With the opening of spring preparations began in earnest
for a twofold invasion of the Indian country. One army
was to proceed to Detroit by way of Niagara and the Lakes,
and another from Fort Pitt was to take the field against
the Delawares and the Shawnees. To Colonel John Bradstreet,
who in 1758 had won distinction by his capture of Fort
Frontenac, was assigned the command of the contingent
that was to go to Detroit. Bradstreet was to punish the
Wyandots of Sandusky, and likewise the members of the
Ottawa Confederacy if he should find them hostile. He
was also to relieve Gladwyn and re-garrison the forts
captured by the Indians in 1763. Bradstreet left Albany
in June with a large force of colonial troops and regulars,
including three hundred French Canadians from the St
Lawrence, whom Gage had thought it wise to have enlisted,
in order to impress upon the Indians that they need no
longer expect assistance from the French in their wars
against the British.
To prepare the way for Bradstreet's arrival Sir William
Johnson had gone in advance to Niagara, where he had
called together ambassadors from all the tribes, not only
from those that had taken part in the war, but from all
within his jurisdiction. He had found a vast concourse
of Indians awaiting him.
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