Washington's Engineer

by Norman Desmarais

  JOINT CAMPAIGN

  The real campaign of the year, however, had been arranged in May with the French minister plenipotentiary Gérard, who visited Washington’s headquarters at Middlebrook. They planned a combined action of the American army and the French fleet under Admiral d’Estaing, preferably against New York. Washington had requested that the French fleet

  proceed with all despatch directly from Martinique to New York, so as to arrive there before the return to the harbor of Admiral Byron’s squadron, which had wintered in the Caribbean. Washington considered it essential to any extensive combined operations, that France maintain a clear superiority over the British naval force in America. If this plan should not meet with favorable consideration he suggested that d’Estaing sail for the South Atlantic coast and give aid to General Lincoln in driving the enemy from the province of Georgia, which had been invaded by the British the preceding November.24

  The season was nearly over to accomplish much of anything for that year. Meanwhile, illness forced Mr. Gérard to leave his post. He was replaced by the Chevalier de la Luzerne, who had visited Washington at camp in the Highlands in September. He landed in New England and made a detour on his way to Philadelphia. As the new minister knew nothing more than Washington about the location of the French fleet, they reviewed the plans agreed upon with Gérard but could make no definite arrangements.25 Luzerne continued on his route to Philadelphia, and Washington continued to strengthen the defenses of the Hudson.

  A messenger from Congress arrived at 12:30 p.m. on October 3 with news of the French alliance. One dispatch contained two letters Congress received from the French minister, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, sent from Charleston, South Carolina, with the dates of September 5 and 8, that told of the arrival of the Comte d’Estaing’s fleet off the shores of Georgia. Another dispatch was a resolution from Congress “authorizing and directing” Washington “to concert and execute such plans of cooperation with the Minister of France or the Count as he may think proper.” The resolution said,

  Whereas, Congress have received authentick information of the arrival of Count D’Estaing with a powerful fleet within these United States; and whereas by the vigorous exertions of the said states, the allied forces may be able to strike an important blow against the enemy,

  Resolved that it be most earnestly recommended to the several states to furnish General Washington with such aid as he may require of them respectively, as well as detachments from their militia as by providing that the allied armaments in the United States be speedily and effectively furnished with ample provisions; and that the most vigorous exertions be made for that purpose.26

  The commander in chief immediately sent his aides to notify the several states and the commanders of troops concerned. Massachusetts was asked to send 2,000 militiamen at once; New York, 2,500; and Pennsylvania, to provide transportation and all kinds of supplies, so her militia quota was only 1,500. General Sullivan was ordered to return from his Indian expedition in a hurry, and General Gates was to hold the continental troops under his command in readiness to direct them against New York if the cooperation with d’Estaing could be effected.

  General Washington sent a letter to Admiral d’Estaing describing the situation. He gave it to Major Lee, who was sent to wait for the arrival of the French fleet at Sandy Hook. He gave a second letter to General Duportail and sent him to Philadelphia with Colonel Alexander Hamilton to confer with the French minister regarding further plans. He was given orders to select some spot on the coast to the southward where the fleet could be seen as it approached. When all this was accomplished and before retiring the night of October 4, thirty-six hours after receiving the resolution of Congress, General Washington wrote a report of what he had done and sent it to the president of Congress by special messenger: “New York is the first and capital object upon which every other is to depend.”27

  It was decided that Duportail and Hamilton should wait for the French fleet at the Delaware capes. They chose Lewes, near Cape Henlopen, as their stopping place. The letter they carried to the count was merely a note of introduction, leaving it to them to explain the situation of the American army and the intentions of its chief. The letter said in part,

  Head Quarters, West Point, 7 October 1779

  I have appointed Brigadier General Duportail and Colonel Hamilton to wait upon your Excellency . . . and explain to you fully my ideas of the proposed cooperation. . . . I have instructed them to disclose to you every circumstance and every consideration with which it is necessary you should be acquainted. . . . [Y]ou may repose the most implicit confidence Duportail and Colonel Hamilton, and accordingly I recommend them to your kind civilities and attention.28

  General Washington’s first letter to his officers instructed them as follows:

  I have been favored with Col. Hamilton’s letter, mentioning your arrival early on the 11th at Philad .a and your being about to set off for Lewistown the morning on which it was written.

  I have attentively considered the object to which you particularly refer, and am now to authorize you, (provided the Count will not determine on a co-operation to the full extent of my instructions), to engage the whole force described in my letters to him, comprehending the continental troops and militia, in such an enterprise against the enemy’s shipping as the Count and you may agree to undertake—In a word I will aid him in any plan of operations against the enemy at New York or Rhode Island in the most effective manner that our strength and resources will admit. He has nothing more to do therefore than to propose his own plan if time will not permit him to accede to ours, weighing thoroughly the consequences of expence and disappointment.

  Enclosed is some intelligence received from Elizabethtown since your departure. You will observe the preparations of the enemy for throwing every possible obstruction in the Count’s passage.

  A chain of alarm ships are stationed in the sound to communicate the first approaches of the Count’s fleet to the garrison at Rhode Island. they can propagate in a few minutes by signal guns.—In a letter from Gen. Gates of the 13th inst. he advises me of the arrival of the fleet which some time ago sailed from New York. It amounts, to 56 sail, and appeared to be only in a set of ballast. This was confirmed by one of the vessels which fell into our hands for a few hours. The opinion is that it is designed to take off the garrison.

  Genl. Gates makes the marine force at New Port, one fifty and a thirty-two gun frigate. The refugee fleet and wood fleet about thirty-seven sail mostly armed, at the head of which is the Restoration, late the Oliver Cromwell of 22 guns. One frigate is also taken notice of in the fleet from New York.

  Should the operations against New York in either case be undertaken, it will be of the utmost consequence to block up the garrison at Rhode Island. You will consider the propriety of suggesting to the Count the detatching of a superior sea force for this purpose previous to his approaching the Hook. For should the measures be deferred till his arrival there, it may not then be possible to prevent their junction with the army at New York as the notice can be so very suddenly transmitted by means of the signals which they have established.

  Every proper attention has been given to preparing the necessary number of fascines, and such other materials as may be required in this quarter.

  Fascines Gabions etc. are also held in readiness at Providence in case of an operation against New-port. I had thought of the fire ships and have taken order in this matter. I do not however choose to go to the great expence they must run us into until something is decided with his Excellency Count d’Estaing, but every thing relative shall be provided, so as to occasion no delay when such matters become necessary.29

  STONY POINT AND VERPLANCK POINT

  General Washington announced to General Duportail and Colonel Alexander Hamilton on October 21 that the British evacuated Newport. Before sending the letter, he also received news that the Crown forces had withdrawn from Stony Point and Verplanck Point, leaving the passage of the Hudson free at
King’s Ferry. He immediately sent General Gates to take possession of Newport and sent Colonel Gouvion to “throw up some small works at Stony Point to protect communication” there.

  He wrote the following letter on October 21 to Duportail and Hamilton on the coast:

  In my letters of the 10th and 18th I transmitted all the intelligence I had obtained respecting the Enemy from the time of your departure . . . and by the present conveyance I enclose you an extract of a letter from Major General Gates of the 15th. By this you will perceive he was fully persuaded that the Enemy were preparing to evacuate Rhode Island . . . there is no room to doubt they have all things in a condition to do it on the shortest notice whenever they shall think the exigency of their affairs shall require it. It is also equally certain that they continue to carry on their Fortifications for the defence of New York with the utmost industry and perseverance and appear to be providing for the most obstinate resistance. Indeed, as their reduction would be attended with the most alarming and fatal consequences to their nation nothing else can be reasonably expected. . . .

  The Garrisons of Verplank’s & Stony points still remain . . . but . . . all matters are putting in train for an evacuation in case events make it necessary. . . .

  I am led from the vast magnitude of the object which carried you from Head-Quarters and the very interesting consequences it may involve, all of which I am persuaded will occur to your consideration, to remark that the Count’s entering New York Bay with his fleet must be the basis and ground work of any cooperation that can be undertaken by us, either for the reduction of the Enemy’s whole force or for the destruction of their shipping only. Every thing will absolutely depend upon it in either case; as without it and a free and open communication up and down the Rivers and in the Sound, which cannot be effected or maintained in any other way, we could not possibly undertake any operations on Long Island, as our supplies of provisions and stores could only be obtained by water. This point I am certain would have your due consideration, but it appearing to me the Hinge, the One thing upon which all Others must rest, I could not forbear mentioning it. . . . I have only to add, from a desire of preventing a misconception by either side, if any Cooperation is agreed on, that the terms and conditions may be explicitly understood. And whether it shall extend to an attempt to reduce the Enemy’s whole force or only to the destruction of their Shipping, your engagements will provide in it for the continuance of the Count’s fleet to secure our retreat & the removal of our stores from Long Island & York Island, if unhappily it should be found on experiment, that neither is practical and we should be obliged to abandon the Enterprise.

  I am. etc.

  P.S. ¼ after 3 P.M. Three Deserters have just come in who left Ver-plank’s point last night. They all corroborate the accounts, by a detail of circumstances, of the preparations to evacuate both that and Stony point. I have no doubt that things will at least be held in readiness.

  After dispatching the above, I received a letter from Major General Heath of the following is a copy; “I now have the pleasure to acquaint your Excellency that the Enemy have both points, having burnt and destroyed their Works.”30

  Before receiving this letter from General Washington, both observers on the coast had become uneasy. They had transferred their base from Lewes on the Delaware side of the bay to Little Egg Harbor, “forty-four miles from the extremity of Cape May, a hundred and ten from Sandy Hook and about fifty from Philadelphia.”31 Hamilton wrote to General Washington,

  We have stationed expresses at the pitch of the Cape and have established regular communication with Major Lee [at Sandy Hook] and with the city. If the fleet should appear off the Delaware, we can be there in twelve hours after its first appearance; and if at the Hook, in less than four days. . . . By recent information from Philadelphia . . . we find that so late as the 4th of this month, the Count, as yet, was to open his batteries against the enemy at Savannah. The time that will probably intervene between this and the probable reduction, the reembarkation of the Count’s troops, the dispositions for sailing, and his arrival on this coast, may, we fear, exhaust the season too much to permit the cooperation to which our mission relates.

  We do not, however, despair, for if the Count has been fully successful to the southward, and should shortly arrive . . . the enterprise may possibly go on.32

  As November arrived with no sign of d’Estaing or his fleet, General Duportail and Colonel Hamilton felt that the expense attendant upon their further stay and the slight probability of accomplishing anything that fall did not warrant maintaining their observation post much longer. They wrote to Washington, asking for further instructions. The commander in chief replied on November 11,

  Being absent from head-quarters on a visit to several outposts of the army, when your favor of the 2nd instant arrived, and not returning till last night, it was not in my power to answer it before.

  I am precisely in the predicament you are, with respect to the Count, his intentions and ultimate operations. I have not heard a single syllable about either since your departure, except what was transmitted in my letter of the 30th ultimo,33 a similar account to which you will have seen in the public prints. From this circumstance and the lateness of the season, I do not expect that he will arrive in this quarter, or if he should, that the Enterprise which he proposed could now be prosecuted. It is too late to begin it. However, as I received my advices from Congress, of the Count’s intentions to cooperate, and considered myself as bound by their direction to prepare for it, I have not thought myself at liberty to desist from my preparations, or to fix upon a day for them to cease. I have written to them today upon the subject, stating the uncertainty I am under with respect to His Excellency’s coming, the great expense which must necessarily attend the continuing of our measures for a cooperation, and the difficulties supposing it undertaken, from the advanced season; and I requested their earliest decision as to the part I am to pursue. . . .

  When you have received the determination of Congress, if it be against a cooperation, it will be necessary for you to recall the pilots, except such a number as may be thought material for general purposes in case of the Count’s arrival, for the security of his Fleet and such as were employed here or immediately in consequence of My Letters, you will desire to send in their Accounts.34

  Washington heard of the disaster at Savannah between November 11 and 16 when he wrote to Major General Gates from headquarters at West Point, in part as follows:

  Much more time having been spent in the seige of Savannah . . . than was at first expected, and there being no certainty of reducing them in a short time by regular approaches, it was agreed to attempt the place by storm on the 9th ultimo; the attack was accordingly made by the allied troops, who were repulsed; in consequence the seige was raised, the cannon and stores having all been previously brought off.35

  Reconstructed Spring Hill redoubt. This area was the focal point of the fighting during the Battle of Savannah. Photo courtesy of the author.

  The Count has been obliged, I imagine, from his engagements in another quarter, . . . to leave the coast of Georgia. It remains now to put the army in such a chain of winter cantonments as will give security to these posts, and with the remainder to take a position, which will afford forage and subsistence, and will at the same time preserve us from the insults of the collected force of the enemy.36

  Washington wrote General Schuyler from West Point on November 24 that Duportail had returned to camp; Alexander Hamilton, however, was detained by a slight indisposition. Headquarters were moved to Morristown, New Jersey, early in December. Here, Washington wrote to General Lincoln, who had been in command at Savannah,

  I had the pleasure of receiving yours of the 22d of October, by Colonel Laurens, to whose information I am indebted for a very particular account of the situation of affairs to the southward. . . . While I regret the misfortune [of Savannah] I feel a very sensible pleasure in contemplating the gallant behavior of the officers and men of the
French and American army; and it adds not a little to my consolation to learn, that instead of the mutual reproaches which too often follow the failure of enterprises depending upon the cooperation of troops of different nations, their confidence in and esteem for each other are increased. I am happy in believing, that the delicacy and propriety of your conduct upon every occasion have contributed much to this agreeable circumstance.37

  Despite the loss at Savannah, the allies began to cooperate. Washington might have feared at first that the evacuation of Newport was intended as a trap and that the British would return when least expected. The passage across the Hudson at King’s Ferry also remained open, permitting the allied armies to cross safely on their way to Philadelphia and Yorktown in 1781. D’Estaing’s fleet and his attack on Savannah prepared the way for the subsequent allied successes at Yorktown two years later.

  COLONEL RADIÈRE’S DEATH

  Colonel Radière died suddenly of some illness at West Point on October 30. Washington briefly announced it from West Point to the watchers on the coast in a note dated November 1, 1779, where he says, “I am sorry to inform you of the death of Col. de la Radiere, who died on Saturday. He is to be buried this day with the honors due his rank.”38

  To all appearances, Colonel Radière was with General Duportail in the Highlands during part of the summer of 1779 and probably was left in command of the engineering work during the latter’s absence in the search for d’Estaing. Colonel Laumoy was at Charleston in the South, so the only member of the Royal Corps nearby was Lieutenant Colonel Gouvion. This officer’s letter to General Duportail announcing the death of their companion is not among the documents, but there is one written by Gouvion to Marbois, secretary to the French minister, which mentions his death and certain facts that throw an interesting light on the evacuation of the advanced posts on the Hudson by the British: