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55.

55.

and immediately we recognized some English outposts who withdrew upon our arrival, abandoning their posts[158]. We moved forward to within a half hour of the city. The next day, we moved our camp to the other side of a small forest and we stayed there, in the same place, during the whole siege[159].

worauf sich gleich einige Vorposten von den englischen sehen ließen und in unsrem Ankommen auch zurück ge-zogen und ihre Posten verlassen. Wir rückten gleich biß auf eine halbe Stund nahe an die Stadt an. Den andern Tag veränderten wir unser Lager auf die andre Seite in einen kleinen Wald alda blieben wir stehen die gantze Belagerung über auf dem nemlichen Platz.

Shortly afterward the whole army was ordered to fashion fascines and gabions: the regiment immediately received the order that each soldier was to fashion 24 fascines and 3 gabions per day, which was to be done on an empty stomach. Because bread and other foodstuffs could not be transported, the English having barricaded the route[160]. But during this task, the soldiers were always in good humor. The satisfaction of the troops was, for that matter, a subject of surprise for the general staff, as in the past, near the Nord-Fluß[161] there had already been a lack of bread and other foodstuffs, and yet there was no lack of contentment and good humor in the troop, even though during that time there were only 5 ounces or 10 half-ounces of bread per man per day, given that the English had taken it several times, and what’s more they had barricaded the route[162].

Bald darauf wurde befohlen daß die gantze Armée mußte Faschienen und Schantzkörbe machen : Die Regimenter be-kamen auch sogleich Befehl, daß jeder Soldat des Tages muß 24 Faschienen und 3 Schantzkörbe machen : welches hernach auch mit hungrigem Bauch mußte verrichtet werden. Dann das Brod und dergleichen konte nicht bey-gebracht werden weil die Engländer den Paßage versperret hatten : Doch aber waren die Soldaten allezeit gutes Muths wärend dieser Arbeit ; worüber unsre Generalitet sich auch sehr verwunderte wegen der Zufriedenheit der Truppen weil schon vorher beym Nord-Fluß das Brod und die übrigen Lebensmittel gefehlt haben und doch die Zufriedenheit und Vergnügung bey seinen Truppen ware indem eine zeitlang der Mann nur 5 once, oder 10 Loth Brod des Tages bekommen weil es die Engländer einigemal genommen hatten und dazu auch den Passage versperrt.

Incidentally, Count de Rochambeau told to His Majesty

Diese Verwundrung von Herrn Graffen von Rochambo wegen der Zufrieden der Soldaten

https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/btv1b10110846m/f40/pct:50,0,100,100/,700/0/native.jpg

Strasbourg, Médiathèque André Malraux, ms f 15, p. 79.

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 Notes

158. The British troops evacuated their line of exterior defense, which was incomplete when the allied forces arrived. It was made up of two redoubts called Pigeon’s 􀁞arter or Pigeon Hill. These two redoubts were actually too far away from the second line of defense to be effectively defended. Cornwallis was later reproached for this retreat.
159. Military camps were rarely set up too close to forests. It was better for the troops to station in open terrain, so as to be able to see the enemy from a distance. Moreover, the proximity of woods encouraged desertion. Nevertheless, during a siege, forests could hide camps and protect them from the shooting.
160. Clermont de Crèvecoeur, Artillery Lieutenant, referred to this incident in his diary on September 27: “We learned that the English had captured from us several small vessels loaded with flour that were carrying about 2,500 rations for the Army.”The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, volume I, translated and edited by Howard C. Rice and Anne S. K. Brown, jointly published by Princeton University Press and Brown University Press, Princeton, Providence, 1972, p. 56.
161. The Hudson River.
162. Army food supplies took on an excessively strong strategic importance. Indeed, the logistics development was such that it was always difficult to feed an army in the field, and the examples of troops that had to withdraw for lack of food are numerous. Conducting a good military campaign therefore often meant knowing how to manage resources. In this context, the food supply convoys represented privileged targets, both because their capture weakened the enemy and strengthened the assailant’s own troops. This war of harassment, which was led for a long time, had been theorized in the second half of the eighteenth century under the name of “little war”.