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

of Virginia, 1985), 13:225. The letter is dated October 7 in George Washington’s papers, but it was undoubtedly October 8. In the original, one date is written over the other. Washington probably had it copied without first comparing it with the letter to Radière, which was sent first.

3. Elizabeth S. Kite, Brigadier-General Louis Lebègue Duportail, Commandant of Engineers in the Continental Army, 1777–1783 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1933), 83.

4. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 83–84.

5. Major General Israel Putnam to George Washington, Headquarters, Highlands, New York, January 13, 1778, in Washington, Papers, 13:229.

6. Edward C. Boynton, The History of West Point (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1864), 61.

7. Washington, Papers, 14:219.

8. George Washington to Major General Alexander McDougall, in Washington, Papers, 14:236.

9. George Washington to Major General Alexander McDougall, in Washington, Papers, 14:412.

10. On November 17, 1777, Congress raised “Monsr. de la Radiere to the rank of Colonel . . . in the army of the United States . . . to be employed as heretofore in the capacity of engineer” (US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 9:932).

11. Washington, Papers, 14:497.

12. Washington, Papers, 14:587–88.

13. Washington, Papers, 15:590–93.

14. Edmund Cody Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (P. Smith, 1963), 3:462; US Continental Congress et al., Journals, 10:476. August 18, 1778.

15. Washington, Papers, 16:452–54.

16. Washington, Papers, 16:386, 16:468. Translation in Alexander Hamilton’s writing.

17. Washington, Papers, 16:536, 16:594–98. Endorsed “M. Duportail on the North in the Highlands. 13th September 1778.” The contemporary translation in the handwriting of John Laurens is preserved in the Washington Papers at the Library of Congress under the date of August 13. The month is taken from the docket on the translation. The French text is dated “13 aout [August].” This is definitely a mistake, as Washington’s order was not issued until August 27, and John Laurens was in Rhode Island on August 13, until early September. Duportail’s report was delivered to Washington before September 9.

18. George Washington to Brigadier General Duportail, Fort Clinton, West Point, September 19, 1778. Washington, Papers, 17:46.

19. Washington, Papers, 17:46.

20. Washington, Papers, 18:168. The foregoing letter offers strong proof of Washington’s appreciation of the services of the French engineers and his desire that they might be retained in the service of the United States. The president of Congress and a majority of its members were friendly to France and to the alliance and would have wished that every courtesy be shown these French officers. There was a powerful minority, however, that dreaded French influence and that sought always to delay measures and to frustrate every motion that would tend to emphasize the importance of the alliance [Paul K. Walker, Engineers of Independence: A Documentary History of the Army Engineers in the American Revolution, 1775–1783 (Washington, DC: Historical Division, Office of Administrative Services, Office of the Chief of Engineers, 1981), 216–19].

Three letters of Duportail to the Comte d’Estaing have the dates of October 24, 1778; October 29, 1778; and October 30, 1778. These are in the Archives de la Marine; photocopies in the Library of Congress.

21. Washington, Papers, 17:181–84.

22. Washington, Papers, 17:476–77, 17:504.

23. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 136.

24. Jared Sparks, The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations (Boston: American Stationers’ Company, John B. Russell, 1834), 6:97–98.

25. Washington, Papers, 17:653.

26. Burnett, Letters, 1779. James Lovell wrote to Horatio Gates on March 1, 1779, “As to Du Portail’s Plan for the Continent at large the whole Treasury of Spain is essential to it.”

CHAPTER 4

1. US Continental Congress et al., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1904). January 15, 1779. The one enclosing a January 27 letter to him from General Duportail “on the subject of fortifying Boston” is in neither the Papers of the Continental Congress nor Fitzpatrick’s edition of his writings, but a file copy of it is in the Washington Papers at the Library of Congress.

2. Francis Wharton, ed., Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1889), 3:5.

3. George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, ed. Philander D. Chase, Revolutionary War Series (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1985), 19:83–85.

4. Washington, Papers, 19:145–46, 19:155.

5. Board of War to President Reed, War Office, February 22, 1779, Pennsylvania Archives, lst ser., 7:201.

6. Elizabeth S. Kite, Brigadier-General Louis Lebègue Duportail, Commandant of Engineers in the Continental Army, 1777–1783 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1933), 137–38.

7. Washington, Papers, 19:655–56, 19:753.

8. Washington, Papers, 19:645–46.

9. George Washington, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799: Prepared under the Direction of the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission and Published by Authority of Congress, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1931), 14:399.

10. Washington, Papers, 19:754.

11. Washington, Writings, 15:255.

12. Washington, Writings, 15:446.

13. Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, ed. Richard K. Showman, Margaret Cobb, Robert E. McCarthy, Joyce Boulind, Noel P. Conlon, and Nathaniel N. Shipton (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, for the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1976), 4:262–63.

14. Kite, Brigadier-General Duportail, 140–43; Paul K. Walker, Engineers of Independence: A Documentary History of the Army Engineers in the American Revolution, 1775–1783 (Washington, DC: Historical Division, Office of Administrative Services, Office of the Chief of Engineers, 1981), 226–28.

15. Washington, Writings, 16:93.

16. Washington, Writings, 16:93, 16:111, 16:139.

17. Manuscript Department, US Military Academy Library, translated by Lt. Col. Donald Dunne; Walker, Engineers of Independence, 229–32. Evidently, there was a map that accompanied this report, but it has not been located.

This draft, written in French and destined for Minister of War Conrad Alexandre Gérard is a major witness to Duportail’s talents as a fortification engineer. In addition to depicting his expertise in this area and his technical skills, he knows how to perfectly analyze tactical possibilities of the terrain and possesses knowledge of the forces involved in the maneuvers that each party could engage.

18. Washington, Writings, 16:356.

19. The full report is in the Washington Papers under the date of September