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

the officers will be useful in the Engineering line to which their studies are relative and preparatory. The present number of Engineers is not adequate to the exigencies of the service. I have the honor etc.

The Board of War resolved on February 5, 1780,

That the officers attached to the companies of sappers and miners be commissioned, and rank as follows:

Mr. Nevin, captain, April 25, 1779. Mr. Bebee, Mr. Murray, Mr. Du Veil, captains; Mr. Gilleland, Mr. Bushnell, Mr. Cleveland, captain lieutenants; Mr. Welsh, lieutenant; August 2, 1779.16

The Chevalier de La Luzerne notified General Washington on March 8 that the Comte de Vergennes and King Louis XVI also approved the “Request respecting the Officers in the Department of Engineers.”17 Washington was very pleased.

The first recruits joined the Corps of Sappers and Miners on May 28, 1781, and General Duportail was ordered to send an engineer to direct and superintend the fortifications to be erected at or near Fort Herkimer. Three days later, Duportail was at Wethersfield, Connecticut, with General Washington to meet with the Comte de Rochambeau and Admiral de Barras, but the British fleet appeared off Block Island, and they (Rochambeau and Barras) did not think it prudent to leave Newport.18

Congress did not immediately address Duportail’s concerns about the future arrangement of the artillery and engineering departments. He submitted proposals on September 30, 1781, and appealed on October 6 for permission to return to France with General Laumoy and Colonel Gouvion. Congress approved the leave on October 10. As the superintendent of finance subsequently announced that he had no funds for paying Duportail and his officers, the general again appealed to Congress for relief on October 29.19

1782

Major Villefranche became the chief of the Corps of Engineers in 1782 during the absence of General Duportail and Colonel Gouvion and pending the release of Colonel Laumoy and Lieutenant Colonel Cambray, the commanding officer of engineers at West Point, both of whom were captured at Charlestown, South Carolina, and were still prisoners of war. Villefranche’s April 1782 report identifies the situation of the different members of the corps:

RETURN OF THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL 1782

Name

Rank

here employed

Messieurs du portail

M. Genl.

on furlough

Koskiusko

Colonel

Southern army

laumoy

"

prisoner

gouvion

"

on furlough

Wuibert

Lt. Col.

fort pitt

Cambray

"

prisoner

de Brahm

Major

on furlough

Villefranche

"

"

Rochefontaine

"

"

de laren

Capt.

southern army

l’enfant

"

on furlough

Niven

"

main army

Shreibur

"

prisoner

West Point, april 12, 1782

MAJR. VILLEFRANCHE Commanding engineer

Thaddeus Kosciusko, as ranking colonel of engineers, should have had the post of commandant in the absence of General Duportail; however, he had never been willing to serve under the chief of the Royal Engineers. General Washington had definitely chosen Duportail because the good of the service demanded that there should be but one head, and he had been sent by the French king in 1777. Kosciusko was also friends with General Gates. They had served well together in the Northern Campaign, which ended with General Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga. While Kosciusko may not have played a role in the Conway cabal that attempted to replace the commander in chief with Gates in the winter of 1778, he was Gates’s friend, and Washington seemed deliberately to avoid contact with this Polish officer.

After Gates’s defeat at the Battle of Camden, Kosciusko served faithfully under General Greene until the end of the war. When he left America, Congress, at Washington’s request, made him a brigadier general by brevet, but no special honor was accorded him. However, posterity has more than recompensed Kosciusko for this neglect. His memory is particularly honored at West Point, and historians have recognized his services more than any other engineer of the Revolution.

Promotions

Duportail returned to America from his furlough in the middle of December 1782. He began an energetic and persistent demand to both the commander in chief and to the president of Congress for advancement in rank for every engineer who had served the United States as members of the corps. He was not thwarted by any excuses, delays, or difficulties. The Papers of the Continental Congress contain many petitions that were read before that body, and General Washington supported every case.

The Washington Papers contain the appeals sent directly to the commander in chief. Duportail always pointed out that the requests would not render the position of Congress difficult in any way. He also noted that none asked for more than commission by brevet, so there would be no change in pay. Because all the men were returning to France, their rank on leaving America would not affect the service in this country. When they came to America, they all received promotions to a rank above the one they had in France. Now that they were returning to France, their rank would be lowered by one grade, so a promotion would benefit them upon their return.

Neither Congress nor Washington had any objections. The problem was due to the number of things that Congress had to attend to and the tendency to put off decisions that did not require immediate attention. Duportail understood this and tactfully bided his time without ever giving up the determination to see these men promoted. His efforts failed in just one case, that of his aide-de-camp, Castaing, addressed later.

The congressional committee appointed to examine Major Villefranche’s and Captain L’Enfant’s cases reported on May 2, 1783,

The long and meritorious services of these two officers in the important department of the army in which they have acted, and of the proofs which they have produced of the Commander-in-Chief’s entire approbation of their conduct, as well from his own observation of their conduct as the testimonials of other Genl. officers under whom they have more immediately served with distinguished skill and bravery, entitle them to the notice of Congress and to the promotion which they have requested as the most important reward of their services, and strongest proof Congress can give of their approbation.20

Major Villefranche received the rank of lieutenant colonel, and Captain L’Enfant, that of major by brevet. Cambray was made colonel at the same time.

Positions in the