61To George Washington from Brigadier General Duportail, 20 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
In all great Enterprises, the first thing to be done, is to form a general Plan of Conduct, to which all the particular operations are to have reference, this general plan is as it were the touch Stone by which all the subordinate projects are proved—according as they agree or disagree with it, they are good or ill, deserve to be approved or rejected: now in this great Enterprise of supporting...
62To George Washington from Brigadier General Duportail, 27 January 1779 (Washington Papers)
Remembrance of the Uneasiness which we felt on the subject of Boston, in the month of October—engages me to represent to Your Excellency that we may have our anxiety revived next Campaign, unless we take seasonable precautions—Your Excellency sent me to that City in order to form a plan of the necessary fortifications—I had the honor of delivering you the Plan —but from what I have learnt, the...
63To George Washington from Brigadier General Duportail, 17 May 1780 (Washington Papers)
You will have probably heard of the Surrender of Charlestown by the time you will receive this Letter. I arrived there the 25th of april at Seven in the morning, after having past during the night in the middle of the Ennemies, through the Woods, with the assistance of good Guides. I found the Town in a desperate State, allmost intirely invested by the British Army & Fleet, which had passed...
64To George Washington from Brigadier General Duportail, 18 January 1778 (Washington Papers)
If Fortification is necessary in any Armies, it is peculiarly so in those, which like ours, from a deficiency in the practice of manoeuvres cannot oppose any to those of the Enemy—being necessitated therefore to receive him on their own ground, they ought always to be protected either by a natural or artificial Fortification, if it were only to have (under favor of the resistance of this...