In the early history of the United States, United States Army leadership deliberately used smallpox as a biological weapon against Indigenous peoples in North America by distributing smallpox-contaminated items to them.
NOT BSTOTAL BS
TOTAL BS — Verdict: False
Verified by Lenz ·
The Short Version
The documented smallpox-blanket episode occurred in 1763 at Fort Pitt under British colonial officers, before the United States existed and before there was a U.S. Army. Evidence does support deliberate biological warfare by British commanders in that case. It does not support the claim that U.S. Army leadership carried out the same act in early U.S. history.
Caveats
Do not conflate British colonial military actions before 1776 with actions by the later U.S. Army.
The existence of a real Fort Pitt incident does not validate later claims about U.S. Army blanket distribution; those claims lack comparable documentary support.
The claim’s error is not a minor wording issue: it misidentifies the responsible institution, which changes the historical conclusion.