Washington's Engineer
Page 26
Duportail knew his adopted country better than most Americans. He rode the whole range of it on horseback from post to post during his five years in the Continental Army. He chose to establish himself around Valley Forge. Despite the miseries of that dreadful winter of 1777–1778, the natural advantages of that part of the country, its climate, and the general beauty of its wooded hills greatly impressed him. He was particularly enchanted with the streams that flowed down from the hills, the crystal-clear “great springs of water,” and the majesty of the winding Schuylkill.
The region around Valley Forge was originally included in Letitia Penn Manor. The property had been divided into farms, mostly owned by members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), to which William Penn belonged, so practically all of the region was cultivated by 1778. Early in the eighteenth century, a strip of land on the right bank of the Schuylkill, known as “Swede’s Ford Tract,” extended a mile along the river. It extended two miles inland and had been purchased and settled by Swedes from the region of the Delaware.1
Definite boundaries were drawn up in 1784, and new counties made. The Swede’s Ford Tract became part of Montgomery County and in the township of Upper Merion. The waters of the Schuylkill were still crystal clear and teeming with fish. The shad-fishing industry, carried on by the Swedes who settled there, thrived. All this appealed greatly to Duportail, who wished to leave behind him as far as possible the bitter memories of the last few years. He wished to possess some part of the Swede’s Ford Tract and was particularly attracted to that part that followed the Swede’s Ford Road. The Continental Army had marched along that highway fifteen years earlier on its way from the Whitemarsh encampment to that of the Gulph, the last resting place before taking up winter quarters at Valley Forge.
Duportail knew that road well, as he constructed a bridge of wagons floored with rails from nearby fences so the army could cross the Schuylkill at Swede’s Ford. It was there that he watched the Continental Army cross on their march to winter quarters at Valley Forge. The location brought back many memories and held a particular significance for him.
PURCHASE OF A FARM
Duportail was not the only émigré who sought shelter from the French Revolution in the farmlands of the United States. Louis Marie and Guy de Noailles both bought farms in Montgomery County. Many other French names occur in the records, including that of James Philip Delacour, who in 1792 bought a large segment of Swede’s Ford Tract. It was to him that Duportail expressed his desire to settle in that locality. Delacour sold his entire plantation of 189¼ acres “to Louis Lebegue Duportail” for the sum of “2,368 pounds and 15 shillings lawful money of Pennsylvania” on June 8, 1795.2
The recorded deed (in the Montgomery County Courthouse, Norristown, Pennsylvania) gives a lengthy description of the land and an accurate description of its boundaries. It states that the land runs for a considerable distance along the Swede’s Ford Road, but there is no mention of its touching the river. Duportail bought a “piece of land, situate on the south east side of the road leading to Norristown ford on Schuylkill included between and bounded by said road the said river and the plantation of the said Louis Lebegue Duportail, containing by computation three acres more or less” from John and Margaret Eastburn for the sum of fifty-five pounds lawful money of Pennsylvania on September 25, 1795.3 The river frontage thus acquired measured a little more than a quarter-mile in length, and the farm is henceforth listed as composed of 194 acres. It is important to note that while the first deed had no land directly on the river, Duportail was careful to secure the right “to half part of the shad fisheries opposite Swede’s Ford Tract,” as well as “free egress, ingress, and regress . . . for carrying out seins and putting fish on shore.”4
The former major general (Maréchal de Camp) and French minister of 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 behalf of Mr Du Portail’s family and heirs this report by which we certify that at the moment the said Mr Du Portail was found dead in his bed yesterday about 7 o’clock in the morning, the said Capt. Hand took the keys of the bag and trunks of the deceased which trunks and bags remained untouched and today at the above stated time the said Capt. opened the bag in our presence in which was found: clothing, two portfolios containing letters, a certificate of the debt of the United States toward the deceased, two certificates of English public funds, two New York banknotes, one for $20, the other for $5, 96 gold louis, some dollars and small change, a gold watch, a pair of garters with silver buckles, a parasol, three trunks two of which are in the hold.8
Duportail was fifty-eight years old. He undoubtedly never recovered from the illness that weakened him so much at the beginning of his ministry.
The ship captain was detained in England, along with his ship, and could not register the death himself, so he requested the four witnesses, including a notary, an invalid war officer, a merchant, and a Guadalupian without a profession, to do so. They appeared before the mayor of Le Havre on September 8, 1801.
For some unknown reason, Duportail was given an added surname of Joseph. This seemingly insignificant error most directly registered at this date would oblige his sole heir, his sister who was now remarried to an engineer, to request a correction before a civil tribunal on February 27, 1815, in order to claim the American inheritance.
THE ESTATE
After news of Duportail’s death reached America, the court appointed Isaac Huddleston as administrator of the estate on February 3, 1803. His account of revenues and expenditures dated January 1804 mentions under “Disbursements” the sum of “117 pounds 17 shillings and 6 pence” given to several persons in the lifetime of Louis L. Duportail, agreeable to his instructions when he left America, in finishing a new House and Barn and digging a well, which were left unfinished by him—and other improvements on his farm, & harvesting and threshing his grain etc.9
Huddleston charged £37.10 for managing the estate, which, with commissions, fees, and so on, brought disbursements up to £227.17.9. This sum was paid by the sale of the accumulated hay, oats, and rye and by collecting numerous lesser and greater debts scattered among surrounding farmers. There appear to have been no outstanding obligations against the estate.
The list of books taken from the inventory of Duportail’s estate included
Smith’s Wealth of Nations
Our Own Gardiner
Roads and Dictionary
Rural Economy
Hints to Gentlemen of Property
Leslie’s Husbandry
Inquiries on Plaster of Paris
The Famous Kalendar
Practical Farmer
Vindication of Randolph
Speech of Ames in ye House of Rs.
Sketch on Rotation of Crops
Progress and State of the Canal Navigation in Penna.
Description of certain lands in Massachusetts
Disquisition concerning Ancient India
On Fattening of Cattle
Douglas (a tragedy)
His French books included
Dictionnaire du jardinage
Theorie du jardinage
Boyle’s Dictionary in French and English
Les éléments de la langue anglaise
Nouvelle grammaire allemande
Dictionnaire de Bromare—fifteen volumes
Guide du Voyageur en Suisse
Constitution of the French Republic
Testament politique
Map of Connecticut
A French Map
Map of Pennsylvania10
These books were all so worn from constant use that the appraiser found it difficult to set a value on them. The lot was finally sold for ten dollars. Duportail must have spent much of his free time poring over these books, especially whatever pertained to the cultivation of his farm. At the time of his death, his barns were full of hay, rye (threshed and unthreshed), oats, old rye straw, and more. He always kept horses, usually six, but the number and value varied during the five years the tax lists contained his name. He usually had at least four cows, but the number sometimes dropped to two, then rose to six. This shows that he was not averse to a “trade” when the right opportunity arose. His farm and dwelling were assessed at $1,746 in 1796, but the assessment rose to $1,996 in 1799, undoubtedly owing to the improvements made during that time.
The sheriff of Montgomery County sold the rest of Duportail’s real estate at auction in 1805. The property and a few articles netted £63.22.47. Elisha Evans, who kept the Rising Sun Inn at the Norristown end of Schuylkill Ford, purchased the property and laid out the tract in town lots. He called the place Evansville, which was later changed to Bridgeport. The proceeds were sent to Duportail’s elder brother, “A. G. Le Begue de Presle,” the doctor in the Duportail family who died in 1807. It does not seem that he ever received the inheritance.
ESTATE SETTLEMENT
Duportail’s attorney, Peter S. Duponceau, came to America with Beaumarchais in Beaumarchais’s ship, the Flamand, as a young man of seventeen and arrived at Valley Forge in February 1778. He eventually became an American citizen. Beaumarchais introduced him to Baron von Steuben as interpreter, as the boy was a fluent linguist. Von Steuben and Duponceau were lodged at Cressbrook farm, two miles from Washington’s headquarters; Duportail also lived there during his stay at Valley Forge. Duponceau married an American and settled in Philadelphia, where he became a successful lawyer.
Duponceau signed the report of Duportail’s estate and distributed the property among his heirs. He also settled an outstanding account of Robert Porter, “administrator de bonis non,” for “sundry sums received at various times,” amounting to $3,191.91 and dated September 28, 1811.11 After deducting fees, commissions, and other state charges, including “postage on two letters to A. G. Le Begue de Presle,” Duponceau appropriated what remained of the earlier sum ($2,949.15¼) as his own lawyer’s fee.
The list of heirs would only be definitively established on April 14, 1840, and included his sister, still living; a niece; and two great nieces. John C. Calhoun presented a petition to the US Senate on behalf of the heirs of Major General Duportail, Brigadier General Armand, and Major de La Colombe, requesting warrants for their bounty lands on January 7, 1841.12
The Committee on Public Lands met on January 19 and filed a report (no. 96), accompanied by a bill that was read and passed to a second reading. The bill directed the issuing of warrants “for the bounty land due on account of the services of Major General Duportail, Brigadier General Armand, and Major De la Colombe.”13
The Committee on Private Land Claims requested on February 12, 1841, that the matter be re
ferred to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. The Committee on Revolutionary Claims read the bill (no. 55) twice on December 29, 1841, and decided to address it as a Committee of the Whole House the following day.14 The same day, the House of Representatives, Twenty-Seventh Congress, second session, considered the bill (H.R. 55) to issue the bounty land due on account of the services of Major General Duportail, Brigadier General Armand, and Major de La Colombe. The matter apparently was still not settled by January 28, 1842, when the Senate Committee on Public Lands considered it again (S. 150 and S. 213).15
At the time of his unusual death, Duportail disappeared completely from human memory, in the greatest anonymity, in the greatest indifference, without earthly burial, without military honors, without a dedicated monument to his glory in service to France and the United States, and without intervention of his brothers in arms to honor and recall his memory. The media of the time forgot him completely. Only the US Army Corps of Engineers continues to remember him each year on May 11 as the man who created and commanded the prestigious corps and played such an important and decisive role for the liberty of the American people and the birth of the United States of America.
APPENDIX A: CARGOES OF TWO OF BEAUMARCHAIS’S SHIPS SENT TO AMERICA
AMPHITRITE
Sailed from Le Havre for Dominica (Haiti) on December 14, 1776
52 bronze guns (four- and six-pounders), their carriages and fore-carriages, etc.