334. Six sub-lieutenants, one sergeant-major, and 144 non-commissioned

officers and men, were employed on this service in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The corps now counted a total strength of 2,373, leaving still to complete it to the establishment 484 men. 1814. Wreck of ‘Queen’ transport; humanity of sergeant Mackenzie; heroic exertions of private M‘Carthy—Quartermaster; Brigade-Major—Santona; useful services of corporal Hay—Bridge of Itzassu near Cambo—Orthes; conduct of sergeant Stephens—Toulouse—Bridge of the Adour; duties of the sappers—Flotilla to form the bridge—Casualties in venturing the bar—Conduct of the corps in its construction—Bayonne—Expedition to North America—Return to England of certain companies from the Peninsula—Company to Holland; its duties; bridge over the Maerk; Tholen; Port Frederick—March for Antwerp—Action at Merxam—Esprit de corps—Coolness of sergeant Stevens and corporal Milburn—Distribution; bridge making—Surprise of Bergen-op-Zoom—Conduct of the sappers, and casualties in the operation—A mild Irishman—Bravery of corporal Creighton and private Lomas—South Beveland—Reinforcement to the Netherlands—Review by the Emperor of Russia—School for companies at Antwerp—Detachments in the Netherlands, company at Tournai—Movements of the company in Italy and Sicily—Expedition to Tuscany; party to Corfu—Canada; distribution of company there, and its active services—Reinforcement to Canada—Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans—Notice of corporal Scrafield—Expedition to the State of Maine. Late in December, 1813, sergeant Richard Mackenzie with six invalids and their wives and children, embarked at Lisbon on board the ‘Queen’ transport. Separated during a tempest from the convoy, the vessel, after a dangerous passage, arrived off Falmouth, and entering the harbour, anchored at about half a mile from the shore to await a fair wind to sail for Portsmouth. On the 14th of January, at night, a violent storm arose; and early next morning, the ship, snapping her cable and parting her anchor, drifted on the rocks off Trefusis Point near Falmouth. The unabated severity of the wind kept the vessel constantly bumping upon the rocks, and in a short time the ‘Queen’ broke amidships. As long as practicable the crew and passengers clung to the gunwale and rigging, but the long-boat being at last disengaged, numbers crowded into it. Sergeant Mackenzie was about the last who entered it; and even then, though the chance of life was hanging upon the prompt effort of the moment, he caught up a poor orphan boy shivering from cold and fright, and pushing him into the vessel _first_, followed after, and wedged himself in the bow of the boat. Without rudder or oars, the boat, scarcely able to hold the weight she bore, drifted to sea. Masses of the wreck floated about her and beat against her sides. Shock succeeding shock soon loosened her timbers, and the bottom giving way, the human freightage was cast into the sea. In less than two hours, out of 336 souls, 195 were lost. Two of the number with three women and their children, belonged to the party of sappers. One was private James M’Carthy, who had gained the shore on a fragment of the wreck, and plunging into the sea again, perished in an heroic attempt to save the wife of a comrade. The commissions of Adjutant and Quartermaster, hitherto held by one officer, were separated in February; and quarter-master-sergeant James Galloway was promoted to be Quartermaster from the 1st of that month, with the pay of 8_s._ a-day, and 18_l._ 5_s._ a year for a servant. His dress and appointments were assimilated to those of the subaltern officers of royal engineers, with the exception of the head-dress, which was a cocked-hat, plumed with flowing cock-tail feathers. On the 20th of December following, the Adjutant, Captain Rice Jones, was advanced to the staff appointment of Brigade-Major; which rank has ever since been borne by the chief executive officer of the corps. After the passage of the Bidassoa, Captain Wells, with two men of the eighth company second battalion, marched to Santona to co-operate with the Gallican, or fourth Spanish army, under General Barco. The historian of the Peninsular war has stated, that _some_ sappers and miners were sent to quicken the operations of the Spanish officers, but a French writer, erring beyond all excuse, has magnified the _two_ men into a _whole_ battalion.[201] Under their captain, they superintended the prosecution of various field-works; and on account of his usefulness and intelligence, lance-corporal Hay was styled assistant engineer. Several villages in the vicinity of Santona were called upon to supply a certain number of scaling ladders for the operation, and corporal Hay, furnished with authority from General Barco, visited those localities, superintended the making of the ladders, and had them conveyed to the park. Both the sappers were present in the escalade of the fort of Puntal on the 13th February, and at the storming of the town and fort of Laredo on the 21st. Throughout the operations, corporal Hay was particularly noticed for his ability and zeal. Santona ultimately capitulated, and the two sappers rejoined their company in front of Bayonne. ----- Footnote 201: Napier’s ‘Peninsular War,’ vi., p. 502, edit. 1840. ----- Early in January ten artificers of the seventh company, first battalion, assisted by fifty Spanish soldiers, threw a very efficient bridge across a loop of the river Nive at Itzassu near Cambo, under the direction of Sub-Lieutenant Calder. The bridge was constructed by order of General Hill at the request of the Spanish General Morillo, to establish a communication with the rear and a brigade of his division which had not crossed the stream. A ferry had formerly existed at the spot by means of a small canoe which the enemy, in his retreat, had taken the precaution to sink. It was recovered by the sappers and turned to advantage in the operation. The site chosen for the bridge was accessible and convenient, being directly in rear of the division. For some distance along the shore the north side had a perpendicular face, high and craggy with projecting ledges; whilst the opposite shore was low and shingly, and inundated in wet weather. The bed of the river was rocky and uneven, showing such abrupt variations in its level, that piles or trestles could not be used for the formation. In some places the depth was 15 feet; in others not more than 4 or 5. Boats or craft of any kind could not be procured, and the expedient of a bridge of casks was therefore resorted to. Barrels for the purpose—four feet long by two feet at the swell—were obtained from a wine manufactory in the village; chestnut planking, nails and bolts from different houses; trees from the adjacent plantations to form the framework and shore piles; and bars of iron grating, taken from the vaults of a country churchyard, were converted into a chain of 20-inch links, and stretched across the river. This chain was fastened at one bank to a huge fragment of rock, brought from a distance by means of a hastily-constructed sledge; and at the other it was held firmly by one of the ordinary methods. The number of casks employed in the formation were thirty-five, arranged in five floats or piers of seven each, two piers being lashed together at each end of the raft, 18 feet from either shore, and one in the centre with a space between of 12 feet from either float. The piers were fixed in strong cradles or frames, and by simple connections each maintained a reciprocal bearing upon the other. From the low or south shore the raft was approached by a jetty 120 feet in length, resting on young trees driven into the soil in a double row, 8 feet wide and 10 feet asunder; and from the other by a wide gangway supported on a sunken rock, which was heightened to the required altitude by a pier of stout masonry built at the moment. The superstructure consisted of planks secured to frames, and also to baulks longitudinally laid on the floats; and when all was completed, the bridge was held in position by means of poles, 8 feet in length, running from the piers and linking to small double chains, which again were moored to the great chain cable by a series of stout hanger hooks. The slopes to the raft at each end were easy and natural, and contrivances were effected which permitted the bridge to ride with the tide without disarrangement. On both sides a hand-rail was placed for the convenience of the troops, which gave it a neat and finished appearance; and though executed with the hurry which a pressing movement demanded, it was so firmly put together that it fulfilled in every respect the objects of its construction, without even sustaining a break from the force of the current or fury of the storm.[202] ----- Footnote 202: Manuscript, Royal Engineer Establishment. The details of the construction of this bridge have been considered sufficiently interesting to be preserved in a model at the royal engineer establishment at Chatham. ----- The above company with its sub-lieutenant, and the eighth company, second battalion, struck camp in February and moved forward with the army. The former company was attached to the column under Sir Rowland Hill, and the latter to Marshal Beresford’s. Both companies, numbering 130 of all ranks, were present at the battle of Orthes on the 27th of February, but their services in the action were of little importance. A portion of the companies being attached to the pontoon train, assisted to re-establish the ruined bridge of Berenx during the night of the 26th; and on the 27th, a small party under sergeant Thomas Stephens, who had distinguished himself in the demolition of the flood-gates at Flushing, destroyed a barricade in front of a bridge which led into the town of Orthes. In this little rencontre, sergeant Ninian Melville and private Samuel Needham were wounded, the latter mortally. These companies, still attached to the advancing army, aided in forming the several pontoon and flying bridges required for the passage of the troops, both on the march from Orthes and just before the battle of Toulouse. In this action, fought on the 10th of April, the two companies were present, but were not required to perform any service worthy of especial remark. During the winter of 1813, the seventh company, second battalion with Sub-Lieutenant Wallace, was detached to St. Jean de Luz to prepare a bridge for the passage of the Adour; and early in January, Sub-Lieutenant Stratton with the second company, second battalion, was sent to Socoa to hasten its completion. These companies with the artificers of the guards and staff corps, and large parties of the royal navy, worked incessantly at the undertaking under the direction of the engineers.[203] ----- Footnote 203: Jones’s ‘Sieges’ ii., p. 107, 2nd edit. ----- In the middle of February, the necessary apparatus and stores being ready and every preliminary arrangement completed, the greater part of the two companies were shipped on board the chasse-marées, intended to form the bridge. In two vessels six sappers were embarked, in others three, but the majority carried only two, who were destined to cut “away the waste boards to render the deck level, and also to spike down the timber, prepared with grooves to receive the cables, the moment the vessels should be moored.”[204] ----- Footnote 204: Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ p. 109. ----- On the night of the 22nd, the flotilla put to sea and encountered some stormy weather on the passage. In the afternoon of the 24th it neared the Adour, when the sea, tossed into foaming waves by a driving gale, wore an aspect of peculiar danger. A high and angry surf being on the bar and the tide furious, many of the native crews ran below in terror and refused to navigate their boats. Several fell on their knees and spent much of their energy in earnest devotion. At length, urged to their duty by the angry threats of the engineers and sappers, most of the masters yielded a reluctant but desperate submission, and steering into the channel, one vessel after another cut through the frightful breakers and soon gained the position chosen for the bridge. This hazardous service was not accomplished without loss to the sappers. In an instant, one vessel was engulphed on the bar, and second-corporal Patrick Power and private John M‘Knight, perished. Another vessel had safely outridden the surf, but was overtaken by an overwhelming wave that dashed her to pieces. In this wreck, corporal James Gorman and private William Bunn were washed to the shore, and after several hours' insensibility and exposure to cold, reached their company in a miserable plight, the next morning. In forming the bridge, the chasse-marées were anchored head and stern, about 30 feet apart; and as soon as the washboards were cut away and the grooved timbers spiked to the decks, the cables were stretched across the vessels from shore to shore, and the planks or superstructure quickly lashed to them. On the right bank of the river, the ends of the cables were secured to some 18-pounder guns half buried in the marsh; and on the left bank were hauled taut by mechanical ingenuity. From the violent heaving of the vessels it was unsafe to fix the planks in the intervals between them, but there were not wanting men who thought less of the danger than the prompt execution of the service. With skill equal to their assiduity, the companies laboured in completing the bridge, even working throughout the night, and the structure was fully ready for the passage of the troops on the 26th of February.[205] The boom was laid by the navy and completed soon after the bridge. ----- Footnote 205: Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 118, 2nd edit. As a reward for their services, most of the men that belonged to the flotilla received a guinea and a pair of shoes. ----- Admiral Penrose, in his despatch of 25th February, thus notices the services of the sappers, “That so many chasse-marées ventured the experiment, I attribute to their having been one or more sappers placed in each of them, and a captain and eight lieutenants of engineers commanding them in divisions.”[206] The Admiral further stated, “that the sappers not only proved themselves good soldiers, but intrepid seamen.”[207] Major Todd of the royal staff corps, who assisted in planning the bridge, informed the author of the ‘Peninsular War,’ “that he found the soldiers, with minds quickened by the wider range and variety of knowledge attendant on their service, more ready of resource, and their efforts, combined by a more regular discipline, of more avail, with less loss of time, than the irregular activity of the seamen.”[208] Honourable mention is also made by the great historian of the intrepidity of the sappers; and in winding up his remarks upon the operation, he writes, “this stupendous undertaking must always rank amongst the prodigies of war.”[209] ----- Footnote 206: Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 117, 2nd edit. Footnote 207: Colonel Harry D. Jones, royal engineers. Footnote 208: Napier’s ‘Peninsular War,’ vi., p. 542, edit. 1840. Footnote 209: Ibid., p. 543. ----- The subsequent charge of the bridge being confided to the royal staff corps under Major Todd, the two companies of sappers were removed to Bayonne to take part in the siege. Including the second company fourth battalion with sub-lieutenant Millar under Captain Blanshard, R.E., which arrived from Portsmouth in the ‘Warren’ transport, and landed at Passages on the 16th March, the royal engineers had collected for the blockade four sub-lieutenants—Wallace, Gratton, Stratton, and Millar—and a body of nearly four hundred well-trained sappers and miners,[210] who were chiefly employed as overseers in conducting the execution of the required fieldworks. A strong party was on duty in the trenches when the sortie was made from the citadel on the night of the 14th April, but no casualties among the men were reported. Throughout the operations the sappers and miners, from their skill and exertions, gave the highest satisfaction to their officers. ----- Footnote 210: Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 126, 2nd edit. ----- At Bayonne the last blow of the war was struck; for as soon as the news of Napoleon’s abdication had arrived, hostilities ceased. In May the five companies at Bayonne and Toulouse marched from their respective cantonments to Blanquefort and Bordeaux, where they were encamped for a few weeks awaiting the general evacuation of the country. An expedition being ordered to proceed to North America, the second company fourth battalion embarked with it on the 27th May; and the other four companies, viz., the seventh of the first battalion and the second, seventh, and eighth of the second battalion, sailed from Poulliac on the 22nd June, and landed at Portsmouth the 10th and 14th July, leaving fifty-five men sick in France. The casualties in these companies for the half year were thirty deaths and one missing. The sixth company second battalion was removed to Italy in April. The sixth company first battalion from Cadiz, and the fifth company second battalion from St. Sebastian, sailed from Spain the latter end of August, and arrived at Woolwich early in September. These two companies were with the last troops which left the Peninsula after the close of the war. The fourth company second battalion, counting eighty-two men, with Sub-Lieutenant T. Adamson under Captain R. Thomson, left Margate with the expedition under Sir Thomas Graham, and landed at Williamstadt the 18th December, 1813. There the company suffered loss by the accidental burning of the barracks in which it was quartered. After removing the stores from the shipping, parties were employed in preparing fascines and gabions, in bridge-making, constructing a landing place of faggots for the disembarkation of the cavalry, and in removing the platforms and heavy mortars from the ramparts at Williamstadt for carriage to Merxam. These services being accomplished, the company was distributed to Klundert, Groat Zundert, Zandaarbuiten, Tholen, Steenbergen, and Fort Frederic near Lille. Among other duties the detachment at Zandaarbuiten formed, in a very expeditious manner, a bridge of country-boats over the river Maerk under two young lieutenants of engineers, which served for the conveyance of the heaviest artillery. The boats were of different shapes and sizes, collected for the occasion, and the materials for the superstructure were of irregular scantling, partly collected in the neighbourhood and partly felled on the spot.[211] At Tholen a corporal and eight men under Lieutenant Eyre, R.E., attached to the Prussians, built a battery on the bank of the river for the protection of a flying bridge; and at Fort Frederic a party restored a battery for two guns, which afterwards held an unequal contest with a French eighty-four gun ship, and prevented her proceeding to Bergen-op-Zoom with provisions. No less than forty-one, including the commander, were killed and wounded on board the man-of-war, while the casualties at the battery only amounted to one killed and two wounded. ----- Footnote 211: Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ note C, p. viii., vol. 1. ----- Leaving sixteen men at Tholen and Zandaarbuiten, the remainder of the company, armed with short swords, felling-axes, saws, &c., and guarding an establishment of mules drawing about one hundred waggons laden with intrenching tools, commenced the march for Antwerp. They followed the royal artillery, and reliefs of twenty men were, by turns, repeatedly ordered to the front to remove abattis and other obstructions that were met with on the route. From intense frost and a heavy and continuous fall of snow blowing in their faces, they encountered many difficulties and suffered extremely during the journey. Merxam being taken on the 2nd February the company and a strong force of the guards and line, began the erection of batteries to attack the fleet at Antwerp. By command, no relief was permitted to the sappers, and they continued on duty for seventy-two hours without intermission. Their steady labours at the Napoleon battery of sixteen guns, and their skill in revetting the embrasures, and in attending to the more perilous parts of the works, were the wonder of both officers and soldiers. Sir Thomas Graham, in general orders dated Merxam, 5th February, did full justice to the zeal and exertions of the sappers, and stated, “that they deserved the highest praise.” Two privates were wounded.[212] ----- Footnote 212: Here is a practical exemplification of _esprit de corps_. Whilst engaged in the attempt to destroy the shipping in the basin of Antwerp, his Royal Highness Prince William frequently visited the Napoleon battery with several military officers. On one of those visits a mounted veteran in the suite of the Prince approached private John Brennan, and said, “Sapper, will you hold this horse for an old guardsman?” Brennan, who was very busy at the time with his shovel, turned his face towards the officer, and feeling that as a sapper he was two or three removes above a groom, replied, “Egad, sir, I’d sooner be shot layin' sand-bags.” ----- Sergeant William Stevens and corporal Thomas Milburn distinguished themselves by their coolness and bravery in superintending the laying of platforms and making a splinter-proof magazine under a heavy fire. Recommended by Colonel Carmichael Smyth, the commanding royal engineer, the former was forthwith appointed colour-sergeant, and soon afterwards commissioned to a sub-lieutenancy in the corps; and the latter was promoted to be sergeant. After the failure at Antwerp, the head-quarters of the company went into cantonments at Rosendaal, and parties were detached to Groat Zundert, Fort Henrick, Calmthout, Eschen, and Brieschaet. At Groat Zundert seven men under corporal James Hilton conducted some experimental bridging in the presence of Sir Thomas Graham and Colonel Carmichael Smyth, with the view of adopting the easiest plan for crossing ditches in future enterprises. Sir Thomas was struck with the simplicity of the corporal’s arrangement and the rapidity of its execution; and as a proof of his approbation gave him a Napoleon. On another occasion, that distinguished general took particular interest in the formation of a ditch bridge and even laboured himself in its construction. From the unevenness of the banks the baulks did not lie firmly. Private James McKay was in the act of obtaining the desired steadiness, when Sir Thomas took a spare spade, cut some sods, and assisting to place them in the required positions, only gave up when the work was satisfactorily accomplished. In the surprise of Bergen-op-Zoom on the 8th March, parties of the company were attached to each of the columns appointed for the attack. There were about forty men in all, who were provided with axes, saws, and crowbars, and also a few ladders to scale the walls of the fortress. At about half-past ten o’clock the attack was made. The sappers cut down the palisades, crossed the ditches, planted the ladders, and leading the way in the escalade, were the first soldiers on the enemy’s ramparts. They then pushed forward to remove any obstacle that opposed the advance of the assailants, and persevered in their several duties till the place was captured. A reverse, however, awaited the British: the enemy renewed the attack with unwonted vigour, and in a few hours regained the fortress. During these extraordinary operations the following casualties occurred in the detachment: Sub-Lieutenant Adamson was killed by a cannon-ball on the glacis when advancing. About twelve were wounded, of whom two mortally—privates John McKeer and James Munro—and ten were taken prisoners, and conveyed to Fynaart, but shortly afterwards released. Of the conduct of the sappers in this _coup-de-main_ Colonel Carmichael Smyth has left it on record, that the company conducted themselves with the utmost coolness and courage, and the Master-General, in a letter dated 2nd April, was pleased to express himself highly satisfied with the zealous conduct of the Royal Sappers and Miners on the above occasion.[213] ----- Footnote 213: The gentle Brennan, about whom an anecdote is told in a previous page, very reluctantly quitted the ramparts. Finding, that to save himself, retreat was inevitable, he turned his back on the fortress, and with a scowl, such only as an Irishman could make, growled out, “Bad luck to the whole ov yees!” With this mild curse, so unusual in a hot-headed, free-spoken Milesian, he scampered down the ladder, escaped without wound or touch, and finally halted, still breathing the anathema, “Bad luck to the whole ov yees!” The incident is only remarkable for its freedom from those horrible epithets and curses so common in Irish execrations. Brennan was applauded for his bravery at the storming by Captain Robert Thomson, and his subsequent exertions and constancy in the restoration of the defences of Antwerp and Ypres, where he had large parties of Hanoverian troops and Dutch peasants under his superintendence, led to his promotion first to lance-corporal and then to corporal. ----- The gallant behaviour of corporal James Creighton and private Edward Lomas is deserving of notice. After breaking through a palisade on the ramparts, they dashed forward and were challenged by a vigilant sentinel, who fired and shot Lomas in the thigh and then charged Creighton. Creighton parried the bayonet with his axe, and, seizing the Frenchman’s musket, a desperate struggle ensued. The sentinel, who was a powerful man, at length threw his antagonist violently to the ground, and stamping his foot on his breast, endeavoured to wrest the firelock from the corporal’s grasp. His strength spent, Creighton could scarcely maintain the contest, when Lomas, yet bleeding from his wound, rushed to the rescue of his comrade and struck the Frenchman with a pole-axe on the back of his head. The blow was fatal. Lomas now armed himself with the musket and ammunition of the sentinel, and pressing forward into the fortress, his resolution and daring were further signalized by his killing two other Frenchmen, and wounding two more. The latter he delivered over as prisoners of war to sergeant Thomas Milburn of the company, first breaking their muskets in their presence, and then dispossessing them of their accoutrements.[214] Corporal Creighton followed Lomas in the adventure, but was too much fatigued and weakened to be of material service. ----- Footnote 214: Lomas was discharged in 1816 by reduction, and being a young soldier, received no pension. Some thirty years afterwards, he applied for a pension, and his exploits being still remembered, he was granted 6_d._ a-day. ----- Soon after the reverse at Bergen-op-Zoom, the greater part of the company was sent to South Beveland and attached to the engineer brigades of Captains R. Thomson and Oldfield, to be employed in the attack of Fort Batz. The night that ground was to have been broken news arrived of peace. The company returned into cantonments at Rosendaal, then changed its head-quarters to Horst, and in May assembled at Antwerp, where it remained, with the exception of some small detachments, to the end of the year. In July another company—fourth of the third battalion—under Lieutenant P. Cole, arrived in that city from Woolwich. It was sent there to assist in the demolition of its fortifications and arsenal, as, by treaty, it was decided that Antwerp should only be a commercial port. On the advice, however, of the Duke of Wellington, who inspected that great naval depôt on his way to Paris, the operations were suspended. While stationed at Antwerp both companies were quartered in the Hotel de Salm, where the French had established their head-quarters and sapper barracks. When the Emperor Alexander of Russia visited the city, the two companies were turned out with the garrison to receive the Czar, and specially attracted his majesty’s attention. In September the companies, under the command of Captain Oldfield, were inspected at Antwerp by Lieutenant-General Clinton, who expressed himself highly pleased with their appearance. The idea that the sappers should be properly educated, led, even in an enemy’s country, to the establishment of a school for their professional instruction, and they were permitted the privilege of assisting their officers in the preparation of projects for the destruction of the docks and several fronts of fortification. The drill too was strictly attended to, and to keep up their military spirit and bearing, they were marched two days a week into the country, and joined the troops at all garrison parades. Captain Oldfield, the resident engineer, commanded the companies. The strength of the sappers in the Netherlands was now 152. The sub-lieutenants belonging to them were James Adam and Edward Sanders. For several months of the year the parties detached were employed at Liere, Schilde, Graven Wesel, Brussels, Tournai, and Mons. Subsequently the fourth company, third battalion, was wholly removed to Tournai, and employed in the repair of the citadel, under the command of Captain W. D. Smith. The sixth company, second battalion, from Tarragona, with Sub-Lieutenant Gibb, landed at Genoa from the ‘Mercury’ transport on the 4th May; and on the 11th June following removed to Messina, leaving a small party at Genoa. Other detachments were also employed at Savona, Palermo, and Faro. Sixteen men of the Maltese company at Palermo were attached to Lord William Bentinck’s Tuscany expedition, and served at Leghorn, Pisa, and Lucca from February to April. In the latter month the company of Maltese sappers at Tarragona was increased to forty-nine men. In May, it landed at Genoa, and changed its quarters to Palermo in June, where both detachments were incorporated into a company of 110 strong. In November seven men of the Maltese sappers were detached to Corfu. The third company, third battalion, in Canada retained its head-quarters at Kingston; but throughout the campaign was much dispersed on various important duties to York, Point Kerry, Fort Niagara, Snake Island, Montreal, Ganonoque, Fort Wellington, Prescott, and Bridge Island. Parties are also traced at the attack and burning of Oswego under Lieutenant Gossett, and at the assault of Fort Erie under Lieutenant Phillpotts. In the latter service they received the acknowledgments of Lieutenant-General Drummond for their ability and exertions. A second company—fourth of the fourth battalion—embarked for service in Canada in April, and disembarked at Quebec from the ‘Belfield’ transport in June. In August the company was attached to the expedition under Sir George Prevost, and was present at the attack on Plattsburg, where they constructed sand-bag batteries, temporary bridges of felled trees, and planted the ladders against the walls for the storm. Subsequently to the assault, the company removed to Lacolle, and, after fortifying Ash Island, wintered at Prescott. During the campaign parties were detached to Montreal, Cascade-Montmorenci, Isle-aux-Noix, Turkey Point, and Burtonville. Captain Blanshard’s company-second of the fourth battalion—which sailed from Bayonne on the 27th May, was transhipped in July from the ‘Thames’ frigate to the ‘Golden Fleece’ transport, and landed at Benedict in the Patuxent on the 19th August. Marching with the troops, the company of sixty-two strong was present in the action at Bladensburg on the 24th, and had three men taken prisoners, two of whom were wounded. At Washington the company was employed in burning the Senate-house,[215] President’s palace, War-Office, and other public edifices and establishments. Fully expecting that the British would fall, as at Saratoga, a prize to the republic, the President, in the extravagance of his anticipations, had prepared a sumptuous repast to entertain the chiefs of the captive British staff; but so singular are the chances of war, it fell to the lot of the sappers instead of the staff to do justice to the President’s hospitality. Afterwards the company was present in the action near Baltimore and at the attack of New Orleans. In the latter they were joined by the seventh company, first battalion, with Sub-Lieutenant Calder under Captain A. Emmett, who disembarked from the ‘Bedford’ and ‘Maria’ transports. Both companies were of great service during the operations and at the assault. The casualties were one missing and four wounded—one mortally. ----- Footnote 215: Private Henry Scrafield behaved with spirit in overpowering two armed sentinels in the Senate-house, and taking them prisoners. A more uncompromisingly independent man perhaps never lived. Once he complained, in a petition to George IV., of the conduct of an officer, but it ended without the concession of the redress which he unwarrantably sought from His Majesty. In February, 1831, he endeavoured to save the lives of five boys who had fallen into Mulgrave Reservoir, at Woolwich. An orange had been thrown on the ice by some reckless fellow, and the unfortunate youths, scrambling after it, fell into the water. Scrafield was soon on the spot, and at imminent personal risk, crossed the broken ice on ladders, and, with ropes and grapnels, succeeded in rescuing the poor boys, but not till all life had departed. The first youth was got up in ten minutes after the catastrophe. For his judgment and intrepidity on the occasion he was promoted to be second-corporal, and the Royal Humane Society granted him a pecuniary reward. Pensioned in November, 1833, he afterwards obtained a lucrative situation on a railway, and died at Bletchington, of cholera, in September, 1849. ----- A party of one colour-sergeant and six men under Captain Nicolls, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, was attached to the expedition under Sir John Sherbrooke, and served, in August and September, at the capture of Moose Island, Castine, and Belfast, in the State of Maine. 1815. Siege of Fort Boyer—Alertness of company on passage to New Orleans—Return of the sappers from North America—Services and movements of companies in Canada—Also in Nova Scotia—Captures of Martinique and Guadaloupe—Services and movements of companies in Italy—Maltese sappers disbanded—Pay of Sub-Lieutenants—Ypres—Increase to sappers' force in Holland; its duties and detachments; notice of sergeant Purcell—Renewal of the war—Strength of the corps sent to the Netherlands—Pontoneers—Battle of Waterloo—Disastrous situation of a company in retreating—General order about the alarm and the stragglers—Sergeant-major Hilton at Brussels—Notice of lance-corporal Donnelly—Exertions of another company in pressing to the field—Organization of the engineer establishment in France—Pontoon train—Magnitude of the engineer establishment; hired drivers; Flemish seamen—Assault of Peronne, valour of Sub-lieutenant Stratton and lance-corporal Councill—Pontoon bridges on the Seine—Conduct of corps during the campaign—Corporal Coombs with the Prussian army—Usefulness of the sappers in attending to the horses, &c., of the department in France—Domiciliary visit to Montmartre. In February of this year nine men were present at the siege of Fort Boyer, near Mobile, and their services on the occasion have been cited as a remarkable proof of the utility of the corps. Sir Charles Pasley thus writes concerning the party:—“The first night of the operations soldiers of the line only were employed. From a want of skill and experience in the nature of the duties required of them, and there being very few engineer officers to direct, they collected in groups, instead of being spread out as they ought to have been. Consequently, out of one small party of twenty men, fourteen were killed and wounded by a single discharge of grape-shot; and such confusion ensued, that very little progress was made in the course of that night. On the second night of the siege, the small party of sappers was employed in addition to the troops of the line. By the assistance of these few men the officers of engineers were enabled to regulate their working party to so much advantage, that before morning they had completed a parallel of 200 yards in extent within 50 yards of the enemy’s works, besides approaches in advance, which, being filled with sharpshooters, the Americans were unable to show themselves at their guns, and the fort surrendered. It is proper to explain, that as the army sailed from the Mississippi in divisions, the main body of the royal engineer department had not arrived at the period of the attack. The nine men who so particularly distinguished themselves happened to be on the spot before the others, because, being all carpenters by trade, they had been lent to the Admiral to repair the boats of the fleet.”[216] One private was wounded.[217] ----- Footnote 216: Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note D, p. x. Footnote 217: ‘London Gazette.’ ----- After a detention of about six weeks from contrary winds, the eighth company, second battalion, with Sub-Lieutenant P. Johnston under Captain Harry D. Jones, cleared the channel on the 25th December and sailed for New Orleans. While off Madeira, the company was served out with the serviceable carbines and blunderbusses belonging to the transport, and drilled to the use of the carronades on board. These measures were necessary from the presence of American vessels and privateers hovering about the convoy. The company was consequently kept perpetually on the alert until it landed at Dauphine Island on the 28th February, too late to take part in the war. Hostilities closed in North America with the capture of Fort Boyer, and the three companies with the force under Major-General Lambert, re-embarked at Dauphine Island for England in March. The eighth company, second battalion, returned to the ‘Dawson’ transport, and the other two companies were put on board the ‘Hyperion,’ and all arrived at Woolwich in June following. The two companies in Canada were continually on the move fortifying the frontiers. The third of the third battalion maintained its head-quarters at Kingston; and the fourth of the fourth battalion commenced the year at the Holland River. It was next removed to Penetanguishine Harbour, where half of the company under Captain W. R. Payne, completed the military arrangements for establishing a naval depôt. It then proceeded to York; afterwards to Fort George, Sandwich, and Drummond’s Island, on Lake Huron. From one or other of the companies, parties were thrown out to Fort Niagara, Turkey Point, Amherstberg, Fort Wellington, Montreal, Coteau de Lac, and Lower Canada. In carrying on the various duties of the department, the sappers, who were employed as overseers of military working-parties, were found of great advantage.[218] During the year, eighteen men deserted from the companies, most of whom were seduced from their allegiance by sergeant Robert Hunter of the corps. When he headed the deluded party into the States, he was off Fort Grochett, River St. Clair, on his way from Sandwich to Machinac’, Lake Huron. ----- Footnote 218: Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note B, page vi. ----- From the company at Halifax detachments were sent on particular duties to the harbour posts, but chiefly to the works at Sherbrooke’s Tower on Manger’s Beach. On the 2nd March, one sergeant and eight rank and file embarked at Barbadoes for special service under Captain A. Brown, R.E. On the 28th May, the party was increased to thirty-three men of all ranks, and was present with the force under Lieutenant-General Sir James Leith at the captures of Martinique on the 5th June, and Guadaloupe on the 9th August. In the latter attack the sappers were engaged with the artillery at the guns. The head-quarters of the sappers were then changed from Barbadoes to Guadaloupe; and the establishment of the corps in the West India command was reduced from two companies to one. The sixth company, second battalion, and sixty men of the Maltese sappers at Messina, embarked at Milazzo on the 17th May and landed at Naples on the 27th. On the 2nd July following they re-embarked, and arrived at Genoa on the 11th of that month. There the Maltese sappers were reinforced by the landing of the remainder of the company from Messina on the 18th October. The number of the whole reached 101 men, including the small party which rejoined the company from Corfu in April. Throughout the year, detachments of the sixth company, second battalion, were maintained at Palermo and Faro; and a party of two sergeants and nineteen rank and file, sent on a secret expedition, was afterwards on duty for a few months at Milan and Marseilles. Under a royal warrant, dated 5th October, the two companies of Maltese sappers stationed at Malta and Gozo, were disbanded; and the war company—retained for general service—was assimilated in all essential respects to the royal sappers and miners. The establishment of the company was fixed at one sub-lieutenant, five sergeants, five corporals, five second-corporals, three drummers, and seventy privates; and its strength was sustained, from time to time, by transfers of Britons, Maltese, Sicilians, and Italians—all properly-qualified artificers—from the regiments serving in the Mediterranean. The designation of the company—“Maltese Sappers and Miners”—assumed in 1813 for the sake of uniformity, was confirmed by the warrant, and the colour of the dress was changed from blue to red. On the representation of four sub-lieutenants, the regimental allowances of officers of that rank were brought under consideration. On active duty the pay was found to be inadequate to meet the requirements of the service. In the Peninsula, the officers with the army had to endure much hardship, and were continually menaced with pecuniary difficulties and embarrassments. Aware of these facts, Lieutenant-Colonel Burgoyne and Major Rice Jones backed the appeal by forcible recommendations to Lieutenant-General Mann, and on the 9th November the Prince Regent was pleased to increase the pay of the sub-lieutenants from 5_s._ 7_d._ to 6_s._ 7_d._ a-day. In January the fourth company, second battalion, moved from Antwerp to Ypres, where they were quartered in the bishop’s palace and adjoining convent, which had been sacrilegiously converted by the French into an engineer establishment. The defences of Ypres had not been repaired since the fortress was taken by the French in 1794. Two considerable breaches were in the body of the place and the various outworks were in a dilapidated condition. The officers of engineers and the company were employed in restoring the works to a state to resist a field attack or a coup-de-main. This last contingency, however, was not calculated upon until Napoleon had regained the capital and the royal family fled to the frontier. The startling intelligence was announced to the resident engineer—Captain Oldfield—at six o’clock one evening, and by the same hour next morning, parties of sappers under two officers of engineers had opened the sluices and covered, with inundations, the two breaches on the Bailleul front. Immediately after, large military parties under the direction of the sappers and the officers of royal engineers commenced the work of strengthening the fortress, and further assisted by labourers of all ages intermixed with stout women and sturdy girls from the town and adjacent villages, the fortress was renewed with singular despatch. Sub-Lieutenant Adam, who was appointed assistant engineer, superintended the restoration of the body of the place near the Lille gate and the outworks in front of the Menin and Dixmude gates; he also attended to the repairs of the communication boats and bridges, barriers, posterns, &c. With the exception of the sappers, the garrison was entirely composed of foreign troops who could not speak a word of English, and as the sappers had only mastered a few elementary snatches of the Flemish language, the duty of superintendence was not accomplished without difficulty. To the force in Holland was added the fifth company, second battalion, which embarked at Woolwich on the 2nd January, and landed at Antwerp the same month. This company and two others already there, were employed for several months in improving the defences of the frontiers of the Netherlands, particularly at Ypres, Tournay, Mons, Menin, Dendermond, Ath, Namur, Charleroi, and Brussels. The various works were subdivided amongst the non-commissioned officers and privates, each of whom was held responsible for the proper execution of the work intrusted to his superintendence. The peasants and women under the direction of each counted from 20 to 100, and even more, according to circumstances.[219] Sergeant John Purcell had from 300 to 400 _women_ under his orders at Ypres; and from some winning peculiarity in his mode of command, obtained from their willing obedience and energies an amount of labour that was almost astonishing. No less than about 1,800 peasants and 2,000 horses were engaged in these works, and, by all accounts, they were conducted with the greatest regularity and despatch. Sir Charles Pasley attributes no inconsiderable credit to the sappers for their assistance in the general services of the frontier;[220] and the Master-General, the Earl of Mulgrave, in a letter dated 4th April, expressed his “warm approbation of their zeal and exertions.” The Duke of Wellington also on visiting the frontier, awarded similar praise to the officers and sappers, particularly for their efficient labours at Ypres. ----- Footnote 219: Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note B, p. vi. Footnote 220: Ibid. ----- Meanwhile Napoleon, breaking his captivity in Elba, reappeared in France, and wherever he journeyed, was enthusiastically welcomed by his former legions. As by a spell, the army gathered under the wings of his eagles, and again lifted him into the imperial seat from which he had been so recently expelled. Europe was once more thrown into commotion by the event, and to crush the lofty hopes and pretensions of an intolerable ambition, war was at once declared by the Allies against the usurper. At the instance of the Duke of Wellington,[221] who requested “the whole corps of sappers and miners” to be sent to Brussels to join his Grace’s force, seven companies of the corps, instructed in their art, were hurried off to Ostend between the 24th March and 10th June, and distributed with all possible haste to those frontier posts and fortresses in the Netherlands that most required their services. Those companies were the Third and sixth of the first battalion; Second and eighth of the second battalion; First and seventh of the third battalion; and First of the fourth battalion: and they were employed in constructing indispensable fieldworks, or improving the fortifications at Ostend, Ghent, Nieuport, Tournay, Oudenarde, Boom, Escaneffe, Antwerp, Lille, Liefkenshoek, and Hal. Not less than 20,000 civil labourers with very strong military parties, were employed on the line of works extending from Ostend to Mons, and it was due to the intelligent manner in which the sappers carried out the duties of overseers, that this important field operation was so efficiently executed. Hal was the depôt from which the engineer brigades were equipped. The three companies in the Low Countries, before the campaign opened, were the fourth and fifth of the second battalion, and the fourth of the third battalion. The total strength of the whole ten companies reached the following numbers:— Sub- Second Lieuts. Sergeants. Corporals. Corporals. Drummers. Privates. Total. —— —— —— —— —— —— ——— 10 35 32 42 19 644 782[222] The Sub-Lieutenants were A. Ross, J. Sparks, W. Stratton, P. Johnston, W. Knapp,[223] J. Armstrong, A. Turner, C. Gratton, J. Adam, and E. Sanders. ----- Footnote 221: ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ viii., p. 18, edit. 1847. — Footnote 222: Corroborated, by the official State on the 18th June, 1815. See ‘Gurwood,’ vol. viii., App. xiii., p. 392, edit. 1847. Footnote 223: Died at Tournay, 16th June, 1815. ----- In order that the organizations of every description with the army should be as complete as forethought could make them, the Duke of Wellington recommended the employment of two companies of seamen as pontoneers. No exertions were omitted to give effect to his Grace’s wishes, and 200 hardy man-o'-war’s men, with Captain Charles Napier, R.N., at their head, were speedily embarked in the ‘Euryalus’ to join the army as bridgemen for the campaign. Meanwhile the Duke, who was unaware of the extensive character of the instruction imparted to the sappers at Chatham, was informed, that the companies of the corps in the Netherlands had, for the most part, been trained in the art of constructing military bridges, and had acquired an expertness in all the details and management of floating equipments under the careful tuition of Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley, that promised to equal the most gigantic requirements of the service. His Grace, only too glad to learn this agreeable intelligence, revoked his original intention, countermanded the landing of the seamen, and thus the duty of forming the bridges for the passage of rivers, was wholly confined to the royal sappers and miners.[224] ----- Footnote 224: ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ edit. 1847, (2 & 12 May,) pp. 55, 81. ----- At the battle of Waterloo the royal sappers and miners were not engaged. Three companies, however, were brought conveniently near to act in the event of their services being needed; and two companies with the pontoons, were quartered at Malines. Of the former companies, the first company, fourth battalion, is considered to have behaved with discredit in quitting the field without sufficient reason, and losing, in the precipitancy and confusion of the march, its baggage and field equipment. But the stigma seems to have been attached to the company without an adequate investigation of the circumstances under which the retreat was imperatively resorted to. The details of the affair are as follows:—On the 17th June the company moved from Hal by Braine-la-leud towards Waterloo, marching the whole of the night, and was on the position when the action commenced on the morning of the 18th. After a time, it was ordered to the rear by Major Sir George Hoste, and accordingly it marched to the furthest end of the village of Waterloo under Lieutenant W. Faris and Sub-Lieutenant R. Turner. There the company remained till between three and four o’clock P.M., when Lieutenant C. K. Sanders, R.E., joined it. About this time a brigade of Hanoverian artillery and cavalry, and several of the British cavalry, were retiring. The latter had vainly laboured to penetrate the retreating crowds, and informed Lieutenant Sanders that the French were at the other end of the village. In a wood on the right, discharges of musketry were heard, and both officers and men, who hurried away from the battle, corroborated the general testimony, that the enemy not only had possession of the wood, but in a short time would cut off the British from the road. Still incredulous of the alarming rumours which reached him, Lieutenant Sanders sought more decisive information as to the reported advantages of the French, and at length, satisfied with the additional affirmations of hundreds of officers and soldiers, who threatened in their flight to overrun the company, he at once ordered it to retire. The circumstances fairly justified this step. But the company had not proceeded far before it was unavoidably thrown into difficulties and disorder. To relieve itself from the masses was impossible. Driven in rear, and encompassed by overwhelming numbers of different regiments, it was borne along at a very rapid rate, in the vortex of the confusion. By the presence of cavalry and cannon, and of capsized waggons and baggage, its march was interrupted and its files broken. Many of the men, therefore, who could not keep up were dispersed among the fugitives; the brigade of waggons, stopped by insuperable obstructions on the road, was abandoned, and the company thus routed lost many of its knapsacks and most of its intrenching tools, baggage, and horses.[225] Such are the facts of this ill-understood affair, which deserve to be viewed more with regret than animadversion; but Colonel Carmichael Smyth, jealous of the honour of the corps, and feeling this apparent taint upon its character, was highly displeased, and refused to recommend the officers and men of the company for the Waterloo honours and advantages.[226] ----- Footnote 225: To show how serious was the alarm, and how great the number of fugitives, the following extract from general orders, dated Nivelles, 20th June, 1815, will fully testify:— “3. The Field Marshal has observed that several soldiers, and even officers, have quitted their ranks without leave, and have gone to Bruxelles, and even some to Antwerp, where, and in the country through which they have passed, they have spread a false alarm, in a manner highly unmilitary and derogatory to the character of soldiers. “4. The Field Marshal requests the General Officers commanding divisions in the British army, and the General Officers commanding the corps of each nation of which the army is composed, to report to him in writing, what officers and men (the former by name) are now, or have been, absent without leave since the 16th instant. “5. The Field Marshal desires that the 14th article of the 14th section of the Articles of War may be inserted in every orderly book of the British army, in order to remind officers and soldiers of the punishment affixed by law to the crime of creating false alarms.”—‘Gurwood,’ viii., p.156, edit. 1847. Nearly 2000 men were returned “missing,” the greater number of whom were said to have gone to the rear with wounded officers and soldiers.—'Gurwood, viii., p.151, edit. 1847. But the probability is, that very few of this strength returned into the battle, but, worked upon by the alarm, helped to swell the force of the renegades. Under the circumstances, the retreat of the company of sappers is fairly exonerated, pressed as it was by masses of troops of all nations, who fled from the field in infamous haste and terror. It is right to go a step further, and show what was the effect of the alarm at Brussels—24 miles away from the position; and thus notice the conduct of one who should be recognized in these pages. Some hours before the company arrived at Brussels, the panic was so complete, that the inhabitants flew in all directions from the horrors of an anticipated calamity, and not a few of the soldiers quartered in the place swelled the rout. Sergeant-major Hilton in charge of a detachment of sappers, prepared for the worst by packing the plans, charts, &c., of the engineer department, and also the military baggage of the commanding royal engineer. As all his own drivers had disappeared, he harnessed a couple of horses in readiness to move should necessity force him. A Belgic servant of Colonel Carmichael Smyth’s, who had been in the French service, ought to have assisted, but showing signs of treachery, an altercation ensued, in which, to save himself from the cut of a sabre, the sergeant-major wounded the shins of the Belgian with a stroke from a crowbar. Expecting no aid from this faithless foreigner, the sergeant-major looked about for more reliable intelligence respecting the rumoured reverse at Waterloo. While doing so the Commandant of Brussels accosted him, which led to his explaining the course he intended to pursue to preserve the plans, &c., from falling into the hands of the enemy. After remarking that there was no fear of the French reaching the city, the Commandant desired him to order the provost, with all the disposable men of his guard, to wait upon him immediately at the Rue Royale. Sergeant Hilton promptly complied; but the provost—this paragon of order and discipline—could not be found; and his irresolute men were only too desirous of following in the wake of the winged crowd. At last about nine of the guard accompanied the sergeant-major to the Rue Royale, where the Commandant ordered him to station the men across the road leading to Antwerp. “Stop every waggon,” he roared, furious at the insane sight that everywhere met his gaze, “and run any one through who attempts to pass in violation of your orders!” The terror of the citizens was at its highest, soldiers of every country were pouring into the capital; all was confusion and haste; the streets were lined with vehicles in endless variety, and each owner was striving to out-ride his neighbour in the frantic chase. It required to be firm at such a time, and the sergeant-major, quite as stern as the Commandant, drew his sword, and opposing himself and his small guard to the onward movement of the vans, stemmed with difficulty the flight. Quickly the horses were withdrawn from the shafts, to prevent the possibility of whipping them forward; and turning a waggon with its broadside to the stream, the outlet was thus partially closed. So great now was the pressure from behind that waggon drove on waggon, and smashing in the roadway, the passage was at length blocked up with an impenetrable barricade, which effectually checked the efflux of the fugitives to Antwerp, and calmed the agitation of the people. Footnote 226: The only soldier of the corps actually in the battle was lance-corporal Henry Donnelly, who was orderly to Captain and Brigade-Major, now Major-General Oldfield, K.H. He was present on the 17th and 18th, and Colonel Carmichael Smyth, who was seriously indisposed on the night of the 17th, was much indebted to him for his care and attention. His claim to a medal was warmly advocated by the Major, who testified to his presence in the field for two days, but Colonel Smyth never would allow that he was entitled to it. At the final rejection of his just right corporal Donnelly was so much affected, that shortly after he went into hospital, and died on the 25th July, 1817. The claim of corporal Donnelly had been officially recognized at one time in the following order by the officer commanding his company:— “Company orders. Argenteuil, August 6, 1815. In consequence of private Henry Donnelly being present at the battle of Waterloo, he is entitled to two years advance of service. He will therefore be mustered according to the regulations of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, dated 29th July, 1815.—(Signed) ED. COVEY, Lieutenant Royal Engineers.” And he was so mustered until July 1816, when Colonel Smyth ordered its discontinuance, making at the same time these remarks:—“The sapper in question rode out a horse of Major Oldfield’s on the 17th, and returned to Brussels on the morning of the 18th, without having seen an enemy or heard a shot fired. He was in Brussels during the actions of the 16th and 18th; and under these circumstances I should have been guilty of a dereliction of duty to have certified that he was entitled to a medal, and which he could hardly have worn on the parade of his company, in preference to the very good non-commissioned officers and men of that company, who have constantly done their duty much to my satisfaction and their own credit; and who could not but have felt aggrieved to have seen a mark of distinction bestowed upon private Donnelly without his having in any way deserved it.” ----- Another company ordered to Waterloo on the 18th June, gained much praise for its firmness and regularity in pushing up to the field. This was the eighth company, second battalion, under Sub-Lieutenant Patrick Johnston. At 2 o’clock on the morning of the 18th it marched from Antwerp, and on arrival at Brussels Lieutenant Johnston, finding that the captain of the company as well as the commanding royal engineer and his staff were in the field, at once moved on for Waterloo. Crowds of wounded soldiers, anxious runaways, dismantled waggons and cannon, greatly impeded the march. From all he met he received the most discouraging advice, but amid the general panic and the numerous obstacles he had to contend with, he resolutely pursued his march and reached the village of Waterloo at 4 o’clock P.M., in a state that reflected great credit upon the discipline and perseverance of the company. Late in the evening, after firing had ceased, as there were many inducements to plundering and straggling, Lieutenant Johnston withdrew the company a short distance on the Brussels road, and placed it in an empty barn till next morning, when it commenced its march for Paris. In applauding the company for its steadiness and order under trying circumstances, Colonel C. Smyth alluded in a particular manner to the meritorious conduct of Lieutenant Johnston. Neither the officer nor his men were considered entitled to the Waterloo medal and extra service; and for several years afterwards many of the company claimed these advantages with unprecedented pertinacity, but without effect. “The experience of former defects in the Peninsula,” wrote Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley, “led to the more perfect organization of the field establishment of the royal engineer department.” On the 20th June orders to effect the arrangement were issued by Colonel C. Smyth. “ Every division of the army had one engineer’s brigade attached to it; each brigade consisting of a complete company of well-trained sappers and miners, with drivers, horses and waggons carrying entrenching tools sufficient to employ a working party of 500 men, besides a proportion of artificers' tools, and other engineer stores.”[227] The number of companies so distributed was six. “A captain and a certain number of subaltern officers were attached to each brigade, and were responsible for the discipline of the men and efficiency of the horses,” &c.[228] ----- Footnote 227: Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note F, p. xii. Footnote 228: Ibid. ----- Four companies were attached to the pontoon train, “which,” according to the same authority, “consisted of eighty pontoons, besides store-waggons, &c., and was drawn by nearly 800 horses, the whole being under the command of Brevet-Major Tylden of the engineers, assisted by a due proportion of captains and subalterns of the same corps.”[229] The second company, fourth battalion, under Sub-Lieutenant Samuel M‘Lean, of sixty-seven total, having joined the army from England soon after the disposition, was also added to the pontoon train. ----- Footnote 229: Ibid. ----- The total of the engineer establishment with the army and in the Netherlands, under the command of about sixty officers of engineers, amounted to 10 sub-lieutenants and 838 soldiers of the royal sappers and miners, and, adds Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley, “550 drivers in charge of 160 waggons, pontoon carriages included, and more than 1,000 horses.” Besides medical officers and other non-combatants, and a large force of peasants employed on the works, “a small number of Flemish seamen, accustomed to rivers and coasting navigation, was attached to each division of the pontoon train.”[230] The hired drivers, paid at 1_s._ 6_d._ a-day each and rations, were provided with a uniform of grey clothing, having red cuffs and collars to their round jackets; and the Flemish seamen, receiving each an allowance of 2_s._ a-day and rations, were dressed like British sailors, having on the front of their low glazed caps, painted in white, the word “Pontoneer.” ----- Footnote 230: Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note F, p. xii. ----- All the companies of the corps moved with the army towards Paris, leaving a few small detachments dispersed in Flanders. The second company, second battalion, attached to the first division, was present at the capture of Peronne on the 26th June under Sub-Lieutenant W. Stratton and two captains of engineers. The ladders used on the occasion were collected in the neighbourhood, but being too short were lashed together. The company had the honour of leading the brigade of guards to the assault,[231] and behaved remarkably well.[232] Preceding the column, they threw a number of fascines and faggots, hastily prepared by them, into the ditch of the hornwork, and thus enabled the troops to pass its swampy bottom into the body of the place.[233] A party of the company advanced under a heavy fire to force the main entrance. No ladders were carried with it, nor any sledge-hammers or instruments by which to force it open. Daring men were in the batch, and their first impulse, forlorn as it was, urged them to mount the gate. Lieutenant Stratton and lance-corporal Edward Councill soon gained the top, and tearing themselves over the spikes which crowned it, jumped into the place, tore down the fastenings, and pulling the gate open, admitted the troops. In leading the stormers into the work, Captain Alexander Thompson, R.E., and Lieutenant Stratton were severely wounded, as also two men of the company. Corporal Councill was dangerously wounded in the breast. ----- Footnote 231: Ibid, i., note D, p. ix. Footnote 232: ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ viii., p. 176, edit. 1847. Footnote 233: Colonel Carmichael Smyth’s ‘Plans of attack upon Antwerp,’ &c., p. 9, and plan. ----- For the passage of the army to Paris, a pontoon bridge was thrown over the Seine at Argenteuil early in July. Twenty pontoons were employed in its formation, and also some trestles, which were placed next to the banks of the river. On its completion, the Duke of Wellington, who was present during the greater part of the operation, first passed over leading his horse, and then the whole army with its artillery and baggage. From the acute winding of the Seine it was again necessary to pass the troops over the river, and a pontoon bridge similar to the one laid at Argenteuil was thrown at Aniers. The fifth company, second battalion, and seventh company, third battalion, constructed these bridges. Some Flemish seamen assisted in their formation, confining their exertions chiefly to mooring the pontoons. Skilful as they were as sailors, their want of previous training as pontoneers, rendered them far less serviceable than the royal sappers and miners.[234] The bridges were maintained for some months on the Seine, facilities being afforded for continuing the navigation without interruption. For this purpose an opening was made in the centre of each bridge, and when required to be re-established for the passage of the troops, the floating rafts were lashed in their places and removed again when the occasion was served. A sufficient detachment under Sub-Lieutenant James Adam was posted for a season at Chatou, to attend to a similar duty at the bridge thrown there by the Russians. Three companies with forty pontoons were also stationed at Epinay. ----- Footnote 234: Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note F, p. xii. ----- After the capture of Paris, the Earl of Mulgrave, then Master-General of the Ordnance, in a letter dated 11th July, expressed his high appreciation of the zealous, able, and beneficial exertions of the officers and soldiers of the corps during the successful progress of the campaign; and also of the services of the officers and men at the different fortresses. Corporal Joseph Coombs, of the fourth company, second battalion, detached to Maubeuge on the 23rd July, under Captain Harding, royal engineers, was present at the sieges of Philipville, from the 7th to 18th August, and Rocroy on the 15th and 16th following. He was with the army commanded by Prince Augustus of Prussia, and was the only British sapper engaged. On leaving that army in October, Captain Harding said that the corporal had conducted himself extremely well, and was both intelligent and active in the different services in which he had been employed. During the year a number of hired drivers deserted. They were generally ignorant of their duties and many of them of bad character. To take care of the horses was the principal object of the chief engineer and his officers. Obtaining an equal number of foreign drivers to replace the vacancies occasioned by desertion, afforded no promise of advantage or improvement. It was, therefore, determined, to make an experiment by appointing the royal sappers and miners to the duty. Accordingly, the number of men required was attached to the horses, and “from their peculiar habits of zeal and exertion, they made no difficulty of reconciling themselves to the novel occupation of grooms and drivers.” The experiment was eminently successful. “The horses were kept efficient and in proper condition;” and, “but for this measure, a number of valuable horses must have been ruined, and the pontoon train, as well as the engineers' brigades, by degrees, have become totally unserviceable.”[235] ----- Footnote 235: Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note F, p. xii. ----- At Paris the sappers were called upon to perform a domiciliary visit to the capital, which probably is the only instance on record of British soldiers being so employed in an enemy’s country. The Duke of Wellington having been informed that arms were carried nightly into Paris from Montmartre, desired Sir Thomas Brisbane, commanding the seventh division of the army, to order Captain Harry Jones, R.E., to take the company of sappers attached to the division, with such tools as might be necessary, and examine rigidly every part of Montmartre where it was probable arms might be concealed. The officer commanding the troops stationed within the intrenchments, had orders not to allow any person to pass out, until Captain Jones had completed his examination. The sappers were employed nearly the whole day in making the search. Every cellar, house, and garden was examined; no place where it was possible to conceal arms was unexplored, but the result was unsuccessful. No doubt, however, existed, that the information communicated to the Duke of Wellington was well founded. 1816-1818. Movements in France—Return of six companies from thence to England—Strength of those remaining, and detachments from them—St. Helena—Return of company from Italy—Disbandment of the war company of Maltese sappers—Battle of Algiers—Conduct of corps at Valenciennes—Instances in which the want of arms was felt during the war—Arming the corps attributable to accidental circumstances—Training and instruction of the corps in France—Its misconduct—But remarkable efficiency at drill—Municipal thanks to companies at Valenciennes—Dress—Bugles adopted—Reduction in the corps—Sub-Lieutenants disbanded—Withdrawal of companies from certain stations—Relief of company at Barbadoes—Repairing damages at St. Lucia; conduct of the old West India company—Corfu—Inspection of corps in France—Epaulettes introduced—Sordid conduct of four men in refusing to wear them—Murder of private Milne, and consequent punishment of corps in France by the Duke of Wellington—Return of the sappers from France. After the capitulation of Paris, the royal sappers and miners were encamped in the vicinity of the city. Late in the year they were removed to other stations on the northern frontiers of France; and until the formation of the army of occupation, were constantly changing their quarters and furnishing detachments for particular services at different places. To meet the arrangements for reducing the army in France, six companies quitted the country for England in January. Four embarked at Boulogne and two at Calais. The former arrived at Woolwich on the 9th February and the latter on the following day. Five companies remained with the army of occupation and were attached to divisions as follows:— 1st division 8th com., 2nd batt. Sub-Lieut. P. Johnston. 2nd division 1st com., 3rd batt. Sub-Lieut. W. Stevens. 3rd division 4th com., 2nd batt. Sub-Lieut. J. Adam. Pontoon train { 2nd com., 4th batt. Sub-Lieut. S. M‘Lean, { 5th com., 2nd batt. Sub-Lieut. C. Gratton. Their united strength counted 435 of all ranks, and they were quartered at Valenciennes, Raismes, Cantain, Bellain, St. Amand, Pernes, Denain, and Houdain. These places were the chief stations of the corps until its removal from France in 1818. Parties were also detached to Cambrai, St. Pol, and other places. Raismes was the head-quarters of the pontoon train. Each company attached to the train had twenty pontoons with stores and waggons in charge. The second company, fourth battalion, was attached to the right bridge of the train, and the fifth company, second battalion, to the left. The former bridge was permanently stationed at Raismes, but the latter was repeatedly moved from village to village for service and instruction, making its chief halts at Raismes and Aubry. On the 26th January the seventh company, fourth battalion, of forty-eight total under Sub-Lieutenant A. Wallace followed Napoleon to St. Helena, and landed from the ‘Phaeton’ frigate on the 13th April. Major Emmett, R.E. took command of the company on its arrival. In carrying on the duties of the island the men were much detached and separated. Many acted as overseers of the Chinese and line workmen, and were found very useful in their several occupations. The headquarters were at St. James', and parties at different periods were employed at Prosperous Bay, Turk’s Cap, Sandy Bay, Great Pound Ridge, Horse Pasture Point, Lemon Valley, Rupert’s Hill, Rupert’s Valley, Ladder Hill, &c. Besides attending to the repairs of the barracks and public buildings and strengthening the sea-defences, the company rendered efficient assistance in the building of a residence for Napoleon at Longwood. The structure was of one story only and contained about forty rooms. It was, however, never occupied, as the ex-emperor expired before the furniture had been arranged in the several apartments. On the evacuation of Italy the sixth company, second battalion, under Sub-Lieutenant R. Gibb, sailed from Genoa and landed at Gibraltar on the 17th March. Two months after, a fourth company was added to the engineer force on the Rock, by the arrival, in the ‘Kennesby Castle’ transport, of the first company, fourth battalion, from Portsmouth. The Maltese company of sappers quitted Genoa with the British troops and landed at Malta in March. It continued to maintain its military organization and character until the 31st March, 1817, when, by the Prince Regent’s command, it was disbanded. This was the _last_ company of the Maltese sappers and miners. On the 27th August the seventh company, first battalion under Captain William Reid and Major William Gosset, R.E., “had the high honour,” says Sir John Jones, “of participating with the fleet,” under Lord Exmouth, “in a splendid naval triumph.” This was the battle of Algiers. “Under the idea,” adds Sir John, “that it might become necessary to land and destroy some of the batteries and works covering the harbour of Algiers, the company,” eighty-four strong, “was embarked with the fleet; but owing to the daring intrepidity and able nautical manœuvres of Lord Exmouth, their services as miners were rendered unnecessary.”[236] Throughout the action, therefore, they fought with the seamen at the guns of the ‘Queen Charlotte’ and the ‘Impregnable,’ and gained equal credit with the navy and marines for their “noble support.”[237] Sub-Lieutenant S. Calder and fifteen rank and file were wounded, of whom private David Campbell mortally. The company returned to England in the ‘Queen Charlotte’ and the ‘Glasgow’ frigate in October, and as a reward for their services each soldier received a gratuity of two months' pay. ----- Footnote 236: Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 891, 2nd edit. Footnote 237: ‘London Gazette.’ ----- Comparatively unnoticed, from the nature of their duties, it was seldom that the sappers and miners were referred to in the despatches of general officers; but the rule seems to have been infringed by Lieut.-General Sir Charles Colville, who on quitting his command at Valenciennes early in 1817, offered the following tribute to their merits:— London, 19th April, 1817. MY DEAR SIR CHARLES, I am unwilling to part with those whom I regard so much, without bidding them adieu, and therefore request you will accept yourself, and have the goodness to express to the other officers of the royal engineers of the Valenciennes' staff and pontoon train, as well as those who were attached to the late third division, my sincere good wishes for their continued honour and welfare, and that you and they and the officers and privates of the royal sappers and miners will accept my thanks for the promptitude and correctness with which my wishes were met by them, during the time I had the honour to have them under my command. I am, &c., (Signed) CHARLES COLVILLE. Lieut.-Colonel Sir C. F. Smith, R.E. Arming the corps efficiently had for years been a subject of discussion and representation. Lord Mulgrave, the Master-General, however, could not be persuaded of the necessity of the measure, and under the opinion that a working corps ought not to be armed, sent detachments to the Peninsula equipped only with swords. The evil of this was greatly felt, as the sappers could not march across the country without being guarded by other troops. For the same reason the company attached to the light division, which was required for the siege of Bayonne, was unable to join. Upwards of 400 sappers were employed in that siege, and might, had they been equipped with fire-arms, have rendered important assistance in repelling the disastrous sortie. Eleven companies were sent to the Netherlands in a similarly defenceless state. Before moving them, Earl Mulgrave was ready to abide by the views of the Duke of Wellington on the point, as his Grace promised to consider the question when the first company should arrive; but no farther notice appears to have been taken of the subject, and the whole eleven companies landed without a firelock. When the alarming and unfounded reports of the retreat of the British from Waterloo reached Malines, Major Tylden, with the pontoon companies under his command, assumed a posture of defence; but the attitude, from want of arms, was necessarily impotent and embarrassing. This gave the Major a notion, when afterwards crossing the plains of Waterloo, of arming the companies with muskets and accoutrements scattered on the battle-field; the idea, however, from some regimental considerations was not carried out. On one occasion, near St. Denis, all the sappers of the army, nearly 1,000 strong, were assembled to witness an execution, and strange to add, in that imposing force there was not a single fire-arm! At another time there was an inspection of the pontoon train of eighty pontoons and other carriages, with horses, drivers, and pontoneers, occupying a line of road nearly two miles in length. The sappers were present in their whole strength, but without a musket in their ranks to show the quality of protection they could afford to the immense charge intrusted to them. Fifty men with fire-arms could easily have destroyed the whole force in ten minutes. These instances and others equally striking, occurring in an enemy’s country, were strongly brought under the notice of the higher powers; but, where representations and remonstrances founded on the necessities of the service failed to obtain attention, accidental circumstances at last gained the desired object. At the great reviews in France, the bridges required for the passage of the army were thrown the evening previously, and the sappers consequently were free for any other duty. Usually they were employed to represent the enemy, and to show the line of the enemy’s position to advantage it was considered best to effect it by musketry fire. Orders were therefore given, on the 8th October, to supply the companies with muskets and bayonets from the stores at Valenciennes; and from this trivial incident may be dated the period from which the corps was properly and uniformly armed. To keep up the training and efficiency of the corps in France, Sir James Carmichael Smyth issued to each non-commissioned officer and fifty of the most steady and intelligent privates, books and useful articles for their instruction and improvement. Schools were also established for the men, and prizes liberally awarded for industrious application and advancement. To perfect the corps in the use of the firelock and marching evolutions, five serjeants from the light infantry regiments in France were specially appointed to the duty. Each company was also required to execute a certain portion of field-work every year and reports of individual progress in instruction were prepared weekly, which were carefully examined, and promotion distributed according to merit. The pontoon train, which was constantly in motion and sustained a high character for activity and usefulness, was only expected to do half the work demanded from the divisional companies; and this course of professional and general education, based upon the system of Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley, was scrupulously enforced until the companies quitted France in November, 1818. Notwithstanding all this attention on the part of the officers, there was much misconduct prevalent in the sappers. During the period that eleven companies were with the army, courts' martial were very uncommon, and the punishments infinitely fewer than were found necessary to keep only five companies in order. This suggests a difficulty not easily explained; for, when the six companies were removed from the country in 1816, the weeds from the other five were sent to England, and their places supplied by privates of unexceptionable character. So rigid indeed had the drilling been enforced that at the last reviews in the vicinity of Valenciennes, the correct manner in which the royal sappers and miners were handled by Captain Harry D. Jones, when representing the enemy, excited general approbation. Their light infantry evolutions even emulated those of their old companions in arms of the light division, whose only business was that of constant exercise in the requirements of the parade and in martial movements and combinations. The formation of “rallying square” by the companies was particularly commended; and those who did not justly appreciate their military attainments from the semi-civil nature of their many employments—expected to see them fly, as the cavalry, in its impetuous charges over the plain, furiously approached their compact and immoveable phalanx. While these disciplinary exercises were in operation, it happened that the fourth company second battalion at Valenciennes, was suddenly called upon to extinguish a fire in the town. So well applied were their efforts in this humane service that the flames were speedily suppressed amid the thankful shouts of the people. This seemingly was not enough to mark their gratitude, and therefore the mayor and corporation in full municipal costume bearing the symbols of their offices, waited upon Captain Harry Jones to express the deep acknowledgments of the inhabitants “to the officers and men of the corps for their conduct on the occasion.” In his orders of the 2nd November, Captain Jones added, “The activity displayed by the non-commissioned officers and privates as well as the cheerfulness with which they executed all orders reflects the highest credit upon them. The bold conduct of private Thomas James deserves to be particularly mentioned,” and he was appointed a lance corporal. Early in the year the high-fronted chaco was superseded by a black felt cap of more military pretensions than was formerly worn. It was embellished with yellow cords and tassels, which fell with chivalric gaiety upon the left shoulder. The sergeants and staff sergeants wore white heckle feathers, gold bands and cords, with gilt scales and ornaments.-See Plate XII. 1823. In March the drums throughout the corps were abolished and bugles adopted. The rank of drummer was also changed to accord with the alteration, and drum-major James Bailey, the first of the rank, was now styled bugle-major. The return of peace gave rise to a gradual reduction in the corps. On the 16th August, 1816, twenty-five men per company were lopped off. This took away 800 men, reducing the corps from 2,861 to 2,061 of all ranks. By the royal warrant of the 4th February, 1817, an entire battalion was disbanded, and a further diminution of ten privates and one drummer took place in each of the remaining twenty-four companies. From the staff was taken one adjutant, one sergeant-major, and one quartermaster-sergeant, and also the whole of the sub-lieutenants, thirty-two in number.[238] The establishment of the corps was thus decreased to twenty-four companies of 1,258 of all ranks.[239] ----- Footnote 238: Generally the sub-lieutenants were commissioned into the corps from the ranks of other regiments, as a patronage to the military friends of the Master-General. Many of them had distinguished themselves in the field, were good drills, and fine-looking soldiers; but though considered at first to promise well, they disappointed the expectations formed of their probable usefulness. Wanting the necessary ability and weight, they were neither respected in the army nor by the corps; and unable, therefore, to give the satisfaction which was reasonably hoped for, the first reduction ordered after the peace, embraced the abolition of the rank.—Pasley’s Mil. Pol., pp. 18, 19, Introduction. Their removal from the corps was, nevertheless, alluded to in terms of “extreme regret” by Colonel Carmichael Smyth in his orders of the 22nd April. In concluding his address at parting, he thus wrote, “With the conduct of the whole of the sub-lieutenants Colonel Carmichael Smyth has had every reason to be satisfied, but more particularly with those who, having been longest under his command, he has had more occasion of knowing. If, in the course of future service, he should have any opportunity of being useful to them, he assures them he will embrace it with pleasure.” Footnote 239: In addition to this total 180 men of the companies in France were borne on the strength as supernumeraries, until December, 1818. ----- In consequence of these orders, the companies at Dover and Spike Island were withdrawn, as also the detachment at Guernsey. The force at Gibraltar was reduced from four to three companies, and the strength at Woolwich and Chatham was brought down to a fluctuating establishment of five companies. The company discontinued on the works at Spike Island, sailed for Barbadoes on the 17th December, 1817, on board the ‘Thames of London’ freight-ship, to relieve the old company which landed there in January, 1794. The vessel encountered some very stormy weather on the voyage, from the effects of which Lieutenant Rogers, R.E., who commanded the company, died when near Madeira, and the charge of the men devolved upon Captain Robert Duport of the royal artillery. Not a single irregularity was committed by the sappers during the voyage, and on their arrival in Carlisle Bay on the 18th January, Lord Combermere, the governor, expressed in orders his high satisfaction of their excellent conduct as reported to him by Captain Duport. On the landing of the new company, the old West India hands, dwindled to twenty-eight in number including sergeants, were sent to St. Lucia, and assisted in repairing the damage done by a recent hurricane. In March following, they arrived in England and were disbanded. In summing up their character, Colonel William Johnston, of the engineers, thus wrote, “They are a drunken set, and require to be thought of and provided for like babies;” but, nevertheless, he urged that the sapper force in Barbadoes should be always maintained complete, as it would act as a check upon the contractors, and enable the estimates to be carried into execution with more despatch, economy, and superiority of workmanship in almost all the details, than if an equal number of artificers were derived from the country. A company of fifty strong, intended for the service of the palace of the Lord High Commissioner at Corfu, embarked at Portsmouth on the 4th May, and after a month’s detention at Malta reached its destination in August. The employment of the company was chiefly confined to clearing away the rock, by blasting, for the foundations of the palace, and in executing such other miscellaneous services as were required. From local disagreements regarding the working pay of the company, the men were precluded from taking part in the artistic details of the palace, and eventually, from the same cause, it was removed from the island. Colonel Carmichael Smyth made his last general inspection of the corps in France in May, and in complimenting the companies for the excellency of their discipline, interior economy, and improvement in the field duties, awarded to fifteen non-commissioned officers and men—the most advanced in the course of instruction—a silver penholder each as a token of his approbation. This year, the companies in France substituted yellow worsted epaulettes for the plain shoulder-strap, the expense of which was borne by the men themselves. Among the companies there were four unepauletted privates who at all times fell in, like branded castaways, in the rear of their company. The badges had been placed on their shoulders, but, more mean than avaricious, they refused to pay for them. Feeling none of that becoming pride which has always been so largely developed among even the commonest soldiers, they were publicly stripped of the epaulettes intended to give them distinction, not allowed to disfigure the ranks with their presence, and ultimately removed in contempt to England. The circumstances of this curious proceeding are given in the following spirited order of Colonel Carmichael Smyth. “C. E. O. Head Quarters, Cambray, 30th May, 1818. “The commanding engineer has received a report that four men of Captain Stanway’s company, viz., privates— Patrick O’Kean, Andrew Graham, James Ballingall, James Scoble, have refused to sign their accounts, alleging that they have no right to pay for the additional fringe for their epaulettes, as sanctioned by the commanding engineer’s orders of 4th April, 1818. “Colonel Carmichael Smyth had not an idea that, in the whole of the five companies in this country under his command, four men of so sordid and mean a disposition would have been found. He holds them up to the contempt of their comrades, as void of every feeling that ought to actuate a soldier with pleasure or pride in the character or appearance of the company to which they belong. “He directs that the epaulettes may be forthwith cut off their shoulders, and that they are in future to parade upon all occasions in the rear of the company until an opportunity offers to send them away from it altogether. They will be removed to either the Gibraltar or West India company, being perfectly unworthy of serving with this army. “Colonel Carmichael Smyth feels confident that the non-commissioned officers and men of the sapper companies with this army must be sensible of their improved state of discipline, regularity, and appearance, and how much in consequence, their own individual happiness and respectability are increased. The character, conduct, and appearance of a corps, reflects good or evil upon every soldier belonging to it as the case may be. “The sapper companies have fortunately established a respectable character, and are well thought of in this army. The epaulettes have been adopted as distinguishing them from the infantry. The sapper’s duty requires much more intelligence, and much more previous training, than that of a common infantry soldier. He is better paid and better clothed, and ought to conceive himself happy at being permitted to wear a distinction showing that he is a sapper. Such, no doubt, will be the view taken of the subject by every non-commissioned officer and sapper who feels any way interested in the welfare and respectability of the corps. “The sooner men who have not this feeling are got rid of the better. They are unworthy of belonging to this army. (Signed) “JOHN OLDFIELD. “Major of Brigade.” On the 19th June, private Alexander Milne of the corps was found in a wheat-field, near Raismes, murdered! A number of the men of his company had been in the habit of breaking out of their quarters after tattoo roll-call, and spending the time of their absence in gambling. Some were said to have been playing with the deceased on the night of the murder. Strong suspicion attached to the card-party, but as the perpetrator of the deed could not be discovered, the Duke of Wellington, convinced that the murderer was in the ranks of the corps, ordered _all_ the sappers and miners with the army, both near and distant, to parade every hour of every day from four in the morning till ten in the evening, as a punishment for the crime; and as the order was never rescinded, it was enforced—with only a slight relief—until the very hour the companies quitted France.[240] Several of the officers and many of the men were worn out and laid up with fevers by the rigour of the penalty, and its execution fell with singular hardship upon one of the companies which, quartered with the division encamped near St. Omer, was, at the time, seventy miles away from the place of the murder! ----- Footnote 240: The orders issued for the infliction of this discipline were as follows:— “Head Quarters, Cambray, 25th June, 1818. In consequence of the circumstances connected with the murder of Alexander Milne, of Captain Peake’s company, which have appeared upon the proceedings of a court of enquiry, the Field Marshal has directed that the rolls of the royal sappers and miners may be called, until further orders, in their several cantonments every hour from 4 in the morning until 10 at night, all the officers being present; and that a daily report thereof may be made to head-quarters.” “Head-Quarters, Cambray, 18th July, 1818. In consequence of orders from His Grace the Commander of the Forces, the rolls of the several companies of royal sappers and miners will be called every two hours from 4 in the morning until 10 at night, in place of every hour as directed in the C. E. orders of the 25th ultimo.” ----- Early in November, on the breaking up of the army of occupation, the eighth company, second battalion, took charge of the pontoons and stores to Antwerp, and the other four companies marched from Cambrai to Calais, where, as arranged by General Power with the French governor, they were encamped on the glacis on the east side of the town. This was requisite, as by the treaty of the 3rd November, 1815, no troops of the army of occupation could be quartered within any of the fortresses not specified in the treaty. At Calais the companies remained about a week, assisting in the embarkation of the army and the shipment of the cavalry horses. In this service the sappers became so expert, that a regiment was embarked and many were landed at Dover during the same tide. All the companies arrived in England before the end of November. One sergeant and twenty men, under Lieutenant Hayter, of the engineers, after the sailing of the troops, guarded the military chest both at Calais and on the passage, and rejoined their companies, when the important duty for which they were selected was completed. 1819-1824. Reduction in the corps—Distribution—Sergeant Thomas Brown, the modeller—Reinforcement to the Cape, and services of the detachment during the Kaffir war—Epidemic at Bermuda—Damages at Antigua occasioned by a hurricane—Visit to Chatham of the Duke of Clarence—Withdrawal of a detachment from Corfu—A private becomes a peer—Draft to Bermuda—Second visit to Chatham of the Duke of Clarence—Fever at Barbadoes—Death of Napoleon, and withdrawal of company from St. Helena—Notice of private John Bennett—Movements of the company in Canada—Trigonometrical operations under the Board of Longitude—Feversham—Relief of the old Gibraltar company—Breastplates—St. Nicholas' Island—Condition of company at Barbadoes when inspected by the Engineer Commission—Scattered state of the detachment at the Cape—Services of the detachment at Corfu—Intelligence and usefulness of sergeant Hall and corporal Lawson—Special services of corporal John Smith—Pontoon trials—Sheerness—Notice of corporal Shorter—Forage-caps and swords. By the royal warrant of 20th March, 1819, the peace establishment of the corps was further reduced, from twenty-four companies of 1,258 total, to twelve companies of 752. Of this number the staff embraced one brigade-major, one adjutant, one quartermaster, two sergeant-majors, two quartermaster-sergeants, and one bugle-major. The organization of each company was fixed at the subjoined detail:— 1 colour-sergeant, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 3 second-corporals, 2 buglers, 51 privates. —— Total 62; and the whole were distributed, with regard to strength, consistently with the relative wants of the several stations. These stations were Woolwich, Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth; Gibraltar, Corfu, Bermuda, Barbadoes, St. Helena, Kingston in Upper Canada, and the Cape of Good Hope.[241] ----- Footnote 241: The companies at Newfoundland and at Halifax, Nova Scotia, returned to England late in 1819. To the former company belonged sergeant Thomas Brown, who was discharged from the corps in November, 1819, after a service of twelve years. In 1821 the late Sir William Congreve appointed him modeller at the royal military repository, Woolwich, which situation he has held for thirty-six years with great credit. In that period he has made 125 models, chiefly of field artillery, pontoons, bridges, and miscellaneous military subjects. The greatest number are deposited for exhibition in the Rotunda, and the remainder in the rooms of instruction for the officers and non-commissioned officers. Many others also, which were defective or out of repair he has renewed or remade. His principal works, considered with regard to the skill and artistic excellence displayed in their construction, are the model of a fortified half octagon, showing the approaches and plan of attack, on a scale of 22½ feet to an inch, and a model of St. James’s Park as it was at the celebration of the peace in 1814. ----- A reinforcement of thirty men, under Lieutenant Rutherford, R.E., arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on the 24th July. In consequence of hostilities with the Kaffirs the detachment marched 700 miles to the south-eastern frontier. It traversed a wild and thickly-wooded country, where there were neither bridges nor roads; and in the absence of soldiers of the quartermaster-general’s department, facilitated by their exertions the progress of the troops. In places where civil artificers could not be procured at any rate of wages, they executed various services and works of defence for the security and tranquillity of the settlement. On one occasion they constructed a temporary bridge, of chance materials, to span one of the principal rivers of the country, which was swollen by floods, and rendered deep, rapid, and dangerous. The bridge was thrown in six hours, and the whole of the force, about 2,000 horse and foot, a demi-battery of guns with ammunition waggons, about 100 baggage waggons with commissariat supplies, camp equipage, &c., crossed in perfect safety in three hours. “Without the assistance of these sappers,” writes Colonel Holloway, R.E., “the river could not have been passed without much delay, loss of property, and perhaps loss of life;” and, “both on the frontier, and at the seat of government, they were always found of the utmost benefit.” The detachment returned to Cape Town in December, when the remnant of the old party, which had been in the colony since 1806, quitted for England and arrived at Woolwich on the 5th September, 1820. An epidemic fever of a severe character raged at Bermuda during the months of August and September, and out of a company of fifty-two total, no less than one sergeant, twenty rank and file, three women, and one child, fell victims to its virulence. Captain Cavalie S. Mercer who commanded the company, was also numbered with the dead. From Barbadoes, thirty non-commissioned officers and men, under the command of Captain W. D. Smith, were detached to Antigua, in November, and worked in the engineer department, repairing the damage caused by a recent hurricane, until the January following, when they returned to their former station. Small parties, of fluctuating strength, were also detached to Trinidad, St. Lucia, Tobago, and Demerara, and had charge of different working parties at those islands for several years. At Chatham on the 11th November, the Duke of Clarence reviewed the corps under arms; and after witnessing various field operations, including the firing of mines, the construction of flying saps, and the manœuvring of pontoons, inspected the model and school rooms. In the latter, he watched with great interest the system of instruction as carried out by Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley; and in expressing his perfect satisfaction with all he saw, added his opinion, that the establishment was one of great public utility. On the 14th of the same month, thirty-four non-commissioned officers and men of the company at Corfu were withdrawn from the island in the ‘Christiana’ transport, and sailed for England. On arriving at Gibraltar, one sergeant and nineteen rank and file joined the companies there under an order from General Sir George Don; and the remaining twelve reached Chatham on the 2nd April, 1820. The conduct of the company during its brief tour of duty at Corfu, was reported to the Inspector-General of Fortifications in very favourable terms, by Lieutenant-Colonel Whitmore, R.E.[242] ----- Footnote 242: To this company belonged private James Gordon, who lost an eye by accident in mining for the foundation of the palace, and was discharged at Woolwich 30th September, 1820, with a pension of 9_d._ a-day. Throughout his service of nine years he was a zealous and exemplary soldier, and bore about him the stamp and evidences of a loftier origin than his humble station gave reason to expect. Singular events in life sometimes occur that make contrasts at times appear almost fabulous. “The soldier turned peer,” has hitherto been the player’s jest, but it has at last become a veritable reality, for in September, 1848, this James Gordon, the private soldier, succeeded, as heir to his grandfather, to the titles of Viscount Kenmure and Lord Lochinvar. ----- On the 5th June thirty-one men, chiefly masons and bricklayers, under Lieutenant Skene, R.E., arrived at Bermuda, to replace the men who had died during the epidemic. A party of variable strength, with the exception of occasional periods of temporary withdrawal, was permanently detached to execute the defences at Ireland Island. In August the Duke of Clarence again visited Chatham, and a full routine of military and field operations was carried on for his inspection. With the works, the schools, and model rooms, his Royal Highness expressed his approbation in language that was both flattering to the corps and honourable to the institution. In October the yellow fever again visited Barbadoes, but its violence, contrasted with former visitations, was considerably assuaged, and its fatality less felt among the population. Forty-six of the corps were present during its prevalence, and though nearly the whole of the number were attacked, only eleven died, and but fifteen were invalided. The loss in the company, however, was proportionally more severe than in any other corps in garrison, and the deterioration in the general health of the men drew the particular notice of the Commander of the Forces, who made repeated comments on it in his reports to England. In consequence of these reports, the company was relieved early in 1822, some months before the completion of its tour of service. Its character while in the West India command was flatteringly spoken of by Captain W. D. Smith, R.E. In one of his communications he wrote, “Its conduct, I have pride in saying, has been most exemplary.” Napoleon died at St. Helena on the 5th May, and his remains were deposited with quiet solemnity in an unpretending tomb, shadowed by a willow, in Slane’s valley. The company of sappers at the station took part in the funereal arrangements. The stone vault was built by privates John Warren and James Andrews. The body was lowered into its resting-place by two privates of the company, and other privates, appointed for the duty, refilled the grave, and secured all with plain Yorkshire slabs. Thus, without epitaph or memorial, were entombed the ashes of the most extraordinary man of modern times. As the necessity for retaining the company, now reduced, by deaths and the withdrawal of a detachment in 1819, to twenty-five of all ranks, no longer existed, it quitted the island and arrived at Woolwich on the 14th September. Private John Bennett was detained for three months after the removal of the company, and during that period he was employed with the Clerk of Works, in giving over the stores of the engineer department to the island storekeeper.[243] ----- Footnote 243: Was an excellent clerk, and became in time a quartermaster-sergeant. After his discharge from the corps in 1843, he filled, for about ten years, important offices under the Surveyor-General of Prisons, and died while steward of Dartmoor Prison, in February, 1853, from a cold caught in that bleak quarter. The season was a peculiarly bitter and stormy one, during which three soldiers of the line, on escort duty, in crossing Dartmoor Heath, perished in the snow. ----- The company in Upper Canada changed its head-quarters in June, from Kingston to Isle aux Noix, and afforded parties for service at Quebec and Fort George, both of which were recalled to Isle aux Noix in August. In November, 1822, the greater part of the company was removed to Quebec, and the remainder were retained for the works at Isle aux Noix. From July to November, a sergeant and nine men, chiefly carpenters and smiths, were employed by the Board of Longitude under Major Colby and Captain Kater, in the operations for determining the difference of longitude between the observatories at Paris and Greenwich; and visited ten of the principal trigonometrical stations in England. Besides attending to the laborious requirements of the camp, the party erected poles, and constructed stages or platforms wherever needed, on commanding sites and towers, for purposes of observation; and were also intrusted with the care of the philosophical instruments. In the professional operations of the season they took no part.[244] ----- Footnote 244: Captain Kater, in his account of the operations published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ 1828, p. 153, notices, by mistake, this party as belonging to the royal artillery. There were, it is true, two gunners of the regiment present, but they were employed as servants to the officers. ----- In June, one sergeant and thirty-nine rank and file under Captain John Harper, R.E., were detached from Woolwich to Feversham, and after destroying the powder-mills and premises connected with them, returned to head-quarters in September. The first company of the corps, which had been at Gibraltar since 1772 and was present at the celebrated siege a few years afterwards, was removed, in the course of relief, from that fortress to Woolwich in June. Breast or belt-plates of brass, in place of buckles, were adopted early in the year by permission of General Gother Mann. All ranks wore a plate of uniform device and dimensions, and each soldier paid for his own. The device consisted of the royal cipher, encircled by the garter, bearing the name of the corps and surmounted by a crown. A fluctuating detachment, not exceeding thirteen masons and miners under a corporal, was detached in the autumn from Devonport to St. Nicholas Island, and remained there for nearly four months repairing the fortifications. At the fall of the year the engineer commission to the West Indies, composed of Colonel Sir James Carmichael Smyth, Major Fanshawe, and Captain Oldfield inspected, in the course of their professional tour, the fourth company of sappers stationed at Barbadoes under the command of Captain Loyalty Peake. Its state was most creditable. Since its arrival in the command it had only lost one man and that from an accident. Whilst other troops quartered under the same roof were withered and sickly, the sappers were healthy—a fact that was ascribed to the attention of the officers, and the absence among the men of those intemperate habits, which in a hot and enervating climate, originate so many ailments. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: Royal Sappers & Miners Plate XII. UNIFORM 1823. Printed by M & N Hanhart. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The small detachment at the Cape of Good Hope was much dispersed at this period. The men detached are traced at short intervals at Cape Town, Kaffir Drift, Wiltshire, Port Elizabeth, and New Post Kat River. The Corfu detachment of seven men was removed to Gibraltar, in the ‘Frinsbury’ transport, in December, and arrived at the Rock on the 6th March, 1824, bearing with it records of its uniform exemplary conduct and public utility. Being first-rate workmen, they were the leading men of their trades, and some of the best work at the palace was the result of their superior mechanical acquirements and skill. Sergeant John Hall was overseer and master carpenter for four years, and corporal Andrew Lawson, a man of considerable talent, was clerk of works, and also directed the masons and bricklayers.[245] Captain Streatfeild in parting with them, wrote “They are a very honest, trustworthy set of men, and do honour to the corps.” “The worst mechanic among them,” said Lieutenant G. Whitmore, “would be almost invaluable in the corps.” Before the company quitted Corfu, four deaths had occurred; four also took place in the small party that remained, one of whom, private Gamaliel Ashton, a bricklayer, was killed by falling from a scaffold while at work at the palace.[246] ----- Footnote 245: Such was the sense entertained of his services, that Sir Frederick Adam, the Lord High Commissioner, after the detachment had reached Malta, recalled him to Corfu to superintend the civil works on the island. His position thus became anomalous, and, as far as military law and usage are concerned, unexampled for privilege and emolument. Besides his regimental pay, he received an allowance of 3_s._ 3_d._ a-day working pay, (afterwards increased to 4_s._ 3_d._ a-day,) with a fine residence and free rations for his wife, family, and a servant. He had also a horse and boats at his command, was relieved from the performance of regimental duty, and was permitted at all times to wear plain clothes. Throughout the building of the palace, the Villa of Cardachio, and other important civil buildings, he was the clerk of the works, and Sir Frederic Adam took every occasion of applauding his talents and exertions. In April, 1834, after removal to Woolwich, sergeant Lawson was appointed clerk of works at Sierra Leone, where, after a brief period of service, during which he was bereaved of his wife, he died, leaving nine orphans to lament his loss. His eldest son was nominated to the appointment as the fittest person in the colony to discharge its professional duties, but the youth fell a sacrifice to the climate four days after his father’s decease. The eight remaining orphans were generously cared for by Sir Frederic Mulcaster, the inspector-general of fortifications and the executive of the corps at the Ordnance Office, who obtained from the officers of royal engineers and the civil gentlemen of the department sufficient means to free them from that distress, to which the absence of this benevolent support would have inevitably reduced them. Footnote 246: The remains of all were interred with unusual respectability, and the spots where they lie have been marked by neat tomb-stones—a graceful tribute from the survivors to the memory of the departed. ----- Second-corporal John Smith was sent from Quebec in the summer to examine the freestone quarries of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and to report upon their capabilities and facilities for furnishing stones of certain dimensions for the service of the department. He started on his mission in a merchant schooner on the 7th August, and, with Captain Melville Glenie, of the 60th rifles, was nearly wrecked on the Beaumont shoals. The flag of distress and the shouts of the passengers being unheeded, corporal Smith procured an old musket and some powder, and having with some difficulty fired a few rounds from it, the situation of the vessel was observed by some pilots, who rescued the passengers. Next day the corporal re-embarked on board another vessel, and landing at Miramichi, visited the quarries there, and also at Remsheg, Pictou, Mergomish, and Nipisiguit. Upwards of two months were spent in completing his researches; and, returning to Quebec on the 16th October with specimens of the building stones and slates taken by him from the various quarries he had examined, he made a lucid report of their capabilities, &c, and detailed the terms upon which the owners of the properties were prepared to deal with the department. Colonel Durnford, the commanding royal engineer, expressed his entire satisfaction of the manner in which the duty was performed, and of the intelligence evinced by the corporal in his descriptive report.[247] ----- Footnote 247: Smith, afterwards a sergeant, was a first-rate mason and foreman, and during his service of thirty two years, twenty-five of which were abroad, his abilities, experience, and precision were found of great benefit to the department. At Corfu, Vido, and Zante, he was entrusted with very important duties. Subsequently to his discharge in 1842 on a pension of 2_s._ 3½_d._ a-day, he superintended, on the part of the Admiralty, the building of the royal marine barracks at Woolwich by contract, and his vigilance prevented the employment of any of those artifices so commonly resorted to by contractors. He afterwards superintended for the Duke of Buckingham the building of a circular redoubt, partly of stone, for six guns, at his Grace’s ducal residence at Stowe: and in the inscription on one of the piers, his name is thus associated with the work:— Richard Plantagenet Duke of Buckingham & Chandos. Robert Wilcox, Captain Royal Navy. John Smith, Sergeant R^l Sappers and Miners. In September and October trials of the pontoons, invented respectively by Sir James Colleton and Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley, were made in the open part of the Medway near the Gunwharf, and at Rochester Bridge—on the 9th and 10th September, in the presence of a committee of seven officers of the royal artillery and royal engineers, Lieut.-General Cuppage, R.A., being the president; and on the 1st October in the presence of his Royal Highness the Duke of York. One or other of the rival systems was to supersede the use of the old English tin pontoons. To work the buoy pontoons of Sir James Colleton, seamen were lent from H.M.S. ‘Prince Regent.’ The third and sixth companies were employed with Colonel Pasley’s decked canoes. The manœuvres were exceedingly laborious, and the men were exposed a greater part of each day to very heavy rains. They not only, however, did everything to the satisfaction of his Royal Highness and of the officers composing the committee, but several distinguished naval officers declared it was impossible that any operations with boats could have been better or more quickly performed.[248] ----- Footnote 248: Pasley’s ‘Narrative of Operations with the New Pontoons,’ 1824. Sir James Colleton’s ‘Buoy Pontoons.’ ----- From early in November to the 21st January, 1825, a party of ten privates with second-corporal Robert Shorter, was employed at Sheerness under the command of Lieutenant E. W. Durnford, R.E., in boring to ascertain the nature of the strata with a view to determine its practicability for building some permanent works of defence. The borings were carried on at all the salient points of the contemplated fortifications, ranging in depth from thirty to sixty feet. Borings were also made on the Isle of Grain, and the men of the party were occasionally employed at their trades in the engineer department. Corporal Shorter registered the daily progress and results of the operation;[249] but, although the intended works were never undertaken, the borings were not without interest in adding their quota of information to the cumulative discoveries of geological research. ----- Footnote 249: Shorter was afterwards stationed for fourteen years at Corfu. For seven of his twenty-seven years' service he filled the office of quartermaster-sergeant, and was honoured with an annuity and medal for his meritorious conduct. He retired from the sappers on being appointed a Yeoman of the Queen’s Guard, and was the first non-commissioned officer of the corps who received a nomination to that ancient company. While he was all that could be desired in his corps in respect to efficiency and intelligence, in private life he was a thorough humourist, and the most simple incident, with scarcely an element for merriment in it, became by his droll inventorial recital, a subject of the richest amusement. ----- The leather forage cap introduced in 1813, was this year superseded by a dark blue cap, called the Kilmarnock bonnet, with a yellow band manufactured in the web, and a peak and chin-strap. The crown was of immense circumference. See Plate XIII. The corporals wore the chevrons of their rank above the peak. The superior ranks had blue cloth caps, with peaks, chin-straps, and gold lace bands. The Kilmarnock bonnets were purchased by the men; the leather caps had been supplied by the public. About this period the army pattern sword for staff-sergeants and sergeants was adopted in the corps; but the swords introduced for the buglers were of the artillery pattern. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: Royal Sappers & Miners Plate XIII. UNIFORM & WORKING DRESS, 1825 Printed by M & N Hanhart. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1825-1826. Dress—Curtailment of benefits by the change—Chacos—Survey of Ireland—Formation of the first company for the duty—Establishment of corps; company to Corfu—Second company for the survey—Efforts to complete the companies raised for it—Pontoon trials in presence of the Duke of Wellington—Western Africa—Third company for the survey; additional working pay—Employments and strength of the sappers in Ireland—Drummond Light; Slieve Snacht and Divis—Endurance of private Alexander Smith—Wreck of ‘Shipley’ transport—Berbice; Corporal Sirrell at Antigua. Early in the year the breeches, long gaiters, and shoes, ceased to be worn by the corps, and in their stead were substituted light blue trousers, with scarlet stripes, and short Wellington boots. The coatee was stript of its frogging on the breast; and the skirts, with the slashes sewn transversely on the loins, were lengthened to the swell of the thigh. White turnbacks were added to the inner edges of the skirts, and brass grenades united the turnbacks near the bottom of the skirts. The working jacket was simply altered in the collar from the open to the close Prussian fashion, and the working trousers were dyed of a deeper grey.—See Plate XIII. These alterations were followed by curtailments of benefits heretofore enjoyed by the corps, inasmuch as the stockings, shirts, and forage caps, annually issued with the clothing, ceased to be provided at the public expense. The allowances for oil and emery, and shoes, were also abolished; but in lieu of the one pair of shoes formerly issued, and the compensation for a second pair, the corps had the advantage of receiving, yearly, two pairs of short Wellington boots. The low chaco of 1817 gave place to one of about ten inches in height, bearing a goose feather of a foot long in an exploded grenade. The ornaments consisted of scales secured by lions' heads, the garter and motto encircling the royal cipher surmounted by a crown, and also a cluster of forked lightning, winged. For protection to the neck in wet weather, a varnished canvas ear-cover was attached to the back of the cap.—See Plate XIII. The ornaments on the staff-sergeants' chacos were of excellent gilt, and a band of rich silk, embossed with acorns and oak leaves around the top of the cap, gave it an elegant appearance. The sergeants' ornaments were manufactured of a metal resembling copper, and the black bands were of plain narrow silk. Both ranks wore white heckle feathers. In June, 1824, a committee of the House of Commons recommended the trigonometrical survey of Ireland, with the view of apportioning equally the local burdens, and obtaining a general valuation of the whole country. The measure was sanctioned, and Colonel Thomas Colby, R.E., was appointed to superintend the work. It being intended that the survey should be conducted under military supervision, Major William Reid suggested the advantage to be derived from the co-operation of the royal sappers and miners in carrying out its subordinate details. Colonel Colby after due reflection, the result of a discussion of nearly six weeks' duration with Major Reid, considering the plan to be not only practicable but desirable, made known his wishes to the Duke of Wellington, then Master-General of the Ordnance, and on the 1st December, 1824, his Grace obtained a royal warrant for the formation of a company of sixty-two non-commissioned officers and men, to be employed in the operations of the survey in Ireland.[250] ----- Footnote 250: ‘Report Army and Ordnance Expenditure,’ Minutes of Evidence, p.