The casualties at the siege were as follows:—

At the sortie—one killed; private James Hicks: three taken

prisoners,[200] one of whom, private Owen Connor, was wounded.

In the trenches—four killed; second-corporals Findlay McDonald and

Daniel Niblock, and privates Thomas Penhorwood and Peter Milne;

Sub-Lieutenant Turner, wounded.

First storm—five killed; privates Samuel Clarke, James Dunn, William

Cormack, Jonathan Millar, and James Morris: one died of wounds,

private Stephen Teaff.

Second storm—four killed; second-corporal Henry Logan, privates

Peter Walsh, John Flannagan, and Hugh Borland: twenty-nine

wounded, of whom one died, second-corporal William Dodds.

-----

Footnote 200:

Corporal Charles Ford was one of the prisoners. He was of a

respectable family, and had a brother a clergyman in the Church of

England, presiding over the cure of the parish of Kilbeaconty in

Ireland. In an article in the ‘United Service Journal,’ headed,

“Captivity in San Sebastian,” Captain Harry Jones, R.E., who also had

been taken prisoner, alludes to this non-commissioned officer. “In the

course of the day,” he says, “I was asked whether I would like to

speak to a corporal of sappers, who had been made a prisoner during

the sortie. I was delighted at the prospect of seeing one of my old

friends, but was greatly astonished, in the afternoon, by seeing a

fine tall young man, a stranger, walking into the ward, dressed in a

red jacket. He was the first sapper I had seen in the new uniform, as

blue was the colour worn when I was taken prisoner. Upon inquiring

when he joined the army from England, he replied, 'Yesterday morning.

I was put on duty in the trenches last night, and was shortly

afterwards brought into the town by the enemy.'”—‘United Service

Journal,’ 1, 1841, p. 198.

-----

Correct particulars of the wounded from the opening of the operations

until the last assault cannot be obtained. The three prisoners taken at

the sortie were returned to the corps on the 8th September. Not allowed,

during their confinement, to throw up cover for their own safety, they

were exposed in the castle, in the yard of the magazine, to all the fury

of the siege.

On the removal of the troops from St. Sebastian, the fifth company,

second battalion, was left at the fortress. Under the orders of Captain

Frank Stanway, royal engineers, it superintended a body of Spanish

soldiers in reforming and restoring the fortifications. The company

continued so employed for nearly five months after the abdication of

Napoleon, and returned to Woolwich in September, 1814.

The remaining four companies moved with Lord Wellington’s army, having

in charge the stores and _matériel_ of the department. On the arrival of

the pontoon train at Passages, a strong detachment of the corps was

placed under the direction of Lieutenant Piper, R.E., to assist in the

formation of the required bridges.

In the passage of the Bidassoa on the 7 th October, the sappers threw a

pontoon bridge across the river near Irun. It was soon afterwards

carried away by the tide; but, on being recovered, was speedily

replaced.

About three miles higher up the river, at the foot of the Pyrenees, they

also constructed a trestle bridge with a roadway of sleepers, covered by

fascines and earth, under Captain Dickens, R.E. This bridge also was

washed away by the violence of the current, and with it privates Owen

Connor and John Nowlan, who at the time, were under the superstructure,

fastening ropes from the land to the trestles to give stability to the

bridge. Both these intrepid bridgemen, after a hard struggle, gained the

shore.

The second company, second battalion, under Captain Pitts of the corps,

was present in the action at Vera, and afterwards threw up a line of

breastworks at the gorge of one of the passes through the mountains, and

constructed several other works about the position.

At the battle of Nivelle, on the 10th of November, the four companies

above mentioned were present but not actively engaged. Two or three

small parties of the corps, however, had the honour of leading a strong

force of the 27th regiment to the storming of a strong redoubt, under

Lieutenant George West, R.E. They took with them long sand-bags, filled

at the instant with fern, which they threw into the ditch; and jumping

upon them, sprang to the parapet and entered the redoubt. Lance-corporal

Edward Councill of the corps, led one of the detachments to the storm

and dashed into the works with the foremost soldier, who was a sergeant

of the 27th regiment.

On the 11th November the second company, second battalion, threw a

trestle bridge across the Nivelle, below Sarre, constructed from

materials obtained from a farmhouse, under the direction of Captain

Pitts and Sub-Lieutenant Stratton.

The seventh company, second battalion, being detached to Socoa, to

arrange the hawser bridge for the passage of the Adour, the three

remaining companies were present at the battle of the Nive, and the

actions in front of Bayonne, from the 9th to 13th December. For the

passage of the _corps d’armée_ under Marshal Beresford and Sir Rowland

Hill, the companies threw two bridges at Ustaritz, and repaired the

shattered arches of another bridge at that place and one at Cambo. The

first bridge thrown was made of pontoons under Captain Boteler, R.E., in

which private William Dowling distinguished himself by gallantly

swimming across the river with the sheer line, and securing it to a

picket on the enemy’s side. When striking home his stake, he drew the

fire of some French sentinels upon him, but returned unhurt. The second

bridge resting upon eleven bays, was made by the second company, second

battalion, under Sub-Lieutenant Stratton, directed by Captain Henderson,

R.E., and formed from chance materials collected in the wood and the

village. During the operations, another bridge was thrown by the sappers

over a deep stream with a rapid current, beyond the Nive, and was formed

of wine pipes and barrels, strengthened by two skiffs or chasse-marées,

with a hastily-prepared roadway laid upon them.

Previous to the battle a few expert swimmers were selected to find the

fords of the Nive, and to note the exact rising and falling of the

tides. Corporal Alexander Jamieson and private William Braid found the

three fords near Cambo. In the passage of the troops these two men, by

appointment, guided the columns of Generals Byng and Barnes across the

stream; and for their coolness and steadiness in executing the service,

were rewarded by the Generals. The former received two doubloons, the

latter one.

The four companies with the army were reinforced in November, by

forty-nine men under Captain English, royal engineers, from England. On

the 30th of the month, the total number in the south of France, at St.

Sebastian, and Alicant, reached six sub-lieutenants and about 500

non-commissioned officers and men. The number sick in the different

hospitals amounted to between sixty and seventy. The casualties during

the year were, killed fifteen, deaths thirty-three, missing five, and

invalided thirteen. The head-quarters of the companies with Lord

Wellington’s army, were at Cambo, Ustaritz, and St. Jean de Luz, but the

men were greatly dispersed and variously employed, in making redoubts,

batteries, and entrenchments, and in the preparation of materials and

appliances for the formation of bridges.

During the year the recruiting was carried on with great spirit. The

number received by enlistment was 431, and by transfer from the militia

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.