They're as American as haggis and Scotch, Gouda and bloedworst, or coq au vin and champagne. Robert Erskine, Simeon DeWitt, and Louis
Duportail may not be household names, but their contributions to the American
Revolution burn as brightly as fireworks on the Fourth of July. Here are three
more engineering heroes your high school history teacher never told you about.
Editor's Note: Click here for Part 1 of this two-part series.
Robert Erskine
Robert Erskine was a Scottish-born inventor, New Jersey ironworks
owner, and skilled cartographer who prepared over 275 maps of the northern
theater of war. A graduate of the University
of Edinburgh, Erskine
invented a hydraulic engine, a steam pump, and a device called a "platometer" –
probably a planimeter, an instrument for measuring the area of an arbitrary
two-dimensional shape. His greatest accomplishments, however, came during the
American Revolution.
In 1777, General George Washington named Robert Erskine
Geographer and Surveyor General of the Continental Army. In this important
role, Erskine drew up detailed maps with buildings, roads and other details
to aid Washington's
army. While continuing to supply his fellow soldiers with critical munitions
and materials, the ironworks owner also built what could have been his greatest
creation – a spiked, tetrahedron-shaped, metal barrier to block British warships from
sailing up the Hudson.
Although this underwater cheval de frise
was never deployed, Erskine's maps have long been a part of the New York
Historical Society's collections.
Simeon DeWitt
Simeon DeWitt was a native of Wawarsing, New York
who served as an assistant to Robert Erskine before himself becoming Geographer
and Surveyor General of the Continental Army, after Erskine died of pneumonia in
October 1780. One of 14 children, DeWitt was trained as a surveyor by his uncle,
James Clinton, a future major-general in the Continental Army and husband of
Mary DeWitt, the daughter of a prominent Dutch family. A graduate of Queen's
College (Rutgers) in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Simeon DeWitt later served as Surveyor
General of New York
State.
Louis Duportail
Louis Duportail was a French military officer who served as
Chief Engineer of the Continental Army. Sent secretly to America in 1777, Duportail planned
fortifications from Boston, Massachusetts
to Charleston, South Carolina. He also directed the
building of siege works at the Battle of Yorktown, the last major battle of the
Revolutionary War and the Continental victory which prompted the British to sue
for peace.
On September 28, 1781, forces led by American General George
Washington and French General Comte de Rochambeau pinned-down a British
contingent led by General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. While the French
and American fighters blasted Yorktown with
heavy fire, Louis Duportail supervised the construction of a formidable siege
line. In less than three weeks, Duportail's engineers positioned 375 guns that
fired an average of 1.2 shells or bombs every minute, or 1,728 per day. By the
time the first siege ended, Yorktown had been
battered with some 36,288 shots.
The second siege line that Louis Duportail built at Yorktown blasted
Britain's
defensive works. On October 11, 1781, the Americans and their French allies
started a new siege line just 400 yards away from Cornwallis' encampment. Three
days later, French and American forces captured two major British positions.
Faced with a naval blockade that prevented the arrival of much-needed food and
ammunition, General Charles Cornwallis surrendered unconditionally
October 19, 1781 while British drummers played "The World Turned Upside Down".
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Erskine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_DeWitt
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/d/sdewitt.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevaux-de-Frise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Leb%C3%A8que_Duportail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yorktown_%281781%29
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