Blanket Hill near Kittaning Pa. one of the first cases of Biological Warfare being used in the US in 1754

 I drive up to Altoona via US422 several times each summer to help out a customer  and at the top of one hill is a state marker as well as a  large stone historical marker the name of the hill is  Blanket Hill it got its name from blankets and other materials  left behind by fleeing British troops after encountering a large band of Indian raiders near Kittaning.

http://thepennsylvaniarambler.blogspot.com/2012/09/catastrophe-at-kittanning-battle-of.html

http://www.mohicanpress.com/kittanning_battle.html

Yes hard to believe that way back in 1754   but  British troops fleeing from the battle with Indians  are said to have left behind blankets which where deliberately  infected with Smallpox yet some historians debate if this actually happened during this battle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Fort_Pitt#Biological_warfare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox

How effective it was against the Indians is debated to this day.  But the British are known to have used small pox against the Indians even into the revolutionary war and possibly against American troops.

Small Pox was so feared at Fort Pitt they set up a isolation hospital several miles away in Crafton
to care for troops who had it.

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=40394

So it is not inconceivable that those blankets left on blanket hill where in fact  infected with small pox.  today it is not the once feared disease it once was because vaccines and better hygiene have eradicated it for the most part to 3rd world county's but it still pops up on occasion.