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

Cooper and Ashley, either for the greater security of our Fleet or from hindering the Enemy from getting Provisions, it depends upon this how far up the Ships have been able to penetrate into the Harbour and the Rivers (because the Enemy can make obstructions in some places, but in the most advantageous case, I think 4000 Men part of which may be Militia shall fill our object.

So I think that with 1100 [11,000?] Men we can block Charlestown up entirely.

To attack it I would have at least 4000 More.

A difficulty occurs, is it possible to supply with Provisions, so large a number of Men in that Quarter.

I believe it is, if the Expedition takes place, it will be before the Rice is cut, so that we can get plenty either in Carolina or Georgia, where we may send a body of Troops for that purpose.

Besides, I observed already that after we are in possession of the Harbour, the Fleet may go away. I suppose it will go to Chesapeak; so far they shall cover perfectly well the Transportation of our Supplies. If Count De Grasse is obliged, in the beginning of November to return to the West Indies, I do not doubt he will leave a fleet Superior or at least equal to that of the Enemy, so that our Convoys shall be safe; besides, we know that from Chesapeak to Charlestown, there is between the Main and some Islands an interior Navigation which may render the transportation very easy. It is only necessary to have for that purpose some small Armed Vessels to protect them against Privateers. So I think that on account of the importance of the Capture of Charlestown this year, as soon as it is determined that we cannot undertake any thing against New York, we must embark all the French Troops and as many of the Americans as can be spared with plenty Provisions, etc., and go, under the protection of the whole fleet, directly to Charlestown. . . .

. . . Mr. Duportail with whom I have had conferences upon all these objects, is quite of my opinion, he goes away on the 1st of April, and proposes being at New Windsor on the 5th; he will give your Excellency a more ample relation of the discussion of the different objects which were the subjects of the conferences with your Excellency here.10

LAFAYETTE SENT TO VIRGINIA

Washington sent the Marquis de Lafayette to Virginia in April 1781 with a force, including some of the sappers and miners, to stop Arnold’s raids. The chief engineer was a valuable asset because Washington valued Duportail’s knowledge of the enemy position in New York, his proven ability to evaluate the rebels’ strength, and his camaraderie with fellow French officers like Rochambeau.11

Washington’s headquarters, New Windsor, New York. Photo courtesy of the author.

Duportail set out for New Windsor on the Hudson after taking leave of the Comte de Rochambeau and the officers of his army. He arrived on April 6, and General Washington wrote to General Lafayette two days later, countermanding the permission he had given Lafayette to increase his staff by the addition of Lieutenant Colonel Gouvion: “It is General du portail’s desire that Col. Gouvion may return to him. Independant of the occasion which there may be for him here, there is another reason which operates against his going with you; it is that he would interfere with Col. Kosciusko who has been considered as the commanding engineer with the southern army.”12 Moreover, Kosciusko never wanted to serve under the French commandant of the Corps of Engineers.

The Marquis replied on April 13 that he would have liked to keep Colonel Gouvion, and he forwarded Washington’s orders to Philadelphia, where Colonel Gouvion was located. Meanwhile, Washington wrote to the Comte de Rochambeau on April 7,

As genl. du portail did not arrive till yesterday, I had no opportunity of conversing with him before this day. After relating to me what has passed between your Excellency and himself, and being informed by me of the resolution I had taken to let your troops remain at Newport for the present and with the reason which induced me to take that resolution, he fully acquiesced with me in the propriety of it.13

Washington received a letter from the Comte de Barras on May 11, announcing his safe arrival at Newport to command the fleet of the Chevalier Destouches, who assumed command after the death of Admiral Ternay. Washington immediately replied, congratulating him and announcing the date of the interview that was to take place between the French and American commanders on May 21 at Wethersfield, Connecticut.

WETHERSFIELD MEETING

The Comte de Barras’s flagship, Concorde, also brought the Vicomte de Rochambeau with the latest instructions from the Court of France. Duportail accompanied Washington at the historic Wethersfield meeting and was present at all the discussions. They returned to New Windsor on the twenty-fourth, and the French delegation went back to Newport. The Concorde was then dispatched to the Comte de Grasse in the West Indies with the report of the deliberations held at Wethersfield.

A letter from Colonel Laurens in Paris informed Washington on the twenty-sixth that the king had announced the free gift of six million livres to the United States. Two days after receiving Colonel Laurens’s letter, Washington wrote to General Duportail,

You are perfectly acquainted with the plan, which has been concerted with his Excellency Count de Rochambeau at Wethersfield, I need not enter into a detail of particulars. I have only to request, therefore, that you will be pleased to make the estimates of the articles in your department necessary for the operation and that the previous arrangements for the siege as far as they are within the limits of our ability, be put in the best train, which the circumstances will admit. In the mean time, it has become necessary, from decay of the works . . . to abandon the post of Fort Schuyler, and erect new fortifications,