Chapter XI: Part 11

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.

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Footnote 236:

Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 891, 2nd edit.

Footnote 237:

‘London Gazette.’

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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]

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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.

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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!

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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.”

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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]

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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.

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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]

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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.

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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]

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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.

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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]

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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.

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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.

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Royal Sappers & Miners Plate XII.
UNIFORM 1823. Printed by M & N Hanhart.

]

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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]

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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.

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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]

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Footnote 248:

Pasley’s ‘Narrative of Operations with the New Pontoons,’ 1824.
Sir James Colleton’s ‘Buoy Pontoons.’

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Royal Sappers & Miners Plate XIII.
UNIFORM & WORKING DRESS, 1825 Printed by M & N Hanhart.

]

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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]

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Footnote 250:

‘Report Army and Ordnance Expenditure,’ Minutes of Evidence, p.
617. ‘Naval and Military Gazette.’ Pasley’s ‘Mil. Policy,’
Introd., p. 37, 4th edit.

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This company was at once organized at Chatham; and the men, selected from the most intelligent of the corps at the station, were specially trained for the duty by Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley. It, however, remained for Colonel Colby, in giving effect to his great and comprehensive system, to develop and enlarge the acquirements and efficiency of the men, by adapting them to the various details and necessities of this novel service. In doing so he encountered difficulties of no ordinary character; but eventually he succeeded in achieving the end he sought, not without credit to the mass whom he moulded and fashioned to the purpose, as well as great honour to himself.

By the augmentation of this company the establishment of the corps was increased to thirteen companies, of 814 of all ranks, including the staff. The first detachment of one colour-sergeant and twenty rank and file was conveyed to Dublin in March under the command of Lieutenant Edward Vicars, R.E., and was soon removed from Mountjoy to Dromore, where, in April, further reinforcements arrived, completing the company to its establishment; and the whole were distributed in small sections to Antrim, Belfast, Coleraine, Dungiven, Londonderry, &c., from whence the corps, by degrees, traced its progress all over Ireland. Major Reid was appointed to command the _first_ survey company, which was numbered the thirteenth.

On the 24th March, the sixth company, of sixty-two total, sailed for Corfu on board the ‘Baltic’ merchant transport, and landed there on the 14th May. This addition to the command was made at the instance of the Ionian government for the purpose of executing the works and fortifications at Corfu and Vido. By the warrant for raising this company, dated 4th April, 1825, the corps mustered fourteen companies, and counted 876 officers and soldiers of all ranks. All the regimental and working disbursements of the company, and of others arriving at the station in periodical relief, were for a number of years paid from the Ionian exchequer.

While the instruction of the first survey company was still in progress, steps were taken for the formation of another company for the same service. The Duke of Wellington expressed his conviction of the propriety of the measure from the satisfactory advancement already made in the professional education of the company raised for the duty early in the year. On the 4th April, 1825, therefore, his Grace obtained another warrant for the employment of a second company in the operations of the survey of Great Britain and Ireland. This company was numbered the fourteenth; and being of the same numerical organization as the other companies, viz., sixty-two men, the establishment of the corps was raised from 876 to 938.

At Harwich, Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Liverpool, Cornwall, Fort George, as well as in London and Edinburgh, recruiting for these companies was carried on very briskly. Recruiting at Dublin was also permitted; and some draftsmen from the Dublin Society School were, about this period, enlisted for the survey companies. The Military Asylum at Chelsea and the Hibernian School were likewise canvassed to procure eligible boys for training; but such was the circumscribed nature of the education imparted to the children at Chelsea, that of the number selected to join the companies, a few only were found that gave promise of future aptitude and usefulness; and of those who succeeded, none ever distinguished themselves by their talents. From the Hibernian School ten boys were received, all of whom were clever and intelligent; but one lad far outshone his comrades, and in time, by his zeal, extensive mathematical attainments, and varied acquirements, gained the highest position in the sappers on the survey. The person alluded to is Quartermaster William Young.

The fourteenth company quitted Chatham for the survey, and landed at Belfast, its first head-quarters, on the 15th July.

On the 26th September, a trial of the capabilities of the pontoons invented by Sir James Colleton, Colonel Pasley, and Major Blanshard, took place at Chatham in the presence of the Duke of Wellington; and the men of the corps employed on the occasion displayed much zeal, spirit, and activity. Sergeant Jenkin Jones was particularly praised for his conduct in managing the pontoons of Major Blanshard; and as the Master-General arrived a day earlier than was expected, and ordered at night the exhibition to take place the next morning, much of the success of the efforts in favour of the cylindrical pontoons is ascribed to the sergeant’s able and zealous arrangements and personal exertions. This induced Colonel Pasley to recommend sergeant Jones as a non-commissioned officer fit to be entrusted with any difficult or important detached duty, which might save the services of an officer. One private, William Berry, fell from a raft during the trial, and was drowned.

Sergeant William Addison and second-corporal James White embarked at Portsmouth on board the ‘Despatch’ in November for the coast of Africa, and were employed under the direction of Captain R. Boteler, R.E., in surveying the British dependencies and forts at Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. The corporal died on the service, and the sergeant landed at Portsmouth 10th August, 1826, and rejoined his corps.

A third survey company, of sixty-two non-commissioned officers and men, was formed in December, under a royal warrant, dated 20th October, 1825, and was numbered the sixteenth. The establishment of the corps was thus augmented from 938 to 1,000 officers and soldiers. The rates of working pay authorized by the successive warrants were limited to the three ordinary classes of 6_d._, 9_d._, and 1_s._ a-day; but extraordinary powers were granted to Colonel Colby, of awarding increased rates, proportionate to the attainments and exertions of the men, up to 2_s._ a-day. The maximum allowance was rarely bestowed, and then only upon non-commissioned officers, whose undoubted talents and services rendered them deserving of the distinction which the exclusiveness conferred.

By the end of the year the effective men on the survey counted 109 of all ranks, who were chiefly dispersed in the field. Several were employed in offices as draftsmen and computers; but at this early period very few were intrusted with any particular responsibility. Civilian assistants, for the most part, were second to the officers, and aided in superintending the management of the districts; but in the field, the sappers took the lead as surveyors, never working as chainmen, or subordinately to the civilians. As the duty was new, their qualifications required tact and practice before a fair return of progress could be realized. In August very few had proved themselves of sufficiently matured acquirements to merit advancement to Colonel Colby’s classes, and five only of the number had graduated as far as 1_s._ 4_d._ a-day.

The third survey company proceeded to Ireland in September. In December the total force there numbered 129 of all ranks, and 61 men were under training at Chatham.