Washington's Engineer
Page 24
Major General Duportail and Colonel Gouvion received permission in the fall of 1781 to remain in Europe six months. They returned to France after serving five years in the armies of the United States. Secretary for Foreign Affairs Robert Livingston wrote to John Jay from Passy on February 2, 1782, that “by their military skill, bravery, and good conduct, [they have] done honor to their own country and great service to ours” and that “if his majesty should think fit to bestow on these gentlemen any marks of his royal favor, it will be particular pleasing to Congress.”1
Benjamin Franklin noted on March 4 that the “French officers who have returned to France this winter speak of our people in the handsomest and kindest manner, and there is a strong desire in many of the young noblemen to go over and fight for us. There is no restraining some of them, and several changes among the officers of their army have lately taken place in consequence.”2
France honored Duportail with the order of Chevalier de Saint Louis in 1782. He wrote to General Washington on June 27 that he and his companions had expected to return to America within the appointed time but had been delayed, along with the Marquis de Lafayette, awaiting either news of the peace or, in case that should fail, assurances of further military aid. He added in closing, “i wish you be persuaded how much i long to join your excellency and the american army. i consider myself as an american if not by birth by a mutual adoption. the Cause of America is mine, all my pleasure is in it, and i will not leave it before we attained the success.”3
General Duportail and Gouvion boarded the Danae on November 8, 1782, and left France. Duportail was bringing a letter from Lafayette to General Washington dated October 14, 1782. The Danae foundered in the fog in the Delaware Bay on December 16, and there was some delay before she could be refloated. She carried many packets for the army and 180,000 livres, and she brought news that the British government had agreed to preliminary articles of peace and tacitly recognized American independence. Lafayette’s letter read in part,
you must by this time know that I am kept in this country at the request of the American plenipotentiaries and with a view to be serviceable to our cause, which with me will ever be the first object. Public intelligence will be given to you by General Duportail. Those of a more secret nature I have communicated to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, whom I have requested to send the letter to your excellency. You will be able to form your own opinion upon the situation of affairs, but though the forwardness of affairs do not permit me (consistent with the motives I have explained to you) to depart for the present from this country, yet it is my private opinion that a success is necessary before the general treaty can come to a conclusion.4
PROMOTIONS
During January and February 1783, General Duportail busied himself in urging the promotion of the different officers who served under his command, particularly Villefranche; L’Enfant; Cambray; and his aide-de-camp, Castaing. He corresponded with the French minister and with the Comte de Rochambeau, as well as with General Washington and the president of Congress. He intended to join General Washington at headquarters on the Hudson as soon as these important negotiations were well underway.
Colonel Gouvion had joined the army immediately at Newburg. Duportail wrote in a letter from Philadelphia to General Washington on January 29, “i am very impatient to be informed by colonel gouvion if he could get a quarter for me at camp. i will set off immediately to pay my respects to your excellency.”5 Three weeks later, on February 19, he wrote, “i was setting off for camp last Saturday . . . when I was stopped by the intelligence of the peace. . . . i have been told yesterday of your excellency proposing to make a journey to the eastward.”6
The representatives of the United States and England signed the Preliminaries of Peace in Paris on November 30, 1782. Word reached America toward the end of January 1783. As there was every reason to believe that Congress would ratify the treaty, Duportail realized that the war was practically over and ceased to think more about joining the army at headquarters unless positively ordered to do so. The French minister, Chevalier de La Luzerne, notified Washington on April 10, 1783,
I have to inform your Excellency, that I have just received instructions from the Minister—that in consequence of the Peace the French Troops actually here are to be sent to France without delay. If you see no cause to defer it I shall accordingly take immediate measures for their departure—I impatiently await the arrival of the Duke de Lauzun to give the necessary orders, as no definitive arrangements can be made in his absence.7
Duportail sent the following message on April 16, regarding the French engineers serving in the Continental Army:
i am expecting every day orders of the court of France as they will probably recall us home and give us very little time, i wish that if your excellency thinck that if we can be of some further service to this country in this moment to communicate to me his orders and wishes. my attachment to america and in particular to your excellency will not finish with the war but only with my life and i will thinck myself very happy and much honored if i can be of some utility to a country that is in my heart next to the country to which I owe my birth.8
RETENTION OF FRENCH ENGINEERS
Washington replied on April 23,
I have received your favor of the 16th instant. . . . In answer to your questions respecting the Engineers, I can only say that a Peace Establishment is now under consideration, in which it is recommended that Congress should form Military Academies & Manufactories as a part of this Establishment—should this idea be adopted, and the Plan carried into execution; it will doubtless be necessary for us to retain some of the French Engineers in America, for the first beginning of the Institution. . . . I am persuaded that none will be more agreeable than those gentlemen of your Corps who have distinguished themselves in our service with so much ability & satisfaction.9
Congress had already requested Duportail to express his views in writing regarding the peace establishment of the engineering branch of the army. In reporting the matter to the commander in chief, he took occasion to explain more clearly the meaning of his last communication, which Washington had assumed was an offer of continued services by the members of the Royal Corps of Engineers. Duportail’s letter, dated April 29, 1783, assured Washington that “there is no appearance that those who belong to the French service will have the liberty of remaining” and that he had only meant to express his eagerness to render himself useful during the little time that remained before he and his fellow officers would be forced to return to France. He ends,
since my last letter a committee of Congress for the establishment of peace asked me my ideas respecting my Department. i will send your excellency my memorial to make the use of it that you shall thinck proper.
if your excellency has no occasion for my presence in Camp, i beg leave to stay here having many little business to settle. besides it would not be worth while for so short time to send my baggage to camp and establish myself it would be very expensive and troublesome. notwithstanding I will wait for the order of your excellency and i shall execute them always with the greatest pleasure.10
Washington answered this letter rather coldly on May 10,
Sir You have anticipated my wishes, in having, as you mention, communicated your sentiments on a peace establishment, so far as relates to your Department, to a Committee of Congress—as you promised to send me a copy of it, I shall be gratified by a sight of your ideas on the subject
As you mention it to be very inconvenient for you to come to Camp—I do not at present recollect anything of Importance enough to render your attendance here necessary.11
A document in the Papers of the Continental Congress dated May 4, 1783, shows that the French officers of the Engineer Corps were gathered in Philadelphia at this time, as Congress passed a resolution earlier in the year that required the signature of each member of the corps. The document read,
The officers of the Corps of Engineers having met for the purpose of giving their opinion respecti
ng the commutation of the half pay, agreeably to a resolution of Congress of the 22nd of March 1783, have unanimously agreed to accept the Commutation agreeable to the term of said resolution (full pay for five years instead of half pay for life.)
signed by Duportail, Gouvion, Laumoy, Cambray, Villefranche,
L’Enfant, Wuibert, Murnan and Rochefontaine.12
Duportail’s first memorial to the commander in chief on the peace establishment of the army has not been found among the Washington Papers or among those of the Continental Congress. However, he wrote in the cover letter, “i have the honor to present you the memorial mentioned in my last letter. I composed it after the hints you have been pleased to give me when at head quarters. i beg your excellency to let me know if i have been happy enough to meet with your ideas, wishing not to propose anything to Congress but through you and what you approve of.”13
Duportail also wrote a memoir on fortifications, which he submitted to General Washington, who forwarded it to the president of Congress on June 7, 1783.14 The memoir was read in Congress on June 11 and referred to the Committee on Peace Arrangements.
Washington wrote a brief acknowledgment to General Duportail that same day (June 7): “I have been favored with your letter of 25th May, accompanied by your observations respecting the fortifications necessary for the United States. I was extremely obliged by the communication, and now enclose them under flying seal to Congress, with a letter to His Excellency the President, which is likewise open to your inspection.”15
Washington’s letter to the President said in part,
The sentiments expressed appear not only to be the production of a well informed mind, and the result of much experience aided by great professional knowledge, but because they seem also to be dictated by a disinterested zeal for the future tranquility and happiness of the United States.16
Regarding the principles of defence on which Genl. Duportail has particularly treated in a very important point of light, cannot help recommending a proper consideration of them in the adoption of a Peace Establishment, so far as they may be found practicable with our means, and applicable to our local circumstances. For although the subjects proposed are undoubtedly of very great & immediate consequence, & require that something should be done without delay, yet how far we are able at this time to enter into extensive arrangements for the fortification of Posts and Harbours, and the establishment of Military Academies etc. must be submitted to the wisdom of Congress and rest upon their decision.17
BRIGADIER GENERAL IN THE FRENCH INFANTRY
Duportail was appointed a brigadier general in the French infantry on June 13, 1783, at the age of forty. He received a bonus of 2,500 livres and commanded two regiments. Only a few official documents remain about this stage of his life; most were destroyed during the Reign of Terror.
Baron von Steuben was ordered to Québec during the summer to confer with General Frederick Haldimand, governor of Canada, about the surrender of British forts along the frontier. He asked that Major L’Enfant might accompany him. When General Duportail heard of the matter, he wrote the commander in chief, begging him to be so good “if i or the first officers of the Corps have not been so unfortunate as to lose your esteem and confidence, not to trust any person with any business that belongs to our department.”18
Washington replied to this letter, saying that the commission was not of a nature to require an engineer and that he had not thought it important enough to send “one of your rank and abilities.”19 Villefranche ended up going with the Baron, and he later reported on the fortifications necessary on Lake Champlain.
The summer passed with no word from Congress about the French engineers, so General Duportail wrote the commander in chief on September 16,
Dear General the officers of my department and myself have waited patiently till now with the army that Congress be pleased to take a resolution concerning them and we would wait still longer if we are not in a peculiar situation. when the army or part of it shall be dismissed the american officers can go home when they please but it is not so with us. your excellency knows that we are almost all foreigners—so to go home we must cross the atlantic. but i beg leave to observe, dear general that the winter is approaching, that in that season the opportunities for going are much more scarce, the voyage not pleasant and for many of us the distance from the sea town to our respective places of abode very great—i may add that it is of some importance for those who are attached to the service in europe to show themselves there the soonest possible. thus, dear general I take the liberty of entreating your excellency to urge the resolution of Congress respecting our department.—If the present circumstances do not permit them to take a final determination it is possible perhaps to take such measures as would set at liberty those who would wish for it without however losing irrevocably those whose service might be desired afterwards by Congress and who might be inclined to continue them. but i entreat your excellency again most earnestly, to engage Congress to take a resolution upon this the soonest possible, for which we shall have the greatest gratitude.20
Washington responded immediately on September 19, “I have received your letter of the 16 instant and this day have laid it before Congress; their determination, which I hope will be speedy & agreeable to your wishes, shall be transmitted to you as soon as they come to hand.”21 Four days later he wrote again,
I was this day in conference with a Commee of Congress upon the subject of your letter to me of the 16th inst. They discovered every disposition to relieve the Gentn. of your departmt. from the state of uncertainty in which they are prest but wished previous to their making a report to Congress to obtain your sentiments more in detail upon a proper Peace establishment for the engineering Line of the army agreeably to the idea contained in your general observations which are now before Congress—I know you will require more information than they, or I, can give you in the undecided state in which things now are before you can deliver a precise opinion but all the data I can give you to work upon is, that we ought to maintain West Point as a Post—those which the British are to surrender to us,—and such as it may be found necessary to establish West or So-west upon our interior boundary and these too upon the most economical plan.
The sooner you can favor the Comee. (or me in their behalf) with your sentiments on this subject, the sooner the matter will be brought to a decision. In the mean time, if you have it in your power, you would oblige me by giving me information of the name of the Genln. in yr. departmnt. who are disposed to remain in this country upon a Peace establishment.22
Duportail sent the desired memorial with the following letter on September 30:
according to the demands of the committee i have the honor to send to your excellency my ideas about the establishment of my department. i wish i may be so happy as to meet with your own. i had a peculiar intention not to say any thing more than what is necessary to take a determination upon the matter. . . .
i am sorry that i cannot give to your excellency the name of the gentlemen who might be disposed to remain in this country. in the present unsettled state of the affairs their choice would be a blind one— . . . congress must pronounce first and show what they intend to do. then if the gentlemen see that they have here an honorable, solid employment, if the united states show themselves to be a great respectable empire, or at least take proper measures for becoming so—I do not doubt that many of my department induced by inclination, and by the opportunity offered them here of doing things more important and interesting than those they could do in europe, would remain with pleasure.
I take the liberty of requesting again your excellency in the most earnest manner to use his influence with congress to have a resolution upon this the soonest possible.23
Duportail wrote to the president of Congress on October 6, stating that Brigadier General Laumoy, Colonel Gouvion, and himself being the “three and only officers of the royal corps of engineers who had been sent in ’77 by the court on request of the americ
an congress” now beg very earnestly to be given permission to return to France the soonest possible, especially because the “present opportunity may not present itself again for a long while.” He also begs that their accounts be settled before they leave.24
A committee of Congress considered this letter on October 10 and reported,
That Major General Du Portail, Brigadier General Laumoy, and Colonel Gouvion, were permitted by his Most Christian Majesty to serve in the army of the United States at an early period of the war and further suppose for this purpose furloughs were granted to them by the king of France, from time to time, and it appears that from a desire to give a repeated manifestation of his affection for attachment to the United States, the services of these Engineers were considered equally entitling them to the favour of their sovereign, as if they had been performed in the armies of France.
That these Gentlemen have distinguished themselves in their profession, during their service in America, as active, intelligent, and useful officers, and considering that they entered our service with the particular approbation and consent of their Sovereign, it appears to your committee that it will be expedient to grant them some peculiar testimonies of the sense Congress entertain of their services, as well as to expedite their return to the Corps to which they are attached in France; Whereupon,
Resolved, That Major General Du Portail, Brigadier General Laumoy and Colonel Gouvion, who have served with distinguished merit in the Department of Engineers, have leave to retire from the service of the United States, their affairs requiring their presence in Europe, and however desirous Congress might be of their continuing in service no arrangements in which they can be employed having been yet compleated no arrangements having yet been made by which Congress might employ the abilities of those gentlemen, however desirous they might be of their services.