Washington's Engineer

by Norman Desmarais

  The final document stipulated that the remuneration of these gentlemen would be the same as that of the officers holding the same rank in the American army. They would select the most convenient ships for their crossing at their own expense, and their compensation would begin on the day of their departure. These conditions were all dated January 12, 1777, but Franklin’s agreement was not immediate. Duportail became impatient and begged Franklin, four days later, to give him a response as soon as possible so as not to waste valuable time to prepare for the voyage.

  Duportail entered into frequent correspondence with Franklin between December 29, 1776, and May 15, 1777, to maintain secrecy and not to arouse the British ambassador’s suspicions through frequent visits. He provided Franklin with a list of officers of the French Corps of Engineers and emphasized that no artillery or infantry officer could replace an engineer in matters of attacking or defending places or in the design and construction of fortifications and entrenchments. He stressed that the skill of an engineer was particularly important in a defensive war, such as the one America was fighting, because a poorly fortified city or post could be decisive. He requested to be at the head of the Corps of Engineers and to report only to the commander in chief. He also sought a rank one level higher than his French rank and proposed to take two captains of engineers with him. Duportail would receive the rank of lieutenant colonel, and the others, that of major. This was not out of line, as other foreign volunteers were getting appointments to superior ranks. However, it would make it more difficult for Duportail and his companions to get noticed for promotion.

  Duportail had a friend who knew English and could translate for him but suggested that Franklin could respond to him in Latin, indicating that he had better facility with that language than with English. Franklin’s response, though, came in English at a time when Duportail’s friend was absent. His attempt at “decrypting” Franklin’s response was atrocious and could have changed the course of his career, as he totally misunderstood the message, thinking that Franklin had rejected his conditions.

  He wrote to Franklin again on January 19 to request further clarification. Duportail was now in Paris for a month at the Hôtel de Hollande, where he was probably preparing for his departure.2 He reminded Franklin that he would find no other officer in the Corps of Engineers who was better qualified. Franklin might find somebody calling himself an engineer but really wasn’t or one who studied at the school of engineering a short while but not long enough to absorb the principles of fortification.

  Franklin must have responded quickly, or the friend returned, for there is no record of the response. Duportail wrote to Franklin again on January 21, expressing his regrets for having misunderstood his letter of the nineteenth and causing him to lose valuable time. He departed that night for Versailles to consult with the minister of war, as well as with his companions to get their agreement, after which he would send their names to Franklin. In the meantime, he vouched for their character and skills.

  THE KING’S APPROVAL

  Four days later, on January 25, King Louis XVI signed his orders, granting him two years’ leave to take care of his personal business (pour aller vaquer à ses affaires particulières) and to thank him for completing the work for the Corps of Engineers.3 This is the first time that the king signed a document that committed France to supporting the young nation’s fight for independence. The king also granted him the title of lieutenant colonel of the Royal Corps of Engineers. Duportail identified his companions (Jean-Baptiste de Gouvion; Louis-Guillaume-Servais des Hayes de La Radière; and Jean Baptiste Joseph, Chevalier de Laumoy), the youngest of whom was thirty, and their ranks, along with a request that they receive the next-higher rank in the Continental Army. Their recruitment was confided to the minister of war, the Comte de Saint-Germain, and approved by the

  King Louis XVI’s order granting General Duportail, Major de La Radière, Major de Gouvion, and Captain de Laumoy leave to take care of their “personal business.” Ministère de la Guerre, Archives Administratives, General Du Portail’s dossier; Archives des Affaires Étrangères, États-Unis, correspondence politique, vol. 2, no. 66, in André Lasseray, Les Français Sous Les Treize Étoiles, 1775–1783 (Macon: Imprimerie Protat frères, se trouve à Paris chez D. Janvier, 1935), 276.

  king. The three received the same orders as Duportail, signed by the king. They were the only French officers obtained under the direct instructions of Congress and approved by the king.

  Duportail also recommended that if Franklin made any inquiries about them, that he do so with the utmost secrecy because the slightest rumor could result in the failure of the enterprise. He concluded by requesting an immediate response. If it arrived before 6:00 p.m., then he would go visit Franklin that very night to make further arrangements. He also requested the exact time he should arrive and that Franklin ensure that no stranger be present, as it was important that Duportail not be seen.4

  He announced to Franklin in a new letter dated January 26 that he was going twenty leagues outside Paris to prepare for his departure, that he received the king’s permission that very morning, and that he would be ready to depart in less than fifteen days.

  The correspondence became more frequent as the departure approached. Duportail wrote from his parents’ house in Pithiviers on February 1 that Mr. Laumoy, one of his companions, wanted to meet Franklin at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, February 3, to tell him that they expected to be at Nantes or Bordeaux, ready to embark about February 15.

  Having completed his recruitment mission, Franklin was now in Paris. Duportail returned to Paris on February 7 and requested to meet with him at 7:00 that evening to discuss the matters of their departure. He may not have been able to meet with Franklin that evening, as he wrote another letter to him the following morning to finalize some details. He notified Franklin that he and his companions would sail out of Nantes, which offered greater security and more amenities. He also specified that he located three protractors, three compasses, and three azimuth reading devices for about fifteen louis (a louis d’or equals six livres). He asked whether Franklin wanted to arrange for their purchase or whether he should purchase them and be reimbursed, in which case, the instruments would belong to the state. He then offered to meet with Franklin the following Monday evening to sign their agreement. He suggested that if Franklin drew up the agreement in advance, he should use their French titles and leave a space after their real name to indicate another name that they would assume.

  Duportail met with Franklin on February 12, but there is no record of the proceedings. The contract between Duportail and his friends was signed with the American ministers on February 17, 1777. In fact, all of the members, except La Radière, had already signed the agreement on the thirteenth. La Radière feared being delayed by the formalities and signed on the seventeenth, not having secured his leave of absence before that date:

  Agreement between the American Commissioners and Duportail, Laumoy, and Gouvion

  [February 13, 1777]

  Agreement Convention

  1st. It is agreed that the Congress of the United States of America shall grant to the Chevalier du Portail now Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Corps of Engineers of France, the Rank of Colonel in their Service.

  2. The Congress of the United States of America will grant to Monsr. de Laumoy now Major in the Royal Corps of Engineers of France, the Rank of Lieutenant Colonel in their Service.

  3. The Congress of the United States of America will grant to Monsr. de Gouvion now Captain in the Royal Corps of Engineers of France, the Rank of Major in their Service.

  4. Messrs. Le Chevalier duportail, de Laumoy, and de Gouvion, shall be at liberty to quit the Service of the united States provided it is not during a Campaign or during any particular service, unless ordered so to do by the King of France: and the Congress may dismiss them or any of them whenever they may judge it proper.

  5. If all or either of these Gentlemen should be made prisoners by the King of Great Brita
in the Congress shall use all due means to obtain their Liberty.

  6. These Gentlemen shall use all possible dilligence in preparing for their embarkation in order to reach Philadelphia or wherever else the Congres of the united States may be to obey their orders.

  7. The pay of these Gentlemen shall be such as is given to officers of their Rank in the Service of the States of America, and shall commence from the date of this agreement.

  8. These Gentlemen shall procure and provide for their own passages in such Ships, and in such manner as they shall think proper.

  The above agreement was entered into and concluded by us at Paris this 13 February 1776.

  signed

  B Franklin

  S Deane

  le che du Portails

  Gouvion l’ainé

  signé pour Mr. de Laumoy

  Copy Note Mr la Radière was afterwards agreed with on the same terms with the within officers and is to be a Lieutenant Colonel.5

  VOYAGE TO AMERICA

  The voyage to America encountered many difficulties, either because Beaumarchais had no ships available until April or because of increased British surveillance of all French ports as a result of learning of the recent capture of Beaumarchais’s ship La Seine.6 Duportail wrote to Franklin from Nantes on March 6 that he could not find a ship that was going directly to the colonies and that he must board a ship bound to Saint-Domingue (Haiti), whence he could easily get to Philadelphia. He also noted that in the event that they had to throw their papers overboard and assume a different identity, Duportail would assume the identity of Le Chevalier Derford; Mr. Radière, that of Baillard; Mr. Launoy [Laumoy], that of Le Thur; and Mr. Gouvion, that of d’Otry, and that they would maintain those identities until they were safely in America and even longer if it proved advantageous. The crossing must have been uneventful, as the secret identities seem not to have been used.

  Once in the West Indies, Duportail wrote to Franklin from Saint-Domingue on May 15 to report that he was having difficulty finding a vessel to take them to Philadelphia and that Mr. Carabas, Beaumarchais’s agent at Cap François (Cap Haïtien), equipped a small vessel loaded with foodstuffs and nothing that would make them suspect if they were stopped. Mr. Carabas acted quickly, as the party was to depart on the seventeenth, minus Laumoy, who became ill with malaria. Mr. Carabas promised to take care of him and give him the means to rejoin his companions as soon as his health improved, which turned out to be the end of the summer.

  Duportail recruited Lieutenant Castaing and two sergeants at Saint-Domingue. Lieutenant Castaing became Duportail’s aide-de-camp. The party then sailed to New Bern, North Carolina, where they received help from Governor Richard Caswell, the local representative to Congress, to go to Philadelphia. When they arrived at Philadelphia in July, Congress was in turmoil, and the army was seething with unrest because the country had just declared its independence the previous year and was going through birthing pains.

  Two of Beaumarchais’s ships, the Amphitrite and the Mercure, carrying secret aid to America, managed to sail from France unnoticed and landed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in April with huge cargoes of military supplies (see appendix A) and about thirty volunteer officers, including Louis Antoine Jean Baptiste, Chevalier de Cambray-Digny; Étienne Nicolas Marie Béchet de Rochefontaine (later known as Stephen Rochefontaine); Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan; François-Louis Teissèdre de Fleury; Jean-Louis-Ambroise de Genton de Villefranche; Pierre Charles L’Enfant; Gilles-Jean Barazer, Chevalier de Kermorvan; Antoine-Joseph Mauduit du Plessis; Antoine Félix Wuibert de Mézières; and Henri Dominique Marius de Palys de Montrepos. They were all capable men who expected to receive important positions in the Continental Army, as the American agent Silas Deane had promised them.

  Du Coudray had come out alone on a French ship bound for one of the French West Indian ports. As soon as he arrived in Philadelphia, he presented himself before Congress and was received June 2, 1777. The officers of his staff soon joined him, as well as other volunteers who had come over independently. However, only a few of these men spoke English, and they waited three months for Congress to make their appointments. Many had depleted their funds, and all were more or less dissatisfied. Ten days after the arrival of the Royal Engineers, another band of eleven volunteers, led by the Marquis de Lafayette, arrived at Philadelphia. Silas Deane had commissioned several of these volunteers as major generals before they left France.

  General Charles Lee said that these engineering officers did not know the difference between chevaux-de-frise and a field of cabbage. Colonel Richard Gridley, a fine draftsman, was appointed commandant of sappers and miners in 1775 and became a topographer. He was trained in the British artillery and then joined the Corps of Engineers, but he admitted to General Thomas during the French and Indian War that he had never read a single page of a treatise on fortification. Colonel Rufus Putnam, twenty-eight years younger, replaced him in 1776, and was among the first to realize the need for a Corps of Engineers for the Army to accomplish its missions.

  The army had too many senior officers, and some of the younger men preferred to resign their posts rather than serve under a foreigner, regardless of their training or capability. Duportail arrived on July 5 to present his credentials to Congress, which was torn by factions and not inclined to grant the commissions sought by the volunteers. It faced insubordination on the part of the American officers and the danger of offending America’s newfound ally if the Frenchmen did not receive commissions. Moreover, the army badly needed trained engineers. Most of them spoke only French, and everyone had suffered great hardships before du Coudray’s arrival.

  Duportail and his companions fulfilled Congress’s and the army’s needs for a few engineers. They had come with the express consent of the French government, and their demands were modest. Three days after they had presented themselves, Congress resolved to confirm their appointments and appointed Duportail to command all the engineers, while du Coudray directed the field fortifications.7

  From this date on, Duportail’s dispatches were written in English, either translated by an American officer knowing French (John Laurens, Washington’s aide-de-camp) or written by himself, as he was learning English, but he always took the precaution of having his messages reviewed. One of the peculiarities of his writing is that he usually wrote in lowercase letters, even for the personal pronoun I and for proper names. He had a tendency to employ what might be considered a capital letter when an R or a C or sometimes a D begins a word. He always dotted the personal pronoun, though it sometimes appears to be a little larger than at others. There was never any recognition of the necessity of beginning a new sentence with a capital. The grammar often reflects French construction, and the spelling of cognate words usually use French spelling: for example, americain for American. French drafts of the documents are rarely located, if they ever existed, and many documents mentioned in his letters have disappeared.

  DEFENSE OF PHILADELPHIA

  Duportail and his companions arrived at Washington’s headquarters at Coryell’s Ferry on the Jersey side of the Delaware to present themselves on July 29. Du Coudray was already there, constructing defenses. Washington sent the French engineers to General Gates at Philadelphia to assist him and General Mifflin in reviewing the grounds on the west side of the Delaware River and selecting proper places for encampments and defenses so as not to interfere with du Coudray’s work on the Jersey side. He thought a “Jealousy between them, and setting them to work together would only create confusion and widen the Breach.”8 Duportail and his men worked at any odd jobs that were given them during the remainder of the summer. On the morning of September 14, 1777, Washington ordered Duportail to Major General Armstrong to construct “some small Works along the Schuylkill which must be such as can be most speedily executed.”9

  DU COUDRAY’S DEATH

  Du Coudray, returning from an inspection of Fort Ticonderoga, arrived on the bank of the Schuylkill River on September 18. He embarked
on a barge to cross the river but, too proud to dismount, remained on horseback. His mount became frightened during the crossing and darted forward. Du Coudray was unable to control it, and both went into the water. Despite the efforts of his escorts to save them, both the horse and rider drowned. His companions now found themselves in dire straits, as they were deprived of their representative to the American authorities. Congress offered to pay their expenses back to France if they so desired, but most decided to remain under Duportail’s command and served faithfully.

  The engineers’ situation might appear more comfortable after du Coudray’s death, but their problems continued to multiply: They were not yet paid, and they incurred the cost of horses for travel and transport.10 Duportail despaired, seeing that Congress was not giving any serious thought to his employment and his reasonable requests. He and his companions seriously considered returning to France at the end of the campaign in January.

  In the meantime, Duportail made another attempt to induce Congress to improve their situation. He sent a memorial that was read in Congress on November 13, in which he expressed his frustration at the inaction of Congress in their regard and their intention of returning to France. He also requested the rank of brigadier general for himself, the rank of colonel for Mr. Radière, and the rank of lieutenant colonel for Mr. Gouvion, as previously promised to them. He noted that the chief engineer should have a respectable rank in the army, that army and militia colonels refused to follow his directions, and that soldiers and some officers insult them and their servants using foul language.11

  The previous day, he had written to the minister of war, the Comte de Saint-Germain, giving his analysis of the Continental Army. He reported that the American victories were not so much due to the good conduct of the army but to the bad decisions of the British generals. He emphasized the need for men and supplies of all kinds to prosecute the war. This would cost France many millions but would be greatly repaid by the destruction of Britain’s naval domination. Without any colonies, she would soon have no navy, and American commerce would be conducted with France, which would then have no rival.