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In 1836, soon after Lieutenant Robert Dashwood, R.E., was appointed
Acting Adjutant of the Royal Sappers and Miners at Woolwich, he was
directed by Brigade-Major, now Colonel Matson, to prepare a list of
officers of the Royal Engineers who had commanded, from time to time,
the different companies of the corps. I assisted him in the duty; but
while he was in the midst of his work, he was prematurely cut off by
death, and the task of completing the statement devolved on me. It now
forms a referential record at the head-quarter office.
Led in its progress to consult old documents and returns, I conceived
the idea of making myself acquainted with the whole history of the
corps. With this view, after daily fulfilling the routine duty of the
office, I spent all my leisure intervals in bringing to light old books
and papers, which for years had been buried in disused depositories and
stores.
Whilst thus engaged, two Acting Adjutants, Lieutenants F. A. Yorke and
T. Webb, R.E., were successively appointed to the corps at Woolwich.
Both officers entered with some spirit into the attempt to trace a
history of its services; but before they had proceeded to any great
length, were interrupted in their labours by removal to other stations
in consequence of promotion. Adjutant Yorke, however, succeeded so far,
that he drew up a brief account of the formation of the sappers,
commencing with the Gibraltar company in 1772, and detailed its
subsequent augmentations and reductions. This statement also forms a
permanent record in the office; and Captain Webb made fair progress with
an outline account of its active services. To both officers it was my
good fortune to afford such aid as they required, in the collection of
information for their respective efforts.
In 1847, when medals were granted to the veterans of the last war,
Brigade-Major, now Colonel Sandham, observed the readiness with which I
spoke of historical events in which the corps was concerned, and of the
services of particular individuals who had belonged to it. He also saw
the facility with which I supplied the information required to establish
the claims of the several applicants for medals and clasps. This induced
him, after some little conversation on the subject, to direct me to
prepare for publication a history of the corps. Much fragmentary matter
I had already accumulated, for twelve years had been consumed by me in
wading through books and documents in quest of dates and occurrences.
Nevertheless, it was not without serious misgivings that I set myself
officially to the task, and the researches and labours embodied in the
following pages are the result.
In the intervals of important and onerous public duty, the materials for
the memoir have been collected and the work methodized and written.
Necessarily severe was the application required under such
circumstances; but by steady perseverance, even at times when my health
was scarcely able to bear up against the exertion it needed, I have
succeeded, without omitting any service that I know of, in completing
the history to the siege of Sebastopol.
The work certainly is one of no pretension, and on this score may be
regarded as having cost but little toil in its preparation; but I may
observe, that from the absence of many particular records, the
unaccountable neglect in furnishing others, and the striking
imperfections in many of the remaining papers, arising from complexity,
vagueness, obliteration, or decay, more than ordinary difficulty,
research, and trouble were experienced, in gathering the materials
essential to give anything like a reasonable delineation of the events
narrated in the Memoir. Paucity of detail in numbers, want of
description with reference to particular occurrences, and gaps in many
years from the loss of muster-rolls and official documents, run through
a period of nearly half a century, from 1772 to 1815: and strange as it
may appear, even the casualties in action so carefully reported in other
corps, have, from some inexplicable cause, either been omitted
altogether in the war despatches or given inaccurately. In later years,
however, the connexion between the officers of the Royal Engineers and
the soldiers of the Royal Sappers and Miners has been so fully
established, that attention to these important minutiæ forms a decided
feature in the improved command of the corps.
In employments of a purely civil character in which the Royal Sappers
and Miners have shared, care has been taken to explain, as fully as the
records and collateral evidence would admit, the nature of its duties;
and, likewise, to multiply authorities to prove the estimation in which
it was held for its services and conduct. This has been mainly done, to
offer a practical reply to an association, incorporated within the last
twelve years, which, in the course of a futile agitation, endeavoured by
injurious statements to lessen the corps in public esteem.
All mention of the Royal Engineers in this memoir has been studiously
suppressed, except when such was unavoidable to give identity to the
different duties and services of the Royal Sappers and Miners, and also,
when their direct and particular connexion with the corps in certain
situations, rendered allusion to them justifiable. This course was
suggested to me by an officer of high rank, for the obvious reason that,
as the Royal Engineers is a body entirely distinct from the Sappers and
Miners, and possesses its own annals, any reference to, or
particularization of, its services in a work professedly confined to the
corps, would not only be extraneous, but tend to lessen its value, and
weaken its interest with those for whose information it was especially
written.
Here, however, it should be observed, that the Royal Sappers and Miners,
though a separate and integral body of itself, is nevertheless, and has
been from the commencement, officered by the Royal Engineers; and
whatever excellence or advancement is traced in its career and public
usefulness, whether as soldiers or mechanics, is fairly, in a great
degree, attributable to the officers; for, in every circumstance of
service and situation, they have liberally opened up for them new
channels of employment to engage their faculties and energies, and have
afforded them at all times scope and facilities to develop their mental
and physical resources, and to fit them to perform with credit, not only
the circumscribed duties of soldiers, but the more extended requirements
of sappers, artizans, and professional men.
By the omission of all but special reference to the officers, room has
thus been given for mentioning many non-commissioned officers and
privates, who have attracted public attention and gained encomium for
their meritorious services; some for their skill and ingenuity; others
for their integrity and devotion; and others for their acquirements,
their vigorous exertions and labours; their ardour, their endurance, and
their valour. While the recognition of such examples cannot fail to
incite others to emulate the military virtues of their more
distinguished predecessors and comrades, it is earnestly hoped, that
every member of the corps will be led to feel a personal interest in its
reputation and honour, and a pride in its discipline and loyalty; its
usefulness and efficiency in peace; its heroism and achievements in war.
The drawings were executed on stone by George B. Campion, Esq., master
of landscape drawing at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In
illustrations like those in the present volumes, it was scarcely
possible to delineate with exactness the complicated ornament which make
up the _ensemble_ of a soldier’s uniform. Notwithstanding this
disadvantage, the costume has been well defined, and much interest given
to the embellishments, by the introduction of accessories,
characteristic of the duties and employments of the corps.
My respectful acknowledgments are due to Sir John Burgoyne, the
Inspector-General of Fortifications, for making the subject of my
exertions known in a circular from his own hand, to the officers of the
Royal Engineers; and in offering him the expression of my gratitude, I
think it right with a feeling of sincere thankfulness to mention, that
the success which has attended that kind appeal, has been more, perhaps,
than I could reasonably expect. Several of the officers have afforded me
much encouragement in the work, as well by suggestion and advice, as by
the liberality of their contributions; but, wanting the liberty to
publish their names, I am precluded from making a record, to which it
would have been my pride to give publicity.
To my own corps I am also indebted for many pleasing proofs of concern,
as evinced in their anxiety to see the undertaking prosper. Nearly 200
copies have been demanded by the non-commissioned officers, including a
few of the privates, and when the price of the work is considered, the
generosity of my patrons is as striking as noble.
To S. W. Fullom, Esq., I here offer the expression of my grateful thanks
for his amiable and disinterested counsel, cheerfully accorded on the
many occasions I had to seek it; and for kindly assisting me in looking
over the sheets as the work passed through the press.
I now submit the volumes to my corps and the profession, and am not
without hope that they may also be acceptable to a portion of the
public. As far as the sources of my information and research have
extended, the memoir will be found truthful and impartial. It was my aim
to execute it with an integrity that would place me beyond impeachment:
I therefore feel some confidence that indulgence will be shown for its
defects, and also for whatever errors, through inadvertency, may have
crept into the work.