Washington's Engineer by Norman Desmarais (speed reading book TXT) 📕

In Jerseys as well as every where else, I think we ought always to avoid General actions—to seek advantageous posts—to have the Roads of Retreat well reconnoitered, and to have secure communications with our magazines. After all, I find it difficult to believe that the Enemy mean to cross the Jersies and go to New York—unless there is deficiency of transports—but we have the same conduct to observe in case the Enemy should march down the left shore of the Delaware to embark below—

DUPORTAIL34

That same day, the entire camp at Valley Forge was put into condition to leave on the shortest possible notice. A returning scout brought intelligence at 11:30 the following morning that the enemy had evacuated Philadelphia earlier that morning. General Washington immediately put six brigades in motion while the “rest of the army prepared to follow with all possible dispatch.”35 All the troops converged at Coryell’s Ferry, about forty miles from Valley Forge and thirty miles north of Philadelphia. The whole army had crossed the Delaware by the twenty-first. After they “had cleaned their arms and gotten matters in Train,” the main body moved on toward Princeton, while General Poor, aided by Lafayette, led a detachment forward to come up with the enemy’s rear and left flank, giving them “as much annoyance as possible.”36

Colonel John Laurens, Washington’s aide-de-camp, and General Duportail went to reconnoiter the slopes of the Sourland Hills, while Washington passed through Princeton with the main body and took up headquarters at Hopewell. They each sent their reports to Washington, both dated June 23, 1778. Colonel John Laurens summarized Brigadier General Duportail’s observations on the other side of Duportail’s letter:

By General Duportail’s leave I inclose a rude sketch of the Road and the principal points, which have relation to the ground your Excellency desired to have reconnoitred. The chain of Sourland hills as nearly as I can judge runs north by east—its nearest distance from Prince Town is five miles—General Duportail has reconnoitred as well as time will permit a position in that part of the chain—the front is generally good—the flanks can only be made so by art—Roads of Retreat could not be examined—water is not very abundant, but might be sufficient for a short stay—there is an inferior range of hills in front of those above mentioned, upon which stands a Militia Alarm Post. A good position might perhaps be found there but the Rocky Hill from all accounts promises the strongest ground—Genl. Duportail proposes to await further orders ’till 8 o’clock tomorrow morning.37

The army did not use the position on the Sourland Hills.

At about the same time, the officers held discussions to determine the feasibility of launching an attack against Philadelphia. Some, including Duportail, Nathanael Greene, Henry Knox, and John Sullivan, opposed the offensive. General Washington, after listening to their reasons, concurred and abandoned the plan. The two sides clashed in a major battle at Monmouth, New Jersey, on June 28. Two days after the battle, Duportail was sent to ascertain what defenses would be necessary for its security and to plan fortifications for the Delaware, as Washington feared the British might send a fleet to attack Philadelphia after the return of Congress. The army later took up its position at White Plains near the Hudson River north of New York.

While Duportail was engaged fortifying the Delaware, Congress received news that a French fleet, under the Admiral Comte d’Estaing, was approaching American shores. A short while later, on July 12, Conrad-Alexandre Gérard landed at Chester, Pennsylvania, the first foreign representative to be received by the United States. A delegation from Congress received and escorted him in a carriage to the nearly ruined city that the British had demolished before leaving.

A completely new phase of the American struggle with Great Britain was set to begin. After only a year in America, Duportail, having been chosen as a captain, had become the commander in chief’s most valued advisor, a confidence that would never be betrayed.

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WEST POINT AND THE HUDSON

General Washington funneled available resources to the field army after the defeats of 1777. He refortified the Hudson Highlands to make the area the strategic pivot for the main army. A large portion of the engineer corps worked on the fortress at West Point from the winter of 1777–1778 until the end of the war. Instead of a single large fort, which could be lost in one stroke, Duportail’s engineers erected a complex of smaller, mutually supporting works for in-depth defense.

These defenses were the most important during the whole extent of the war because the line of fortifications extending along Lake Champlain had originally served the British in their struggle with France for supremacy on the continent. The Hudson River also provided an inland waterway from New York to Canada. British control of the river could also control communications between the northern and southern colonies, thereby dividing the country.

Philadelphia received news on May 18, 1775, of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga a few days after the Second Continental Congress convened. Congress resolved on May 25, “that a post be immediately taken at or near King’s Bridge.”1 General Clinton began constructing defensive works in the summer of 1777 but abandoned and destroyed them when he realized he could no longer hold them after Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga on October 16, 1777.

Congress requested on October 6, 1777, that Washington send an officer of engineers to take charge of the works of the north following the retreat of the Continental Army from Germantown. The commander in chief immediately sent Lieutenant Colonel Louis-Guillaume-Servais des Hayes de La Radière to serve at Fort Montgomery and take charge of the defensive works on the Hudson. He was promoted to the rank of colonel the following November.

General Washington then wrote to General Israel Putnam on October 8 to inform the commander of the Highlands.2 He was nearly sixty years of age when he was appointed to command the important Hudson defenses. He had