As Putnam, the stalwart provincial soldier, was merely a private in the
ranks when he made the acquaintance of the famous general and the Mohawk
chief, he may not have attracted their attention; though he later won
encomiums from the commander. 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. "He looked upon the Indians as dogs, and would never take
their advice, and that is the reason many of our warriors left him. We
are ready again to take up the hatchet with you against the French; but
let us unite our strength. You are numerous, and all the English
governors along your seashore can raise men enough. But don't let those
that come from over the great seas be concerned any more. They are unfit
to fight in the woods. Let us go by ourselves--we that came out of this