On the evening of July 1st, 1759, Brigadier General John Prideaux's army camped at Sodus Bay while en route to Fort Niagara, using the bay as a safe overnight stop concealed from French vessels patrolling Lake Ontario. By 6:00 the next morning, the force was formed on the lake to continue the expedition, with each boat numbered and each officer and enlisted man assigned to the same boat throughout the trip. The flotilla moved quickly and used the shelter of large lake bays to travel the length of Lake Ontario without detection by the French, arriving four miles from Fort Niagara on July 6th to begin the siege. Prideaux had assembled about 5,000 men in Schenectady, including the 44th and 46th Regiments, the 4th Battalian of the 60th Regiment, two battalions of New York Provincials, a detachment of Royal Artillery, and a large body of Iroquois, though men were left behind to secure the supply route and the force at Sodus Bay numbered around 2,300 soldiers. The expedition followed the Mohawk River to Fort Stanwix, portaged to Wood Creek, crossed Oneida Lake, and went down the Oswego River to Oswego before embarking on Lake Ontario. The bateau, a French-inspired flat-bottomed boat used by French and British armies and by traders on New York's lakes and rivers, was central to the journey. French bateaux were better suited to lakes and stable enough for soldiers to stand and fire muskets, with as many as 15 men in one boat, while English bateaux built in Schenectady or Albany were better for rivers and streams and were less stable, holding only six or seven men according to an English soldier. A 30-foot bateau could carry up to 1½ tons of supplies or war materiel, was propelled by oars and setting poles in streams and rivers and by sails where possible, and some carried a swivel gun loaded with half-pound round shot or grapeshot.