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

war was now settling down to the life of an American farmer. He was certainly not married, as was customary for officers of the Royal Corps of Engineers. They were generally less fortunate or wealthy, often subject to frequent and unforeseen changes, and were not deemed suitable for young women in search of a husband. The average marriage age of these officers was forty-eight, and about a third died bachelors.

Throughout his career in the Continental Army, Duportail had servants, as was customary of officers, so he may have brought a servant and a French cook with him. There are no documents that mention servants in his retirement, but that may be because they were so common that there was no need for special mention to be made of them.

When Charles-Albert Moré, Comte de Pontgibaud, came to America to receive the arrears in his pay that he saw advertised in Europe, he found several of his old friends living in or near Philadelphia, and Duportail was one of them. Pontgibaud noted in his Memoires that he found Duportail living in another time, dressed in outmoded clothes, mulling over his incomprehension of events, particularly the false accusations against him in France. His mind seemed wholly absorbed in things of the past, and his costume was that of a gentleman of the old regime.

General Mathieu Dumas, Duportail’s former subordinate, learned on June 18, 1797, why Duportail decided to emigrate and began proceedings to have Duportail’s name struck from the list of émigrés so he could return to France. Duportail had placed all his confidence in Dumas during the Reign of Terror, and Dumas did his utmost to bring the matter to the legislature, which deemed the motives insufficient. Duportail requested again on February 24, 1798, that his name be struck from the émigré list, but the Directory of April 26, 1799, kept him on. He had to wait until the coup d’état of the 18 Brumaire to be allowed to return to France.

After Napoléon Bonaparte had become first consul, the 1792 law that banished for life émigrés on the list and condemned them to death upon return was abrogated. Napoléon probably was aware of Duportail’s career as a young officer and must have also wanted the return of a man of noted loyalty and fastidiousness to the service of his country.

Duportail disposed of parts of his farm to two different purchasers in 1801 and left America for France the following year. One might suppose that he had begun to dispose of his property, intending to return to France permanently, but that was not the case.

He sold his dwelling, barn, and all improvements, along with eight acres and eight perches of land to Alexander Crawford for $730.60 on June 24, 1801. The next day, June 25, he sold eighteen acres and seventy-six perches to Samuel Holstein, a neighbor whose land joined his, for the sum of “273 pounds 15 shillings, lawful gold or silver money of America.”5 The sale included

buildings, improvements, ways, woods, watercourses together with the benefit of the great spring of water . . . and other privileges particularly mentioned in the indenture from the said James Philip Delacour to Louis Lebegue Duportail . . . reserving . . . the right of roadway through the property [connecting his remaining property with] the Swede’s Ford Road, together with the fruit and ornamental trees planted and growing on the verge of each side thereof, with liberty of planting, cultivating and pruning as many more as he or they [his heirs and assigns] may from time to time deem necessary.6

This last clause proves that Duportail intended to continue farming, even though he had already been notified that his disabilities as émigré had been removed and freedom secured for his return to France. The aforementioned deed goes on to say that special reservation is made of his right to the shad fisheries opposite Swede’s Ford Tract.

These 1801 deeds anticipate continued farming activities (the farm contained about 166 acres). Later documents also reveal that Duportail had already selected a site for a dwelling that pleased him better than the original buildings bought with the farm, and he had already begun construction. In the meantime, Napoléon issued an order that all émigré officers return home. It is not known when or how the message was conveyed to him, but he must have received it early that year and complied with the order very quickly; the tax lists were sent out toward the end of March each year, and there was none recorded for “General Duportail, Farmer,” for 1802. He left one Isaac Huddleston, a young Quaker doctor who settled in Norristown in 1793, as his agent to look after the plantation in his absence. The two men must have become friends some time earlier.7

DEATH

Duportail boarded the small American vessel Sophia in New York on July 22, 1801, along with twenty-two other people, men and women of all ages recently freed from the prison at Cayenne. He was taken by a fit of vomiting at 4:00 p.m. on 22 Thermidor (August 10) and was found dead at 2:00 a.m. the following morning, probably due to a gastric hemorrhage resulting from dysentery contracted during his imprisonment. Isaac Hand, the captain of the vessel, certified the death of the former minister of war at 7:00 a.m. on August 11 and proceeded to take an inventory of Duportail’s belongings. Before four French travelers selected as witnesses, he made a report in the cabin of the deceased:

Today August 12, 1801 at 11 AM, we the subsigned passengers on board the New York ship Sophia, Capt. Isaac Hand, going from New York to Havre, having been called by the said Captain to be present at the summary verification of the effects left by Mr Louis Joseph Le Begue Du Portail, a passenger aboard the said ship, deceased aboard the ship during the night of the 10th to the 11th of the month of August have taken on the duty on