B Franklin
Endorsed: Philadelphia Novr 6. 1764 Extract of a Letter from Mr Franklin Deputy Postmaster General of North America to Anth Todd Esqr R 10th Decr. from Mr. Todd.
5. Accounts vary as to when Bouquet left Fort Pitt, but the weight of the evidence favors October 3, not the 4th as BF gives it here, nor the 1st as stated in Howard Peckham, Pontiac and the Indian Uprising (Chicago, 1961), p. 262. Bouquet’s journal, as read before the Pa. Council, Dec. 5, 1764, gives the date of departure as October 3 (Pa. Col. Recs., IX, 212), as does William Smith’s An Historical Account of the Expedition … under the Command of Henry Bouquet, Esq. (Phila., printed; London, reprinted, 1766), p. 9. An extract of a letter from Fort Pitt, dated October 3, in Pa. Gaz., Oct. 25, 1764, says that the army “begins its March this Day,” although Pa. Jour., Oct. 25, 1764, quoting the same letter, dates it October 8. The last may have been a misprint. Bouquet penetrated to the upper Muskingum River, dictated terms to the Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo, and the Sandusky Hurons, received 200 captives, and returned to Pittsburgh by Nov. 28, 1764.
6. For Bradstreet’s treaty of Aug. 12, 1764, with certain Shawnee and Delaware chieftains, which was repudiated by his superior, General Gage, see above, pp. 326 n, 335–6.