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The First Edition of the Work has long been out of print, and the Second
would have been published earlier, only that an expected change in the
designation of the corps delayed its appearance. That change having
occurred, the volumes are republished, recording the services of the
corps to the date it continued to bear its old title.
Revised in many places, with verbal inaccuracies corrected, aided
moreover by journals and official memoranda placed at my disposal to
modify or enlarge certain incidents and services, the work is as
complete as it would seem to be possible at present to produce it.
The concluding Chapters record the services of the corps in the Aland
Islands, in Turkey, Bulgaria, Circassia, Wallachia, and the Crimea. The
siege of Sebastopol and the destruction of the memorable docks have been
given with the fulness which the industry and gallantry of the sappers
merited; and in order that the many adventures and enterprises recorded
in the final years of the history should not fail in interest and
accuracy, Colonel Sandham, the Director of the Royal Engineer
Establishment, with the permission of General Sir John Burgoyne, kindly
lent me the assistance of the Engineers’ Diary of the Siege, as well as
several collateral reports concerning its progress and the demolition of
the docks. At the same time I think it right to say, that no attempt has
been made in these pages to offer a history of the Crimean operations.
So much only of the details has been worked into the narrative as was
necessary to preserve unbroken the thread of sapper services in
connexion with particular works and undertakings.
It should also be borne in mind, that these volumes are devoted to the
affairs of the Royal Sappers and Miners; and, consequently, that care
has been taken to touch as lightly as practicable on the services of
other regiments. Hence the officers of the Royal Engineers have only
been named when it was desirable to identify them with parties of
Sappers, whom on certain occasions they commanded.
I feel a loyal pride in being able to state that the work has been
honoured with the munificent patronage of Her Majesty the Queen, and of
His Royal Highness the Prince Albert; than which nothing could be more
acceptable to me, either as an author or a subject.
In closing I beg to express my deep obligations to General Sir John
Burgoyne, Bart., G.C.B., the officers of the corps generally, my
personal friends, and the public, for the patronage with which I have
been favoured; and also to the Press, for the handsome manner in which
it has noticed and commended my labours.
_Brompton Barracks,_
_March 1857._