Washington's Engineer

by Norman Desmarais

  The young gentlemen shall be instructed how to chuse positions for an army in consequence of the part of the country to be covered and the communications to be kept open, they will learn to fortify them by field works depending from the nature of the ground, the number of troops supposed to be employed to defend them, and the strength of the ennemy. They shall be taught to determine the most advantageous batteries on a field of battle, and their construction in the most expeditious manner; they are to be instruits in the greatest detail of all what relates to the fortify’d towns including the maritime places, their training, construction, and the estimate of the quantity of work and expences, those parts can not be attended to with too much care, because the least blunder is often attended with infinite bad consequences. They shall receive instruction concerning the subterraneous fortification, the attack and defense of works by the means of mines. They shall be taught how to reconnoitre an ennemy’s fortification, lay it on the paper, and determine exactly the different distances from it. every year the commanding officer of the academy should make choice of a piece of ground fit to lay out a front of fortifications, the directions in the heighth of the works should be mark’d with poles, he should explain to the young gentlemen the use of each part of it, and the reasons which have determined the direction of it; that part being finished they will proceed to the attack of it, all the batteries and works necessary from the opening of the trenches to the reduction of the place are to be laid out and some parts of it to be done to give them an idea of the different construction made use of in those occasions, they will pay a particular attention to the advantages afforded by the nature of the ground, also to the means the besieged could employ to oppose the approaches with success. that being performed every young gentleman is to survey that front and its attack and make a copy of it, also a memorial on its construction its attack and defense, adding to it an estimate of the artillery stores, and ammunitions necessary for the besieged and besiegers in consequence of the strength of the fortification, and of the supposition of the time the siege could last. when perfectly instructed in all the different parts here above mentioned, of which the general commanding the corps, and the officers at the head of the academy are to be the judges he is to be admitted into one of the regiments of artillery, the continent cannot keep less than two, and are to be composed as follows, light companies of gunners, two companies of bombardiers, one of sappers and miners and one of artificers.

  The regiments are to be exercised twice a week to the firing of canon, Mortars, then [?] a field officer to be always present and report to the commanding officer of the regiment when absent from the field of exercise.

  The subalterns ought to receive twice a week a lesson about the theorical parts of the artillery and a captain to be present to it, to maintain the good order and preside to the instructions and from time to time they should be exercised again about what they have learned in the Academy

  The Captains and field officers are to have two times a week a conference where they should treat of all the parts concerning artillery, fortifications, manufactures of arms, powder mills, castings of canons, shells, balls, the best dimensions to be given to the pieces and carriages, in short their object should be to carry the instruction and service of that corps to the greatest perfection, the commanding officer should ask a memorial from every officer on the interesting points he would have proposed for discussion.

  besides the officer on duty with the regiments there should be a certain number to perform the duty on Engineers where necessary, but none should be sent for that purpose unless he had been employ’d successively in the four distinct sorts of companies forming a regiment and should be perfectly acquainted with their service. He could not be on that command for more than three years, after which time he should join a regiment and be relieved by another officer sent to the same effect.

  a company ought not to be detached from the regiment for more than two years, because it is to be feared that (in a longer space of time) the men would loose the greatest part of the instruction acquired with the regiment if too a long time absent from it.

  The companies of sappers and miners should have a particular exercise relative to their duty in the field, but their officers should also partake of the general instruction of the corps of artillery. it is absolutely necessary that the officers of the companies of artificers should be intelligent, attentive, and industrious, they ought not only take rank with those of the others companies but their places should be considered as places of trust and confidence.

  there ought to be some officers (extra of the number of those with the regiments) detached in the different manufactories of arms, places for casting canons, and powder mills, to superintend the works, they should be relieved from time to time by others coming from the regiments, those stations are to be looked upon as of great importance.

  a field officer should be in every district at the head of fortifications, and judge of every thing to be proposed, he could not remain there when promoted but join a regiment.

  it is of the utmost consequence that an officer of artillery attached to a brigade with some field pieces should be perfectly acquainted with the different maneuvers of the troops, so it is a part which is not to be neglected.

  the plan I propose here to form but one corps of those of artillery and Engineers was put in execution in france, but as it was in time of war some Engineers were sent to the army to do the duty of the Artillery, and some officers of artillery to serve as Engineers, but having not had time to be perfectly acquainted with the details of a service of which they had but a general knowledge it was found proper after a little while to let every of these officers serve in the line they did formerly belong to, and the two corps were desunited but I am confident that if the reunion had taken place in another circumstance, so that the officers of each corps should have had time to acquire what knowledge was wanting to them of the service they did not at first belong to; that plan would have succeeded and found afterwards very advantageous.

  Newburg april the 16th, 1783

  Gouvion45

  Washington quickly synthesized the works submitted to him on May 2, 1783. He insisted on the importance of preserving the experience acquired over the course of a long and difficult time of service and the need to have a standing army to preserve the military knowledge acquired and not have to depend on the benevolent aid of foreigners to defend the country if ever faced by new hostilities. It must be understood that a corps of competent engineers and expert artillerymen cannot be created overnight or as quickly as training militiamen into an infantry.

  After getting his officers promoted and securing positions for them in the French army, Duportail turned his attention to structuring the Corps of Engineers and the American army. He reported on September 30, 1783,

  To answer the Confidence I am honored with, I will at once say what I think best for the United States to do in that Respect. It is to unite the Department of the Artillery with that of the Engineers so that after the union every officer should be without any Distinction an Artillery Officer and an Engineer. There are many reasons for the operation which I propose; the following are the principal ones.

  1st. The preliminary Knowledge necessary for an Artillery Officer or an Engineer, as the different branches of Mathematics, the Natural philosophy etc. are the same.

  2ndly. The very great Relation between the professions themselves. The most important use of Cannon, that one which requires most skill and Knowledge of the Art is for the Defense of Fortified Places or the Attack of them. When an Engineer combines the different lines and Angles of a fortification between themselves and the Surrounding Ground to make that Fortification of the most advantageous Defense; when to the Contrary he frames the Plan of the Attack of it, and lays out his trenches and other works, he has principally in view to prepare the use of the Artillery, facilitate its effects and make them as great as possible. So he must be personally acquainted with the Nature of that Arm and have really
on that Point all the Knowledge of the Artillery Officer. It is true the thing is not reciprocal and that the Artillery Officer when he is not Engineer at the same time and is confined to the execution of his Cannon does not want to have the Knowledge of the Engineer; but why not make him acquire it since he has already all the Preliminary Knowledge and the practise of the Artillery; and so he wants only to add the Study of the Art of fortification. Do we not see clearly that to do otherwise is to make two Professions of what ought to be the object of one only.

  3rdly. The great economy which results from that union. Wherever there is any fortification there is an Engineer to have the charge of it, and there is an Artillery Officer for the Artillery. But very often each of those Officers has not a Sufficient Employment in his Department and if the Departments were united one Officer could do the Duty of the two with the greatest ease. I think one third of Officers might be Spared upon the whole without the least inconveniency for the Service.

  4thly. That great Relation which we said to take place between the two Professions of the Artillery and the Engineers is the Cause of frequent Disputes and Dissentions among them because the line of Separation cannot be drawn exactly, principally for the most delicate circumstance in War, and the more Knowledge and Talent each Corps possesses, the more Difficulties arise between the individuals, because they have more pretensions. So that reciprocal Envy and Enmity make the very qualities which should be conducive to the good of the Service turn against it.

  For those Reasons and many less important the Departments of the Artillery and of the Engineers are united in some European States, and in those where they are not Plans for uniting them are proposed every Day. In France that union has been executed once and if it did not last it was because the time was not proper (in the midst of the war), and the Operation was formed upon a bad Scheme. Besides the private Interests of many Individuals principally of the first Officers were much hurted by it. Add to this that as those Corps in France exist a long while ago, each of them has acquired a particular esprit which makes it very adverse to such Union. However every Officer of experience almost, is persuaded of the advantage of it, and that it will take Place one Day or another. But here where there is not yet private interests or passions of the Corps to combat, the Congress must avail themselves of a happy circumstance which may never return to make at once their Establishment upon the Plan that Experience show to the old Peoples of Europe to be the best, although they cannot always follow their Notions.

  ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CORPS OF ARTILLERY AND THE ENGINEERS

  I suppose here, according to the letter which his Excellency Genl. Washington has honored me with, the present Establishment must be calculated only for the wants of the Frontier against the British for if the United States intended to have fortified Harbours what I am going to propose should be insufficient.

  I propose two Regiments each to be composed of five Companies of Gunners one of Bombardiers, one Sappers & Miners, one of Artificers, each Company in time of peace shall be composed of 3 Sergeants, 6 Corporals, 24 privates commanded by a first Capt. a second Capt. a first Lieut. and Second Lieutenant. (in time of war the number of privates may be doubled).

  The Regiment shall be commanded by one Colonel, one Lt. Colonel, one Major adding to this one pay master adjutant, one Qt. Mr., two Surgeons, one Sergent Major, the Drum Major, 6 Drums and fifes, which would make the whole of the Regiment altogether of 327 Men and the two Regiments of 654.

  I propose four Officers in each Company because it is necessary to have some to detach without Troops to different Places for the erection or care of Fortifications sunderies etc. Thus one of the Captains or Lieutenants, may be detached that makes 16 Officers for the two Regiments. one of the field Officers, the Lt. Col. or the Major may be detached also, so in all there will be eighteen which will be sufficient in this Moment.

  I propose to divide the whole extent of the frontiers in three Parts at the Head of which there should be an Officer of the Rank of Brigadier or Colonel to have the Direction of all what concerns the Artillery or the fortifications erected or to be erected and generally of all the Establishments relative to that Department.

  Above all there must be a Commandant Director of all the fortifications of the United States. To the Director General the three Directors of the Districts mentioned shall be accountable for every thing as the Colonels of the Regiment and every Person employed in that Department.

  Through him shall the Orders of the Board of War or the Congress be transmitted to the Corps. Such an Officer appears to me absolutely necessary, to have that important Branch of the Administration governed upon the same Plan and constant Principles. Let us remember that a great many things tend to break the union between the American States. All the Continental Establishments ought to be calculated to reinforce that union. Thus, if in this instance there were at the head of the Department of the Artillery and fortifications many Officers independent one from another, great inconveniences might result from it. These Officers would differ in opinion and soon be jealous and enemies of one another. Some might acquire more influence with Congress than others. So in the Establishment of fortifications in the Distribution of the Means of Defense, each State might be treated, not according to what its situation, its importance requires, but according to the Credit of the Officer who has the Direction of that Department.

  Some persons will perhaps imagine that the three Directors of Districts proposed are not necessary, that for the sake of economy the Colonels and the Lt. Cols. of the Regiments may be charged with the functions attributed to those Directors. but if they observe those functions shall be to make under the Direction of the Director General an exact Reconnoitre of all the frontier, to search for the most proper places for the Forts and for all the Establishments relative to War, after that to plan those Establishments, preside over their erection, they will confess probably, that the Director of the District shall have enough to do without clogging them with the particular command and care of a Regiment, which they could never attend to. But, as I have mentioned, a field Officer of each Regiment shall be detached with the Directors of the District to assist them and have under them the command of the Captains and Subalterns employed in the Busyness above mentioned.

  I do not think it necessary here to expatiate myself upon Talents and Knowledge which the Duty attributed to the Director of the District requires of them as well as of the Director General. I take the Liberty to refer on that Head to the Memorial, wherein I endeavored to sketch what is to be done. A Vauban [Marshall Vauban] is the greatest engineer France and europe had; he lived under the reign of Louis XIV it is he who framed the general plan of defense of the kingdom and gave the situations and designs of almost all the fortified places [Duportail’s note in his hand] would be necessary in this Moment to the United States and nobody unless he thinks himself as able a Man as that famous Marshall, can undertake, without the greatest diffidence, that difficult work. And he who would undertake it without any fear proves that he has not the least idea of it.

  ACADEMY

  The necessity of an Academy, to be the Nursery of the Corps, is too obvious to be insisted upon. The Academy must be commanded under the Director General by a field Officer, assisted by a Captain. It requires a Master of Mathematics and of Natural Philosophy, one of Chemistry and one of drawing; as for Military Matters, it belongs to the Officers of the Head of the Academy to give those kind of Instructions. This is not the Place of enlarging upon this Subject. The Student ought to spend three years at least at the Academy. According to the total number of Officers of the Corps, ten or twelve Students should be sufficient to keep the Corps compleat. But as it is very advantageous to introduce in it the soonest possible, Men of Theory and Knowledge, I will propose here to leave in each Company the place of Second Lieutenant vacant, to fill those vacancies with the first Students which will receive their instruction at the Academy. So the number of Students in this Moment might be of twenty, and I do not doubt that it s
hall remain such afterwards, because if the union of the states is durable the Establishment proposed here will certainly be found too Inconsiderable and if I propose it so it is only to fall in with the present Circumstances and Dispositions.

  [Note by Duportail in his hand]—it is not improper perhaps, to observe here that according to the calculations i make the total establishment such as i propose it including the academy the rations and clothing will not cost much more than two hundred thousand dollars only i lessen a little the pay of the soldiers which is a little too high.

  DUPORTAIL.

  philad. Sept. 3046

  The Corps of Engineers was disbanded in November 1783, but Duportail’s model was adopted when the army was revived. (See appendix B for a list of the chiefs of the Corps of Engineers, 1774 to 1893.)

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  PRISONERS OF WAR

  Several of the engineers were taken prisoner after the surrender of Charles-town on May 12, 1781. General Duportail was now cut off from news of the outside world during these long and dreary months. He concluded that France must be roused to greater vigor in the prosecution of the war. He wrote a lengthy memorial to the French minister, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, but he could not send it to him until several months later. He wrote in great detail about the part he thought France would have to play to achieve a victory, beginning,

  If France wishes to see the end of this present war it seems to me necessary for her to bend her efforts more directly toward the cause and object of this war; that object is the establishment of the independence of the United States and to oblige England to recognize it. The way to succeed in this appears to be to establish the independence by the fact of driving the English from all the points where they remain. Now if we will consider the actual state of things we shall see with regret that the English, very far from having lost ground since France signed the Alliance with the States, have gained considerably.1