Fort Sandusky present-day Erie County. A European-American town later developed near there. During Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763, when a regional coalition of American Indians, primarily Wyandot, tried to expel the British, they first attacked and then laid siege to Fort Detroit. The Wyandot and allies then attacked other forts in the region, taking control of Fort Sandusky. On May 16, 1763, a group of Wyandot gained entry to the fort under the pretense of holding a council with the British, the same stratagem that had failed in Detroit nine days earlier. Alone with the commander, chiefs seized him while warriors killed the
Siege of Fort Pitt become by 1763 and how far British officers were willing to go in ignoring their own soldiers' code of warfare. A devastating smallpox epidemic plagued Native American tribes in the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes area through 1763 and 1764, but the effectiveness of these instances of efforts to spread smallpox remain unknown. After extensive review of surviving documentary evidence, historian Francis Jennings concluded the attempt at biological warfare was "unquestionably effective at Fort Pitt"; Barbara Mann deduced "it is important to note that the smallpox distribution worked"; Howard Peckham noted the resulting fatal epidemic "certainly affected their vigorous prosecution