failed attempt to capture Ticonderoga, Bradstreet immediately proposed his idea to attack Fort Frontenac, the key French supply base on Lake Ontario. Bradstreet's proposal met with approval from British planners and he was given a force of approximately 3,000 men to carry out the operation. Bradstreet reached Lake Ontario on 21 August and four days later was within sight of the fort, which surrendered on the 27th. After sacking and burning the fort, Bradstreet's force retreated to British territory. With this attack the French had (at least temporarily) their supply line in the Great Lakes cut. Under the new British commander in North America, Jeffery Amherst, Bradstreet served as deputy quartermaster general in Albany, a lucrative position which he held until the end of the war. After the war he was appointed Colonel and in 1764 he was ordered to lead a force of 1,400 men to reinforce Fort Detroit in response to the outbreak of Pontiac's War. Bradstreet was considered by his superiors to have mismanaged his final campaign; exceeding his orders by attempting to negotiate independent peace treaties and failing to act aggressively enough against Pontiac's forces. This left his military reputation badly tarnished in later years, however he was still promoted to the rank of Major General in the British Army on 25 May 1772. The Bateau and Transport Service Bradstreet is often remembered today for his work organizing and leading a corps of armed boatmen and teamsters in the British service, tasked with moving supplies and troops along the inland waterways of upstate New York and the Great Lakes. A substantial logistical feat, the force was developed from 1756 and grew to the strength of several thousand men, organized into dozens of companies, using hundreds of bateaux and whaleboats to transport the thousands of tons of supplies and equipment necessary for Britain to wage war in the colonial Northwest by supplying the army's far-flung outposts. Also a combat force, the 'Battoe Men', as they were sometimes called, took part in combat operations, most famously Bradstreet's assault on Fort Frontenac/Carillon in 1758. Bradstreet died in New York City on 25 September 1774. He had married (to the widow of a cousin who shared his name), and had two children. References William G. Godfrey. Pursuit of Profit and Preferment in Colonial North America: John Bradstreet's Quest. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1982 John Bradstreet. Louisbourg Journal, 1745 See also