He could not but have admired the
General's sagacity in retaining the Mohawks as allies of the English
Colonials, when most of the Indian tribes had arrayed themselves on the
side of the French. At the time Johnson was assembling his army on the
Hudson, in that very month of July, 1755, General Braddock, commander of
the Duquesne expedition, met with most disastrous defeat, and almost his
last words were regrets that he had not taken the advice of his
aide-de-camp, a "young Virginian colonel named Washington," who had
earnestly besought him to abandon the British tactics and adopt the
American system of "bush-fighting."
"We shall better know how to deal with them another time," the defeated
Braddock had said to Washington, just before he died. But General
Johnson and the Provincial officers already knew how to deal with their
wily foes. They had taken leaves from the unwritten book of Indian
tactics; their men fought from behind trees and logs, as the savages
fought, and in this manner turned the tables upon the French commanders.
"It was owing to the pride and ignorance of that great general that came
from England," said an Indian chieftain, alluding to the terrible defeat
of Braddock.
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