Washington's Engineer

by Norman Desmarais

  15. Kite, “General Washington,” 41.

  16. Kite, “General Washington,” 41; Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères: Correspondance politique, États-Unis 12, folio 247.

  17. Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères 13, folio 117.

  18. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 17:609.

  19. Washington, Writings, 19:249.

  20. Washington, Writings, 19:234. The letter written by Robert Hanson Harrison was read in Congress on July 26 and referred to the Board of War. It was endorsed, “Nothing to be done by the Board.” The three enclosures mentioned are filed with this letter from Washington in the Papers of the Continental Congress.

  21. Washington, Writings, 20:69, 20:243, 20:269.

  22. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 17:609–10; Washington, Writings, 19:234, 19:249–50, 20:69, 20:243, 20:268–69, 20:315, 20:323.

  23. Sparks, Writings, 7:290.

  24. Sparks, Writings, 7:323.

  25. Washington, Writings, 20:323.

  26. Balfour to William Moultrie, February 8, 1781, in William Moultrie, Memoirs of the American Revolution, So Far as It Related to the States of North and South Carolina, and Georgia, Eyewitness Accounts of the American Revolution (New York: David Longworth, 1802); Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, ed. Richard K. Showman, Margaret Cobb, Robert E. McCarthy, Joyce Boulind, Noel P. Conlon, and Nathaniel N. Shipton (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, for the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1976), 6:471n. The report that Duportail brought was correct.

  27. Greene, Papers, 7:189.

  CHAPTER 6

  1. US Continental Congress et al., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1904), 4:61.

  2. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 8:539.

  3. Paul K. Walker, Engineers of Independence: A Documentary History of the Army Engineers in the American Revolution, 1775–1783 (Washington, DC: Historical Division, Office of Administrative Services, Office of the Chief of Engineers, 1981), 34–36; George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, ed. Philander D. Chase, Revolutionary War Series (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1985), 13:262–66.

  4. “Louis Duportail to the President of Congress, November 13, 1777,” and “Louis Duportail to the President of Congress, Camp White plaines, 27th’ August 1778,” in US Continental Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1985), roll 51; Walker, Engineers of Independence; Washington, Papers, 13:262–63.

  5. Washington, Papers, 16:439.

  6. Paul H. Smith, Gerard W. Gawalt, Rosemary Fry Plakas, and Eugene R. Sheridan, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 9, February 1–May 31, 1778 (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1982), 106n8; US Continental Congress et al., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1904), 13:57–58.

  7. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 21:1120.

  8. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 13:305–6; Washington, Papers, 19:266–67, 19:278, 19:695.

  9. Paul H. Smith, Gerard W. Gawalt, and Ronald M. Gephart, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 12, February 1–May 31, 1779 (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1985), 463; US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 14:570–71; Walker, Engineers of Independence. See also Smith et al., Letters of Delegates, 9:722–23.

  10. Washington, Papers, 20:421, 535. For the nomination of these men and their eventual appointment, see “General Orders, 13 March,” and n2 to that document.

  11. George Washington, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799: Prepared under the Direction of the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission and Published by Authority of Congress, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1931), 15:491.

  12. Washington, Writings, 15:491–92.

  13. “Louis Duportail to Joseph Reed, President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, West point, 10th September, 1779.” See Du Portail to President Reed, West Point September 10, 1779, Pennsylvania Archives, 1st ser., 7:690–91; Walker, Engineers of Independence, chap. 2, n11, n12.

  14. Founders Online, “To George Washington from Captain William McMurray et al., 26 May 1780,” https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-26-02-0130.

  15. Founders Online, “From George Washington to Samuel Huntington, 27 January 1780,” https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-24-02-0227; Washington, Writings, 17:444.

  16. US Continental Congress, Papers, vol. 4, no. 147, folio 97; US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 17:133, Monday, February 7, 1780; Washington, Writings, 17:443–45.

  17. Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères: Correspondance politique, États-Unis, 10:39; Paul H. Smith, Gerard W. Gawalt, Rosemary Fry Plakas, and Eugene R. Sheridan, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 14, October 1, 1779–March 31, 1780 (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1987), 484; US Continental Congress, Papers, item 95, 1:76–83; Washington, Papers, 11:493–94.

  18. Washington, Writings, 22:124–25, 22:127, 22:143.

  19. US Continental Congress, Papers, item 38, folios 355–66; US Continental Congress, Papers, item 78, 8:31–34, 8:43–46; US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 25:668–69, 25:695, 25:700.

  20. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 24:324.

  21. Founders Online, “To George Washington from Anne-César, Chevalier de La Luzerne, 21 November 1783,” https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-12090.

  22. Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, Papers without date, end of 1783, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

  23. These two letters are in US Continental Congress, Papers, vol. 8, no. 152, folios 337–39.

  24. Elizabeth S. Kite, Brigadier-General Louis Lebègue Duportail, Commandant of Engineers in the Continental Army, 1777–1783 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1933), 246–47.

  25. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 247.

  26. Jules Marsan, Beaumarchais et les Affaires d’Amérique: Lettres Inédites (Paris: É. Champion, 1919), 4.

  27. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 248.

  28. Major General Duportail handed this document to the Comte de Rocham-beau a few days before leaving for France to deliver to Luzerne. Rochambeau, Papers without date.

  29. Rochambeau, Papers without date.

  30. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 249–50.

  31. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 251.

  32. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 251.

  33. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 251.

  34. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 251.

  35. Peter Charles L’Enfant, Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

  36. John Schuyler, Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati: Formed by the Officers of the American Army of the Revolution, 1783, with Extracts, from Proceedings of Its General Meetings and From the Transactions of the New York State Society (New York: Douglas Taylor, 1886), 22–23.

  37. J. J. Jusserand, introduction to L’Enfant and Washington, 1791–1792, by Elizabeth S. Kite (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1929).

  38. See Jusserand, introduction.

  39. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 26:64.

  40. Founders Online, “To George Washington from William Heath, 21 February 1782,” https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07853.

  41. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 241–42.

  42. Washington, Writings, 24:42–43.

  43. Washington, Writings, 24:308.

  44. Washington, Writings, 25:74–75.

  45. Jean B. Gouvion, April 16, 1783, Opinion on Post-War Army, George Washington Papers, Series 4: General Correspondence, Library of Congress, Wash
ington, DC, https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw4.091_0463_0468/?sp=1.

  46. US Continental Congress, Papers, no. 38, folios 355–66; Walker, Engineers of Independence, 349–53.

  CHAPTER 7

  1. Elizabeth S. Kite, Brigadier-General Louis Lebègue Duportail, Commandant of Engineers in the Continental Army, 1777–1783 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1933), 183.

  2. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 183.

  3. Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères: Correspondance politique, États-Unis 13, folios 119s; Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 184; Elizabeth S. Kite, “General Washington and the French Engineers Duportail and Companions,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 43, no. 2 (June 1932): 121. This memoir is dated at the bottom, “New Windsor, April 30, 1781.” The memoir becomes all the more striking when we consider that General Washington and Congress were on the point of arriving at the same conclusions.

  4. US Continental Congress et al., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1904), vol. 20, 774.

  5. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 228–29.

  6. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 229–30.

  7. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 230. Very difficult handwriting to decipher.

  8. George Washington, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799: Prepared under the Direction of the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission and Published by Authority of Congress, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1931), 22:73–74.

  9. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 231.

  10. US Continental Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1985), vol. 2, no. 148, folio 289. The report adds, “On question to agree to order their exchange 5 ayes, 3 noes, lost.” The question is on folio 292: “Resolved, That the Commissary General of prisoners immediately cause Colonels and of the Corps of Engineers to be exchanged.” See US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 21:1008, Monday, September 24, 1781.

  11. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 21:1086.

  12. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 232.

  13. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 21:1111.

  14. US Continental Congress, Papers, vol. 2, no. 148, folio 465.

  15. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 21:1140–41.

  16. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 21:1086.

  17. US Continental Congress, Papers, vol. 16, no. 78, folio 507.

  18. Extract from a letter of Sir Guy Carleton to Comte de Rochambeau, sent by the latter to Washington.

  19. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 235.

  20. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 236.

  21. Washington, Writings, 25:75.

  22. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 23:697.

  23. US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 23:462.

  24. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 238.

  25. US Executive Treasury Department, “Statement of Claims of Foreign Officers on the United States Remaining Unsatisfied at the Close of 1794,” Miscellaneous Records, 1794–1817, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. Kosciusko came to America in 1798 to secure his claim of $12,280.54. No other engineers are mentioned in the list. Three of Lafayette’s special friends who came over with him on the Victoire, de Gimat, Captain Capitaine, and the Chevalier de La Colombe, served all through the war but never called for the sums advertised as due them. The Chevalier de La Colombe was taken prisoner with Lafayette by the Austrians and remained with him in the prison of Olmütz. He was alive after the debts were advertised in Europe. Why the money was not called for remains a mystery.

  CHAPTER 8

  1. George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, ed. W. C. Ford (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1889), 9:103.

  2. Benjamin Franklin, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree and Whitfield J. Bell Jr. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1959), http://franklinpapers.org, 34:280.

  3. George Washington to John Laurens, April 9, 1781, in George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, pt. 2, Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers (Charleston, SC: Nabu Press, 2012), 8:7.

  4. Colonel John Laurens’s mission to France was to clarify America’s needs for King Louis XVI, who was already aware of them. The king planned to increase his aid by demanding 30 million livres from the French clergy when they met at their quinquennial assembly in Paris in June 1780. The funds would allow the colonies to prosecute the war more vigorously. As the king had requested and received seven million livres the previous year, his new demand was met with great astonishment.

  The king’s commissioner who brought the demand before the assembly emphasized the king’s efforts to improve the administration of his kingdom and to make the people happier since his accession to the throne. He reminded them of the king’s wise procedures (which they admired) and how the king’s economic undertakings made it possible to meet the interest on the loans for military expenses. He also noted that the king created a formidable fleet, the greatest France had ever possessed—all without raising taxes. However, prosecuting the war required more funds.

  After the commissioner had finished, the promoteur of the assembly rose and spoke in sympathy with his audience about how decreased revenues and the immense debt already incurred caused hardships and advised moderation of the king’s liberalities. He then expressed his interest in seeing France fight for the common cause and his confidence that the king would find means to continue the aid.

  The mention of the “common cause” alluded to King Louis’s July 28, 1778, innovation in maritime law, concerning the navigation of neutral vessels in time of war. This laid the foundation for the famous League of Neutrals in 1780, proclaimed by Catherine II of Russia and acceded to by all the nations of Europe except England. The assembly voted unanimously in favor of meeting the king’s demand.

  Colonel Laurens still had plenty to do. First, he had to impress upon the king’s ministers the dire straits in which America found herself at that moment and, at the same time, to strengthen their conviction that America would become a great nation able to defend herself and repay her generous benefactor, once free from British domination. Colonel Laurens acquired the confidence of some of the ministers who bolstered his vigorous initiative. Together, they collected supplies valued at two million livres and put them aboard ships. These supplies came from the “free gift” of the king.

  Colonel Laurens also received 2.5 million livres in specie to be taken onboard the Résolu, on which he would also sail. He was also permitted to ship 1.5 million livres in specie on an American vessel loaded with supplies at Amsterdam. Benjamin Franklin had been able to induce France to guarantee both the principal and interest of the “Holland loan” that was designated to pay for those supplies.

  John Adams is sometimes credited for the Holland loan because he went to Holland to secure such a loan. The Dutch were unwilling to risk their money in such an uncertain cause as that of the United States at that time. However, when Colonel Laurens arrived in Paris, his influence and the confidence that his ability and business integrity inspired persuaded France to borrow the money herself and guarantee the interest. Holland had no objection to loaning the money under these circumstances.

  Laurens was in a hurry to rejoin Washington’s army with the money and supplies and could not to tend to the details of completing the business, so John Adams arranged for the loan. See US Continental Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1985), no. 165, folios 116 et seq. and 146 et seq., May 15, 1781. (John Adams later negotiated a subsequent loan of a much smaller amount.)

  5. Nathanael Greene to Washington, January 13, 1781; Nathanael Gree
ne to Giles, January 25, 1781; Thomas Bee to William Jackson, February 5, 1781, and February 9, 1781, in Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, ed. Richard K. Showman, Margaret Cobb, Robert E. McCarthy, Joyce Boulind, Noel P. Conlon, and Nathaniel N. Shipton (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, for the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1976); Paul H. Smith, Gerard W. Gawalt, and Ronald M. Gephart, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 16, September 1, 1780–February 28, 1781 (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1989), 692; US Continental Congress et al., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1904), 18:676.

  6. George Washington, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799: Prepared under the Direction of the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission and Published by Authority of Congress, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1931), 21:217–18. Washington wrote to the Comte de Rochambeau, now at Newport, Rhode Island, a few days earlier to introduce Lieutenant Colonel Gouvion and another French officer, Colonel Gimat. They both had permission to go to Rhode Island to pay their respects to the Comte and to see their countrymen. Washington noted they were “officers who have served with distinction in our army, and who, by their personal qualities as well as their military merit, have acquired my particular esteem.”

  7. Washington, Writings, 21:265–66.

  8. Washington, Writings, 21:325. Admiral Destouches assumed command of the French fleet after Admiral Ternay’s death, so Washington made a sudden visit to Newport to arrange dispatching the fleet to Virginia. Lafayette had already been sent there to offset the depredations of Benedict Arnold, who had defected to the British. Arnold intended to establish a post at Portsmouth at the mouth of the Elizabeth River and use it as a command post to do as much damage as possible to the region west of the Chesapeake. The French fleet would support immensely Lafayette’s efforts to deter Arnold. See James Brown Scott, De Grasse à Yorktown (Paris: Institut Français de Washington, 1931), 63. See also Howard Lee Landers, The Virginia Campaign and the Blockade and Siege of Yorktown, 1781: Including a Brief Narrative of the French Participation in the Revolution Prior to the Southern Campaign, Senate document 273 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1931), 38, last paragraph.