On the morning of July 6, 1758, a party of French soldiers looking down Lake George viewed an armada of over a thousand boats, carrying nine thousand colonials and six thousand regulars of the British army. The commander of the expedition was General Abercrombie, but the real leader was Lord Howe, who chose to accompany the advancing party. In the forest at the edge of the La Chute River and Trout Brook, they encountered the French. Shots were fired. The French did not as yet know it, Abercrombie's army was defeated, for a stray bullet passed through the heart of Lord Howe.