General Johnson's Army

Central New York State

"Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet." Encyclopedia Britannica. www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/305487/Sir-William-Johnson-1st-Baronet.

Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet (1715-1774), was a powerful British colonial official who amassed wealth and influence by integrating into the Mohawk tribe. For a brief window of time (1761-1768), he provided support for Wheelock’s missionary efforts among the Six Nations, recommending Occom and others to Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) leaders. Johnson was a military leader as well a diplomat; his "army" refers to the British forces he commanded to keep peace among the restive Indian tribes during and after the French and Indian War, when he fought with Sir Jeffrey Amherst, and in the run-up to the Revolutionary War. In 1755, he was appointed superintendent of the Confederacy and its allies and commissioned a major general, defeating French forces at Lake George, NY. In 1756, he was appointed superintendent of northern Indians, a post that required active peace-keeping among the tribes. In the period of 1763-64, he participated in subduing the pan-Indian resistance called Pontiac's War, and was the chief British negotiator in the settlement of 1768, the first Treaty of Stanwix.