Misfortunes here increased upon him, until he fell into an ambuscade and was mortally wounded.
The column crossed the Monongahela river on the 9th of July and almost immediately afterwards fell into an ambuscade of French and Indians.
The armies were very large, an expedition often consisting of several divisions, each numbering eight thousand men; but the tactics of the commanders were quite rudimentary, consisting merely of attack by arrows and javelins at a distance, gradually closing into a hand-to-hand fight with clubs and spears, with an occasional feigned retreat to draw the enemy into an ambuscade.
It is allowable to deceive an enemy by fabricated despatches purporting to come from his own side; by tampering with telegraph 1112Ssages; by spreading false intelligence in newspapers; by sending pretended spies and deserters to give him untrue reports of the numbers or movements of the troops; by employing false signals to lure him into an ambuscade.
Dirk offered a stout resistance, but, according to the most trustworthy account, was enticed into an ambuscade and was killed in the fight (1049).