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2011 - INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Louis Duportail was a talented French military engineer who was loaned to the U.S. Continental Army. He made significant improvements in the defensive fortifications for Philadelphia and West Point and played a major role in designing the siege lines that overwhelmed the British at Yorktown. The Pennsylvania Society and the France Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (an affiliate of the W3R®-US) cooperated in funding French sculptor Michel Gillet to create a bust of Duportail and to cast several bronze replicas. These replicas have been placed (with suitable ceremonies) at the "Musée du Génie" (Museum of Military Engineers) in Angers, France, at Valley Forge (whose defenses were designed by Duportail), and at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.