René-Etienne Henry Vic Gaiault (or Gayault) de
Boisbertrand: Memorandum for the American
Commissioners
ADS: Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères, Harvard University
Library; copies: University of Virginia Library, National Archives
<September 5, 1778, in the third person, in French: At the
beginning of May, 1776, Dubourg and Penet asked him to join
the U.S. army; he was then a lieutenant colonel in the French
cavalry. He would carry dispatches about the ministry’s attitude
toward the Americans, Dubourg told him, and be welcomed
by Congress; 300 louis would be deposited for him in
Paris. He chose two junior officers to accompany him, and
soon received a two-year leave. Then Dubourg said the
money was not available but that his passage would be repaid
in America. Filled with admiration for those who were defying
a mighty empire, he accepted.
He and his companions were put to the expense of waiting
two months at Nantes for their ship, while Penet assured them
that they would be reimbursed. During their wait, at Dubourg’s
request, he inspected and reported on some arms furnished
by Montieu and La Tuillerie; the weapons were bad, he
found, and Penet was being deceived. The deal was cancelled,
thereby saving Congress more than £12,000. The party
sailed on September 10 in the Hancock and Adams which was
captured, strangely enough, by a Rhode Island privateer; his
servant and companions were kept on board, while he was
sent a prisoner to New Bedford, where the committee released
him; he went to Boston, and the authorities paid his way to
Philadelphia. Near Morristown he fell in with Gen. Lee’s army,
which was in a major crisis, and joined it in hope of being
useful; his dispatches he delivered to M. Couleaux, an associate
of Penet, to take to Congress. Three days later Boisbertrand
was captured with Lee and, wounded as he was, consigned
to a frightful prison in New York. Not allowed to send
for his servant or baggage, he slept on the floor for two
months without blankets or change of clothing, and was fed
on short rations of mouldy biscuit and salt pork.
The captain of the privateer put Boisbertrand’s companions
on an Irish prize, to be released ashore. But she was retaken;
they were confined for a month in a dark cell on Rhode Island,
then dispatched to his prison in New York. The party, thus
reunited, was sent to England on February 14, 1777, and eventually
committed to Forton, whence he escaped on July 23,
1778; the others are still there. It would take a volume to detail
their sufferings.
Boisbertrand, back in France, is unemployed; the length of
his imprisonment was unknown when his leave ran out and
his place was filled. In twenty-nine months since he was first
given the dispatches for America he has spent 10,000 livres of
his own money, and has lost an equal amount with his French
position. He is also forced to replace the costly horses and
baggage lost in America. Please take into consideration his
zeal and his deprivations. He asks for a brigadier general’s
rank in the U.S. army; Gen. Lee assured him that he would
obtain it, and he now has even more claim to it. He will leave
when ordered, and wishes to establish himself in America.>
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