The Papers of Henry Bouquet

The opening years of the French and Indian War had seen the defeat of the British army of General Edward Braddock in 1755. The British government then took steps to build up its forces in North America; to do this, they sought trained and experienced officers in Europe. Among the officers thus engaged was Henry Bouquet (1719-1765), a Swiss citizen who had begun his career in military service at the age of seventeen. The Bouquet papers contain a rich store of information on Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War and the Pontiac Uprising; but, most importantly, they serve to record the life, the achievements, and the ideas of an important figure in Pennsylvania's colonial history.