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

at or near Fort Herkimer; I have to request that you will send an engineer to superintend the works in that department.14

PREPARATIONS FOR AN ATTACK ON NEW YORK

General Duportail sent Major Villefranche to superintend the erection of any defenses as would be necessary at Fort Herkimer and vicinity. He then turned his attention to preparing for an attack on New York, as tentatively determined at Wethersfield.

Washington instructed Duportail on May 28 to estimate the engineering department’s needs for conducting a siege. The chief engineer responded in a matter of days. His evaluation included a rare calculation of the manpower and time required to make some of the principal instruments of siege craft: gabions, saucissons, and fascines:

DUPORTAIL’S ESTIMATE OF REQUIREMENTS FOR A NEW YORK SIEGE

New Windsor, June 2, 1781

Gabions and fascines. Gabions are the basket-like objects in the background. Fascines are the bundles of sticks in the foreground. Together, they are used to strengthen the walls of earthworks and fortifications. Photo courtesy of the author.

Plancks for platteformes about 12 inches broad and 2 inches thick.

I make amount to 150 the number of Cannons of different Caliber and mortars which we Can get and which are necessary whether to batter the ennemy’s lines on new york island or long island or to secure the Communications and some other things.

We must observe that the French army must be provided by us with the following articles.

Each piece Requires about 200 feet of plancks; for 150—30,000 feet. Saucissons (large fascines) for the batteries—72,000 feet. Gabions for batteries or trenches—4000 gabions. Fascines for the same—10,000 fascines.

The proportions of these things will be given to the officer appointed to superintend their Construction.

A man Can make a gabion in one day, so 500 men will make the 4000 gabions in 8 days.

A man Can make 36 feet of saucisson in one day, so 500 men will make the number Required in 3 days.

500 men will make the 10,000 fascines in 6 days.

Sand bags—30,000. We shall probably want some more but I have been told the French army have 60 thousand.

Tools: Shovels—5000; Pick axes—2500; Axes—1200; Bill hooks—800. If the french army had no[t] enough for them, we must have more than it is Required here.15

The sappers and miners were busy making fascines and gabions and frequently helped the engineers with reconnaissance. Washington moved the main body of his army from New Windsor between June 21 and 24. They moved farther down the Hudson and established headquarters at Peekskill on the other side of the river. Dr. James Thatcher, in his Military Journal of the American Revolution, says on June 23, “The army is now concentrated to a point in this place [Peekskill] and encamped in two lines, and in the same regular order that the troops usually form in a line of battle. . . . The campaign is now about to be opened, and we expect in a few days that the French Army will form a junction with us to cooperate with our troops.”16

The two armies joined at Phillipsburg on July 6, still farther down the river and nearer New York. Washington, in his Orderly Book for this date, took occasion to thank “his Excellency the Count de Rochambeau, for the unremitting zeal with which he has prosecuted his march, in order to form the long wished for junction between the French and American forces . . . and from which the happiest consequences are to be expected.”17

COMBINED OPERATION AT NEW YORK

A few days before, a combined operation had taken place against the Crown forces when the Duke de Lauzun brought his own legion to support a detachment under General Lincoln, who had dropped down the Hudson at night and taken possession of ground a few miles back of Kings-bridge. As a result, the Crown forces retired to the other side of the Harlem River and took up their position behind Fort Washington on New York Island (Manhattan). In a letter to the president of Congress written the same day but before the arrival of Rochambeau and his army, Washington says of the retirement, “This afforded General Duportail and myself the most favorable opportunity of perfectly reconnoitering the works upon the north end of the island, and of making observations which may be of very great advantage in the future.”18

The commandant of the engineers immediately put these observations to practical use. He began making a plan of attack to put into operation as soon as positive news arrived regarding the movements of Grasse and his fleet. The general officers assumed that the attack on New York would still be the wisest move. The combined armies continued to hold possession of the approaches to the north of the island of New York while awaiting news of Grasse and his fleet. The French command had always preferred a united effort in the region of the Chesapeake, however, but they had positive instructions to not influence Washington’s decision in any way or to withstand his wishes.19 Washington’s and Duportail’s preference centered around New York as the place for the first attack, especially after General Clinton had begun sending reinforcements to Lord Cornwallis in Virginia.

The reinforcements stopped during June, and the allies had no way of knowing what the Crown forces intended. Judging by Cornwallis’s position, they thought that his army was to be transported to New York as soon as possible. While awaiting news from Grasse, the commander of the French fleet at Newport, Barras, wanted positive information regarding Washington’s intentions, so he wrote the Comte de Rochambeau, who in turn addressed a letter to General Washington, asking for an interview the next day. In the letter, the Comte says, “I will bring with me the Chevalier de Chatellux and if Your Excellency will kindly advise M. Duportail so he may serve us respectively as interpreter and as approving of what your Excellency judges proper to propose to M. de Grasse under all supposable circumstances.”20

The meeting occurred as proposed by the Comte de Rochambeau, and