George Washington to Brigadier General Duportail, 28 May 1781
To Brigadier General Duportail
Head Quarters New Windsor May 28th 1781
Dear Sir
As you are perfectly acquainted with the plan which has been concerted with His Excellency the Count De Rochambeau at Weathersfield: I need not enter into a detail of particulars.1 I have only to request therefore that you will be pleased to make the Estimates of the Articles in Your Department necessary for the operation; and that the previous Arrangements for the seige, as far as they are within the limits of our ability, may be put in the best train which the circumstances will possibly admit.2
In the mean time; as it has become necessary, from the decay of the Works, the demolition of the Barracks & other circumstances, to abandon the Post of Fort Schuyler, and erect new Fortifications at or near Fort Harkimar. I have to request that you will send an Engineer to superintend the Works in that Department.3 I am Dear Sir.
Df, in David Humphreys’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Duportail attended the allied gathering (see The Wethersfield Conference and Aftermath, 14 May–16 June, editorial note).
2. Duportail arranged to provide artillery firing platforms, planks, and sandbags for the proposed siege on New York (see Henry Knox to GW, 8 June, and Document VII with The Wethersfield Conference and Aftermath, 14 May–16 June, editorial note).
3. Major Villefranche was the engineer sent to oversee the fortifications at Fort Herkimer, N.Y. (see also GW to James Clinton, this date, and Clinton to GW, 15–18 June). For the abandonment of Fort Schuyler, N.Y., see Clinton to GW, 16 and 22–23 May.