The King’s Engineer

The struggle for North America during the 18th century featured an array of gallant and industrious men from frontier woodsmen, hearty yeoman farmers, professional soldiers, wily politicians as well as the merchants, tradesmen, and farmers whose industry financed and supplied them. There is another category, one critical to the building of an empire, especially an empire carved from the wilderness – the engineer. Skilled at planning, surveying, and map-making, engineers connected people to the land. And warfare in North America was about land and shaped by the land. Geography drives history.

Montresor would spend most of his
military career in North America

Servant of Empire

James Montresor

One such engineer was John Montresor. Montresor was the son of a British officer of French Huguenot roots, James Gabriel Montresor. John was born in 1736 on the key British base at Gibraltar.  The senior Montresor was chief engineer at the time. John spent four years (1746-1750) at Westminster school in England. When he returned to Gibraltar, his father instructed him in the principles of engineering and took him to North America when he was named chief engineer for General John Braddock. 

Fighting the French and Indians

General Braddock

John Montresor was commissioned an ensign in the 48th Regiment of Foot in March 1755 and was appointed engineer in June. The Braddock campaign against Fort Duquesne is storied (see Yankee Doodle Spies Blog Post: Road of Destruction). The defeat of Braddock’s column by native warriors and French soldiers at the battle of the Monongahela and the Braddock's death had a chilling effect on the British effort. It also made a hero out of young George Washington. Young ensign Montresor saw action in that battle and was himself wounded during the massacre. 

Montresor was wounded at
the Battle of the Monongahela

Promoted to lieutenant, Montresor was sent to New York, the main theater against the French. He honed his engineering skills thereby overseeing the construction of Fort Edward. In 1757, he served Lord Loudoun (British commander in N.A.) in a failed campaign against the mighty French bastion at Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. The failure did not put a dent on his career. He would be back!

Montresor's engineering skills helped
secure the fall of Louisbourg

The following year John received his commission as practitioner-engineer and gave up his commission in the infantry. From a career perspective, he took the road least taken. Engineers were critical in modern warfare but rising above major was rare and certainly no path to general. But then, as today, engineers favor the work over advancement. That summer, he joined General Jeffery Amherst’s army in another go at Louisbourg.  As an engineer, he played a key role in the siege of the fortress. A role that was this time, successful. Montresor remained in Nova Scotia following the fall of the fort and in March 1759 performed a reconnaissance around the Bras d’Or Lakes. 

British infantry scaling cliffs to
reach the Plain of Abraham during the
Battle for Quebec

Montresor’s skills were noted, and he was soon sent to join the army forming under General Wolfe in what would turn out to be a successful but tragic (commanders on both sides mortally wounded) campaign against the capital of French North America, Quebec.

British General Wolfe died in the battle for Quebec,
his opponent General Montcalm  was also mortally wounded

Carving out a New Land

Montresor remained in North America after the Treaty of Paris ended the war in 1763. A rugged new world needed to be mapped and infrastructure of all types needs planning and construction - especially forts to protect the newly acquired empire. What better place for an engineer?  He stayed with the occupying army, serving newly appointed governor, General James Murray in a series of surveying expeditions of the newly conquered territory. Probably the most important of these was supporting Murray's mapping of the St. Lawrence River. But Montresor was also engaged in constructing forts in the new dominion. Montresor's French language skills also saw him in a pacification role, disarming local militias and ensuring the loyalty of the king’s new subjects. He also found time to explore the wilderness between Quebec and the Kennebec River (Maine). Ironically, his written record would be used by Colonel Benedict Arnold in his campaign against Canada in 1775.

John Murray commissioned a seminal
map of the Saint Lawrence River 

Pontiac's War

In 1763, Montresor was stationed in New York, but the eruption of Pontiac’s Indian rebellion saw him back in Canada.  There, General Jeffery Amherst tapped him for a dangerous covert mission: cross hundreds of miles of hostile wilderness to deliver dispatches to the commander of the besieged garrison at Detroit. His knowledge of the land made him the perfect choice to serve as chief engineer for the relief column sent to Detroit the following year.  But before heading west, Montresor took the time to construct forts along the Niagara River. 

Montresor braved hostile Indian territory
to complete his mission to beleaguered Detriot

On his return from the Detroit expedition, Montresor was shipwrecked on Lake Erie. Switching to another boat, geek-like, the engineer Montresor took the time on his way back to practice a little hydrography, exploring the depth and width of several of the lake’s tributaries along the way. 

Montresor made lemonade from lemons
using even a shipwreck to explore Lake Erie

Pause and a Promotion

The arrow of Eros struck him while in New York. Montresor married an American woman, Frances Tucker, in New York City on 1 March 1764. It must have been a good match because they wound up raising six children. 

Frances (nee Tucker) Montressor decked out
as a British officer. 

Stationed at Fort George (formerly Fort William Henry) in 1765, he saw the beginnings of the political movement that would eventually lead to insurgency and open rebellion with the rioting in Albany and New York City in protest to the Stamp Act. Montresor made a voyage to England in 1766. When he returned to America, Montresor was a captain-lieutenant and master of the Ordnance for America. As such, he spent quite some time in the mid-Atlantic region, constructing forts, primarily along waterways such as Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. One significant fort guarding Philadelphia on Mud Island would bear his name and be the venue of bloody combat a few years later. 

Montresor drew up one of the earliest
professional maps of  The Big Apple

During that inter-war period, he managed to find time to survey the boundary between New York and New Jersey and built or upgraded forts and military bases. During his time in New York, he purchased an island in New York’s East River.  It was named Montresor’s Island after him but New Yorkers know it as Randall’s Island. Montresor oversaw the development of a map of New York City during his time there.

Chief Engineer

In April 1775 he was in Boston when the outbreak of open war in North America once again changed the trajectory of his career. He was now thrust into the de facto chief engineer for the British forces in America. This resulted in a promotion to captain in January 1776. 

Captain John Montresor

For a while, he seemed to be the Forrest Gump of the British effort – seemingly everywhere and meeting everyone. He secured river crossings for the march on Lexington and Concord and helped relieve the British column skulking back to Boston after being stung by an aroused populace. His engineering skills were put to work in the defense of Boston and he was one of the last officers to leave the besieged city.

Boston

As chief engineer during the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, he would have planned the siege works to blast Washington’s beleaguered force out of Brooklyn.  Montresor witnessed the execution of Nathan Hale in New York City the following month. He allegedly gave succor to Hale, letting him use his office to write final letters to his family. The British picked him to cross rebel lines to inform the Continental Army of the execution, which is said to have moved him greatly. 

Montresor witnessed Nathan Hale's Execution

He gave up his post as chief engineer and served as General William Howe’s aide de camp for a time, but Montresor was later reinstated as chief engineer.  When the campaign for Philadelphia was launched in 1777, he was in the thick of operations. He fought during the forage war in New Jersey. He also served at the battle of Brandywine later that year and accompanied the army to Philadelphia where he rebuilt the garrison's fortifications and later launched the savage series of attacks that destroyed his former Mud Island defenses, which ironically included Fort Mifflin, the fort that once bore his name. 

Plans for Fort Mifflin, once known as Fort Montresor

With the British occupation of Philadelphia, he directed the construction of new defenses for the American capital. Montresor also planned the construction of pontoon bridge at Gray's Ferry on the Schuylkill River. 

Fort Montressor was renamed Fort Mifflin,
giving the King's Engineer the honor of attacking
his own creation

Major Andre

A Rapid Closure

As the British occupation dragged on, the commander in chief, Sir William Howe was recalled to England. Montresor, Howe’s former aide, helped Major John Andre (a future spymaster) plan a massive and extravagant farewell celebration called the Meschianza.  

The Meschianza included parades

This was a series of lavish events with shows, parades, musical concerts and displays, as well as banquets and a ball culminating in a firework show worthy of a Broadway or Hollywood impresario.

Major Andre arranging a Meschianza display
with and exotic oriental theme

The spring of 1778 brought a new commander in chief, General Henry Clinton, and at some point that year Montresor was superseded as chief engineer. He returned to England in October where he retired from the army, ending more than twenty years’ service to king and country, albeit a country he spent little time in. But the king’s engineer did not have a good time of it in post-army life.  Montresor was not happy with his treatment by the army, feeling pique at not receiving a promotion. He blamed the Ordnance office for this and felt his talents and record were unappreciated and unrewarded.

Sir Henry Clinton replaced Howe
Montresor would follow later that year

It is unclear exactly why he left so abruptly. Perhaps he did not get along with Clinton because of his close association with Howe. But it might have had to do with something more basic – money. There were suspicions he misused his wide discretion in the exercise of his role as an engineer. In that position, he controlled considerable funds for the procurement of the equipment, material, and manpower for construction projects.  The lack of good accounting practices and financial controls may have enabled him to amass a considerable sum of money for his own pockets. 

Montresor was a very exacting and demanding engineer, frequently requisitioning the best materials for his projects. During the construction of the forts around Philadelphia he submitted invoices for extensive materials ultimately denied by the colonial government. His demanding ways may have also crossed him with General Murray at Quebec, and perhaps Henry Clinton.

A Desperate End

In 1782 his accounts went through a scrupulous audit, resulting in him being held pecuniary liable for £50,000 out some £250,000 in expenses he claimed as chief engineer in America. Despite strenuous appeals by Montresor, he lost. The Exchequer went after his estate, seizing his London residence and property in Kent, ultimately recouping £48,000. Despite his service, Montresor eventually ended up in Maidstone prison, a debtors’ prison, where he tragically died on 26 June 1799. 

Debtor's Prisons were the final destination
of the bankrupt in the 18th century

Legacy

Two of Montresor’s sons received commissions in the British Army, despite their father’s difficulties. So the family tradition of service to king and country continued.

One is struck by the tremendous contribution Montresor made to the British success in North America in three wars and an inter-war period of consolidation, yet he receives little mention. 

This likely was in part due to the relatively low regard for the more technical branches in an army drenched with arcane tradition and social stratification. Had he been a man of birth and not merit, or a member of a prestigious regiment, his transgressions might have been overlooked. And of course, as a descendant of French Huguenots, he was not English. Just saying. This is not to rationalize sloppy accounting or look the other way at embezzlement, merely a period of social observation.  

Cypher later adopted by
the Royal Engineers

Montresor, in engineer style, kept a scrupulous journal that pointed out minutiae in day to day operations and conditions. Exact distances and measures were noted. Daily temperatures as well. Those parts of his journal that survive show a man with great attention to detail, but his journal also reveals a bit of hubris as well. Perhaps that hubris led to friction with peers and superiors, and something worse. We will never know.

Surviving Montresor journals
provide an insight into the man and his times