be appointed a Major General with the Powers, Emoluments and Privileges, annexed to that Rank, and that a Train of Artillery be allotted for his Command separate from that under the Command of Brigadier General Knox. That the officers accompanying Mons Du Coudray should have the Ranks proposed for them in France together with the Pay and Emoluments annexed to those Ranks in the service of the United States.8
Congress postponed consideration of the report for a few weeks. Du Coudray was appointed inspector general with the rank of major general on August 11. Congress later commissioned Thomas Conway and Philippe Huber, Chevalier de Preudhomme de Borre, as brigadier generals and appointed du Coudray as inspector general of ordnance and military manu-factories. Du Coudray’s accidental death on September 15, 1777, ended the controversy over rank.
SECOND AND THIRD GROUPS
The Comte de Saint-Germain, the French minister of war, sent a second group of technical experts to America under the command of Louis le Bègue de Presle Duportail.9 He formally “loaned” four military engineers to the Continental Army. This was more than a year before France officially declared war against England. Unlike the previous volunteers, these men received contracts that called for promotions to a grade only one step higher than their French commissions, and Saint-Germain had carefully picked them for their skills. Duportail was commissioned a colonel on July 8, 1777, and given command over all engineers in the army shortly thereafter. Duportail’s obvious expertise and cooperative attitude led to his promotion to brigadier general on November 17, a status equivalent to that of General Knox.
Major General Marie Jean Paul Joseph du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) led a third contingent from France in 1777. He and the Bavarian-born Major General Johann, Baron de Kalb (1721–1780), were talented protégés of Charles-Jacques-Victor-Albert, Comte de Broglie, one of France’s top military officers. Although nineteen-year-old Lafayette had limited military experience, he had powerful political connections in the French court. Consequently, Deane offered him and de Kalb, an experienced officer in the French Army, major general’s commissions.
By the time this third group reached Philadelphia, the failure of some of the first volunteers and the controversy surrounding du Coudray led to a cold reception by Congress and the army. But Lafayette’s enthusiasm, his and his companions’ offer to serve as unpaid volunteers, and their demonstrated competence eventually earned commissions for most of these Frenchmen. Because the Americans had little practical experience and no training that could match the British engineers’ at Woolwich or those in France, where the science of military engineering was being perfected, these foreign volunteers made their most immediate impact in military engineering.
FIRST CHIEF ENGINEERS
The first chief engineers of the Continental Army were self-taught Americans. Colonel Richard Gridley had had a principal role in the siege of Louisbourg in 1745 and was responsible for laying out the siege works around Boston in 1775, but his advanced age limited his active service thereafter. Colonel Rufus Putnam (1738–1824) eventually received the post on August 5, 1776, partly in recognition of his efforts to help lay out the defenses on Manhattan Island and Long Island that summer. Congress commissioned Andrew Thaddeus Kosciusko (or Kosciuszko; 1746–1817) a colonel of engineers on October 18, 1776. He was a young Polish captain who had been trained in France and was qualified by European standards. Colonel Putnam chose to return to infantry duty in 1777. Congress, now more cautious, halted the commissioning of untested volunteers. Washington had only Colonel Jeduthan Baldwin (1732–1788), Kosciusko, and a number of detailed infantry and artillery officers to choose from until Duportail’s group arrived at Philadelphia.
Duportail became chief of engineers on July 22, 1777, and continued in that post until October 10, 1783. He was Washington’s chief engineer at the siege of Yorktown, where he worked closely and effectively with his artillery counterpart, Henry Knox, and his former colleagues in the French expeditionary force. Washington was so impressed with him that he wrote, “I shall ever retain a grateful sense of the aids I have derived from your knowledge and advice to me.”
1
EARLY YEARS
Antoine-Jean-Louis Le Bègue (sometimes misspelled Lebèque) de Presle Duportail, better known as Louis, was born at Pithiviers en Gâtinais (now in the department of Loiret), a small town near Orléans, France, on May 14, 1743. He was the son of Sédillot, a merchant’s daughter, and Jacques Guillaume Le Bègue de Presle Chevalier du Portail.1 His father was an attorney specially charged with the Orléans forest. The Duportail family was recognized as nobility from the seventeenth century, when one of Louis’s ancestors was appointed advisor secretary to the king (Conseiller-secrétaire du roi).
Louis was the ninth of ten children, several of whom died very young. A notarized document drawn up on May 17, 1782, after the death of his father on December 20, 1781, indicates that he had three surviving brothers and one sister. His next older brother, Jacques Louis, Le Bègue d’Oyseville, was chosen as godfather for his baptism. The eldest, Achille-Guillaume Le Bègue de Presle, became a physician and chair of the faculty of medicine in Paris and maintained regular correspondence with Benjamin Franklin and his family. (Several of his letters are at Yale University.) His younger brother, Pierre, Le Bègue de Villiers, was a learned priest in the Society of the Sorbonne and vicar general of Comminges. Louis’s only known sister was Marie-Elisabeth Le Bègue de Presle. She married Julien, François Boys, a Paris attorney. The document also reveals that Louis inherited revenues, titles, and property totaling 61,000 livres (a private soldier in the French army earned about 1 livre per week in 1780), which permitted him later to buy a very large parcel of land on the banks of the Scioto River in Ohio. However, the Montgomery County archives (where the property was located) has no record of what happened to the land.
Louis must have undertaken rigorous classical studies at a religious school, as he was able to read and write Latin. In letters to Benjamin Franklin on January 16 and 19, 1777, he proposed to communicate in Latin to maintain a certain secrecy in their correspondence and because he didn’t understand English at the time.
Louis began studies as an engineer at the Military School of Mézières in 1761 at the age of eighteen. The school was founded in 1690 by the king’s engineers, who succeeded Vauban. It was established at Mézières to benefit from a battlefield in total reconstruction for military exercises. Many children of the lower nobility had little hope of attaining high military rank, so the school of the Royal Corps of Engineers, open only to nobility, was often a path for career advancement. Because the number of candidates far exceeded the limited number of places in 1751, the academic program required an entrance exam and two years of study. (Duportail drew up an order on December 31, 1776, making the king’s engineers officers of the Royal Corps of Engineers.)
Ducal palace at Charleville-Mézières. The city, located on the banks of the Meuse River, is a commune in northern France and capital of the Ardennes department in the Grand Est region. Wikimedia.
Duportail was appointed second lieutenant (lieutenant en second) on January 1, 1762. Two naval engineers who were admitted on their titles denounced him and some friends in February 1763. They opposed the admission of students of doubtful nobility to the school. One of the accusers was the son of a postmaster who barely escaped bankruptcy. The other was the son of a merchant who still bore the social stigma of a bankruptcy. As a result of the anonymous accusation, Duportail and two other “ringleaders” were separated and sent to prison for one year in March 1763: one to Ham, another to Sedan, and Duportail to Bouillon Castle in the Luxembourg province of Belgium. All the students at the military school decided to join their fellow students in prison. After completing their sentences, the three students were exonerated by the king and readmitted to the school at Mézières. An inquiry later revealed the allegations were totally unfounded, but Duportail benefited from his time in prison by reading and studying military science at a high le
vel, which advanced his career.
GRADUATION AND ASSIGNMENTS
Louis Duportail graduated as a regular engineer in 1765 at the age of twenty-two. He served two years with the infantry at Bayonne and Marseille, working pretty much as a modern engineer does and learning much through the communications with the authorities who employed him. He continued studying, edited memoirs, evaluated costs, and made maps. He had assignments at Strasbourg (1769); Gex (1770), where he was dismayed by the useless works at Versoix (a village on the Swiss border that the Duc de Choiseul wanted to fortify); Montpellier (1771); and Metz (1774). He was promoted to captain on August 25, 1773, at the age of thirty. He was assigned to Aire in 1775, then to Bethune in 1776.
The Comte de Saint-Germain, the minister of war, summoned him on July 15, 1776, to prepare a new edition of a training manual for the Royal Corps of Engineers. It was to contain every bit of knowledge that an engineer needed to know and to reflect the changes being instituted in the military. Duportail proposed reducing the number of officers from 400 to 329 and the number of fortifications from 20 to 12. He also recommended basing promotions solely on merit and organizing internships to complete the course of training. The manual was published on December 31, 1776, just as Duportail was beginning his negotiations with Benjamin Franklin.
NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANKLIN AND DEANE
Duportail was recognized and appreciated for the quality of his work, just as he was for the memorandum that he wrote for the minister of war in December 1773, in which he proposed a complete organization of the engineers. The manual was poorly received by the engineering officers, but his minister greatly appreciated it for its intellectual discipline and strength of reflection and his ability to analyze and synthesize. The Americans later translated it and used it to organize their own Corps of Engineers.
When Benjamin Franklin arrived in Paris in December 1776, he informed the Comte de Saint-Germain that Congress wanted him to “secure skilled engineers, not exceeding four,” who might serve in the Continental Army. The minister of war agreed to this request if it could be done in secrecy, without arousing the suspicions of the British ambassador, whose ubiquitous spies kept him informed. Saint-Germain suggested that Duportail go to America and authorized him to deal directly with the American agents. Duportail quickly agreed and was admitted into the Royal Corps of Engineers with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Silas Deane, however, did not take the necessary precautions to adhere to the strict and precise demands of Congress. He was immediately besieged by many candidates whose qualifications he would not take the time to verify. One of them particularly impressed him: Philippe Charles Jean Baptiste Tronson du Coudray, the pretentious duc d’Artois and former tutor of the king’s brother. This theorist of artillery authored several books on the topic, such as L’artillerie nouvelle et L’ordre profond et l’ordre mince considérés par rapport aux effets de l’artillerie. He was an expert on making gunpowder and on metallurgy for canons. He also had access to the arsenals and promised to supply 200 pieces of artillery; material to clothe 25,000 men; and 12 engineers, 4 captains, and 4 lieutenants to satisfy Deane’s needs.
Du Coudray’s application was quickly accepted with great enthusiasm, and Deane wrote a letter to the Secret Committee of Correspondence of Congress, in which he specified the reasons for his choice: Du Coudray would secretly recruit engineers and, on Vergennes’s recommendation, contact Beaumarchais about his operations for recruitment and reinforcement. Beaumarchais would then ship the promised armaments and equipment through Roderigue Hortalez et Cie., a new trading house, which would essentially act as a front for the French government. Deane concluded an official agreement with du Coudray on September 11, 1776, in which he promised him the command of the artillery and the future Corps of Engineers. Every plan or project related to the fortification and artillery would then be submitted to du Coudray for his approval before execution.
However, du Coudray’s plans soon became known to his superiors and risked compromising the secrecy that the king wanted concerning aid to the colonies. Du Coudray was recalled to his garrison at Metz, but instead of complying, he evaded the order and departed incognito on a vessel going to the West Indies, where he found the means to join his staff at Philadelphia, where they had arrived in April. The British ambassador’s frequent complaints forced the French government to prohibit the young Marquis de Lafayette from leaving France and to order the unloading of Beaumarchais’s supply ships bringing secret aid to America.
Franklin joined Deane in Paris in December 1776 to negotiate a treaty of alliance with France and to recruit four engineers, as requested by Congress. The French court was informed a month earlier about the American colonies’ Declaration of Independence, so Louis XVI was less reluctant and consented to Franklin’s request. Franklin wrote to General Washington, hoping that four experienced, motivated, and volunteer officers of the Royal Corps of Engineers would bring sufficient support to the Continental Army.
In his first letter to Benjamin Franklin, in the third person and dated Sunday, December 29, 1776, at Versailles, Duportail introduced himself, outlined his qualifications, and offered to serve the American colonies. He only requested employment at a higher rank than the one he had in France. He also offered to bring with him two other engineering officers of lower rank who would be chosen for their knowledge and ability. He requested further instructions on how to proceed.
In his second letter, which was undated but written shortly after the first, he invited Franklin to verify that none of the volunteers recruited by Silas Deane had the engineering qualifications demanded by Congress and General Washington. Fearing that other volunteers might enter their candidacy and seek to replace him, Duportail immediately wrote another letter dated January 2, 1777, requesting a response to his proposal of four days earlier. He also reminded Franklin that if his response was positive, he was ready to go to Paris to begin preparations. He concluded by begging Franklin not to show anyone his letter or the one of December 29.
FRANKLIN’S RESPONSE
Franklin’s response cannot be found among his or Duportail’s papers, but there are undated notes taken by Franklin’s secretary at working meetings following the correspondence of the two men. The meetings were probably held in Paris at the Hôtel d’Entraigues at Rue de l’Université, where Franklin resided, or at the Ministry of War at Versailles. The room was in the building formerly occupied by the chief of engineers at number 3 of the street that would become Rue de l’Independance Americaine (American Independence Street). Franklin had an office there on the left of the ground floor overlooking the courtyard. The distance between the ministry and the Red Horse Inn (Hôtel du Cheval Rouge), where Duportail was lodged, was less than two hundred yards, which facilitated their meetings.
Franklin’s notes, taken about January 11, 1777, comprise five paragraphs:
M. de Portal demands to be at the Head of the Corps d’Ingenieurs in America: and under the Orders only of the General, or the Commander-in-Chief in the Place where he may be.
He demands a Rank superior to that he enjoys at present, which is Major in the marine Infantry.
He proposes to take two Captains of the same Professions with him: to whom should be given in America the Rank superior.
That himself and his Friends shall be at Liberty to quit the Service and return to France when they please except in the middle of a Campaign.
The Gentlemen are willing to give the Chevalier de Portal the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and the Gentlemen he mentions that of Major, when their names are made known to them so that they may inform themselves of their qualifications which they shall do with every necessary precaution. They cannot do so much in justice to Gentlemen who have been from the beginning in the service of the States as to advance Strangers suddenly above them.
Another undated letter written by Duportail around January 12 specified further conditions, probably stemming from changes made by the Ministry of War when Duportail became aw
are of the status of his negotiations. It confirms that matters should be kept in utmost secrecy, as Duportail was known rather well, having served in the Ministry of War for six months, writing a new manual for the Corps of Engineers, which was soon to appear. Any rumor arising about his departure for America would cause the ministry to prevent him or any other officer of the corps to depart.
The complementary conditions, undoubtedly demanded by the ministry were
The American government will grant the men a rank one step higher than the one which they hold at the time they leave France.
It is understood that the officers are free to return to France when they so desire except during a campaign or during the construction of works. Of course this is left to the appreciation of the feelings of honor well-known and always practiced by the French officers. On its part, the American government will also be free to cashier them if desired.
In case of capture or imprisonment by the British, Congress will do its utmost to obtain a prisoner exchange.
The American agents will ensure that the officers are well-lodged and well-treated during their voyage.
The officers requested to be kept informed of what they needed to bring, necessary clothing, and so on. Foreseeing that their future army might not have the necessary instruments, such as graphometers, compasses, and the like and the difficulties of procuring them on location, Duportail proposed that he be authorized to purchase them before his departure.
Washington's Engineer Page 2
