On the 26th August, in the evening, the ‘Missouri,’ United States'

steamer, Captain Newton, took fire in the bay of Gibraltar, and a

detachment of the corps at the Rock was sent out by Sir Robert

Wilson, the Governor, in charge of two engines under Captain A.

Gordon, R.E., to assist in extinguishing the flames; but all their

diligence and intrepidity were unavailing, for the vessel was soon

afterwards burnt to the water’s edge. During the service the men

were in much danger from falling masts and spars, and from the

explosion of a powder-magazine on board. The Governor, in orders,

thanked Captain Gordon and other officers of royal engineers, and

the non-commissioned officers and privates of royal sappers and

miners, for the creditable and useful zeal displayed by them on the

occasion; and added, “that the marines, military, and boatmen of

Gibraltar have the consoling reflection that nothing was left undone

to save the vessel, and that the gallant crew was preserved by their

united labour and devotedness.” To each sapper employed at the fire

was issued a pint of wine by his Excellency’s order.

One sergeant and thirty-three rank and file under Lieutenant T. B.

Collinson, R.E., sailed for China in the ‘Mount Stuart Elphinstone,’

and landed at Hong Kong the 7th October. A party of variable

strength had been stationed there, employed superintending the

Chinese artificers in carrying on the public works until July, 1854,

when the sappers were recalled to England. Some of their first

services embraced the construction of roads and sewers, the erection

of barracks for the troops and quarters for the officers, with

various military conveniences, such as stores, guard-houses, &c. A

residence was also built for the General in command, and a sea-wall

of granite to the cantonment on the north shore of the island. They

also directed the Chinese in cutting away a mountain to a plateau,

of about eight acres, for a parade-ground, much of which was

granite; and the several explosions rendered necessary to dislodge

the mass were fired solely by sergeant Joseph Blaik. A company of

Madras sappers also assisted in the superintendence of the coolies,

who sometimes exceeded a thousand in number. The working pay of the

royal sappers and miners was 1_s._ 6_d._ a-day each until the

removal of the East India Company’s establishment, when the

allowance was reduced to the ordinary payment of 1_s._ each. Before

the party was quartered in barracks it was housed for a time in a

bamboo hut and afterwards in a bungalow. The smiths and plumbers

were invariably employed at their trades, as the Chinese were very

incompetent in these branches of handicraft.[449]

-----

Footnote 449:

In May, 1851, when the tour of service of the detachment had

expired, only six men were at the station to be relieved. The

remainder comprised one discharged in China, who soon afterwards

died, twelve invalided to England, and fifteen deaths.

-----

On the 9th October his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael of

Russia inspected the troops at Woolwich, on the common. The royal

sappers and miners at the station were also drawn up with them, and

marched past. Next day the Grand Duke, accompanied by Lord

Bloomfield, visited the sappers' barracks, walked through the rooms,

examined the carbine of the corps, and then looked over, with every

mark of attention, the small museum of the non-commissioned officers

attached to the library. On leaving, he expressed his gratification

at what he saw, and of the efforts made by the soldiers to improve

themselves.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration:

Royal Sappers & Miners. Plate XV.

UNIFORM 1843. Printed by M & N Hanhart.

]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The percussion carbine and sword-bayonet, were generally adopted in

the corps this year, superseding the flint-lock musket and

bayonet.[450] The length of the musket with bayonet fixed was six

feet two inches, but the carbine with sword was constructed an inch

shorter. The carbine itself was nine inches and a-half shorter than

the musket, but to make up for this reduction, and to enable a

soldier to take his place in a charge, the sword-bayonet measured

ten inches longer than the rapier-bayonet.[451]

-----

Footnote 450:

Arms of the percussion principle had been on trial in the corps

since July, 1840.

Footnote 451:

These figures would seem to make the carbine and sword 1½ inches

longer than the old musket, but the loss of the supposed

additional length was occasioned by the greater depth of the

socket required to give strength and stability to the weapon. The

comparative weight of the two arms gave a reduction in favour of

the carbine of 2 lbs. 3½ ozs.

-----

The shoulder-belt for the bayonet for all ranks was at this time

abolished, and a waist-belt two inches broad, with cap-bag and

sliding frog, substituted. This new accoutrement is the same as the

present one; and the breast-plate then, as now, bore the royal arms

without supporters, within a union wreath, based by the word

“_Ubique_,” and surmounted by a crown. The sword-bayonet was this

year worn vertically for the first time, instead of obliquely as

formerly.

The pouch-belt was not altered, but the pouch, the same as at

present worn, reduced in dimensions, was made to contain thirty

instead of sixty rounds of ball ammunition. The brush and pricker

were now abolished.

The sergeants' swords were also withdrawn, and their arms and

appointments made to correspond with the rank and file, the only

difference being the addition of ornaments on the pouch-belt, which,

with the waist-plate, were washed with gilt. The ornaments comprised

a grenade bearing on the swell of the bomb the royal arms and

supporters; detached from this, underneath, was a scroll inscribed

“_Royal Sappers and Miners_,” to which a ring was affixed sustaining

a chain united to a whistle, resembling an old round watch tower;

the whistle itself forming the battlemented crown, inscribed with

the motto “_Ubique_.”[452] These ornaments, the suggestion of

Major—now Colonel—Sandham, are still worn by the sergeants.

-----

Footnote 452:

The idea for this ornament was taken from the martial custom among

the Romans of presenting a mural coronet of gold or silver to the

undaunted soldier who should first scale the walls of a city and

enter the place. Bailey in his Dictionary of 1727 says, “It was

given to the meanest soldier as well as the greatest commander.”

As the assault of fortresses in sieges is the chief business of

the sappers, the round tower with its mural crown on the

sergeant’s appointments, is an appropriate symbol for the corps.

-----

The buglers' short sword with three guards was replaced this year by

one after the pattern of the Ceylon rifles' band. The hilt formed an

ornamental Maltese cross with fleury terminations, and on the flat

between the horizontal limbs, above the blade, was an exploded

grenade. The blade was straight, two feet ten inches long, and the

mounting on the scabbard was chased and embellished. The weapon is

still worn by the buglers, and is altogether neat, pretty, and

convenient.—See Plate XVII., 1854.

1844.

Remeasurement of La Caille’s arc at the Cape—Reconnoitring

excursion of sergeant Hemming—Falkland Islands—Draft to

Bermuda—Inspection at Gibraltar by General Sir Robert

Wilson—Final operations against the ‘Royal George’—and the

‘Edgar’—Discovery of the amidships—incident connected with

it—Combats with crustacea—Success of corporal Jones—Injury to a

diver—Private Skelton drowned—Conduct of the detachment employed

in the work—Submarine repairs to the ‘Tay’ steamer at Bermuda by

corporal Harris—Widening and deepening the ship channel at St.

George’s—Intrepidity of corporal Harris—Accidents from mining

experiments at Chatham—Notice of corporal John Wood—Inspection

at Hong-Kong by Major-General D’Aguilar.

The detachment set apart to measure the base line on Zwartland Plain

at the Cape commenced the second season in September, 1841. It

opened under a somewhat different arrangement with respect to the

issue of provisions. Captain Henderson managed it in 1840, Mr.

Maclear in 1841, and sergeant Hemming was appointed to act as his

quartermaster-sergeant. Captain Henderson left the work in December

and returned to England.

As soon as the base was measured, the triangulation began, and was

carried on, with the exception of the winter interval, until

January, 1842. Then the work was completed to the north extremity of

La Caille’s arc in the vicinity of St. Helena Bay. A few months were

now spent in effecting the triangulation to the south as far as Cape

Point, and in December, 1842, the work was resumed to the

northward.[453]

-----

Footnote 453:

‘Professional Papers,’ N. S., i., p. 32.

-----

In January, 1843, the triangulation commenced at a headland north of

St. Helena Bay, latitude about 32° S., and continued nearly parallel

to the coast line, and about thirty miles from it until it reached

Kamiesberg a little south of Lat. 30°. Here the arc was expected to

terminate. The difficulties encountered this season were of a

formidable kind, and the care required in the transport of Bradley’s

zenith sector and a large theodolite, occasioned much tedious

anxiety for their preservation. The party, too, was formed of

different materials; the infantry soldiers had quitted, and the

shipwrecked crew of the ‘Abercrombie Robinson’ had been engaged in

their stead. Most of these sailors were rough, ill-behaved fellows,

and, therefore, the chief responsibility of the preparations and the

conveyances devolved upon the sappers. In addition to this, the

country passed over north of the Oliphant river was a straggling

desert, and the points used were at high altitudes—one of which

exceeded 7,000 feet.[454]

-----

Footnote 454:

‘Professional Papers,’ N. S., i., p. 32.

-----

In its progress northward, the party crossed the Oliphant or

Elephant river on the 15th June, 1843, and the day being Sunday,

encamped on its north bank to spend the sabbath. Six days after the

expedition arrived at the foot of the Kamiesberg, where fell heavy

rain for three days and two nights; and when the march was

recommenced, the ground was so saturated, that the whole train had

to be dug out of the mud repeatedly every day. In three days only

eighteen miles were accomplished and that with great exertion. The

oxen were now so knocked up that the farmers refused to go any

further, and a fresh supply was procured at a missionary

establishment twelve miles distant. When nearing that institution,

the provisions were very low, and the difficulties of the expedition

in this respect were greatly augmented by a heavy fall of snow. For

the whole day the party were without food, nor could they make a

fire to warm themselves.[455] They laboured, however, with excellent

spirit, and succeeded that night in bringing three of the waggons to

the missionary station; but the other two, sticking fast in the deep

ruts, were not brought up till the next day. The men were badly

shod, and suffered greatly. About a week after, the instruments were

fixed and the observations commenced, which continued until October

1843, when the party returned to Cape Town,[456] and afterwards

marched up the country to join their company.

-----

Footnote 455:

About twelve miles from the sea ice was found three-eighths of an

inch thick.

Footnote 456:

‘Professional Papers,’ i., N. S., p. 32.

-----

The objects used for reflecting or observing were heliostats about 7

inches in diameter, and were chiefly attended to by the sappers, who

were sometimes detached on this duty for several months at a time

with a couple of natives under them to assist. On account of the

heat, the observations were discontinued at 11 A.M., and not renewed

until 3 P.M. Notwithstanding this intermission, the signal duties

were oppressive. All supplies were got from a distance, which fully

occupied the two natives in procuring them. The sappers were also

intrusted with large sums of public money to pay all demands as the

work progressed. On the Kamiesberg mountain they helped in the

observatory in working the great sector to determine the position of

some stars. Two stone-cutters of the number were detached from the

Kamiesberg to Zwartland and Groenekloof to cut and build a pillar of

stone at each end of the line, to mark the termini of the

newly-measured base; and all, as the general service of the

expedition permitted, erected at every fixed point a strong pile

twenty feet high, secured to a base of twenty feet, to indicate the

sites of the several trigonometrical stations.

Sergeant Hemming, before the close of the duty, was sent by the

colonial astronomer on a reconnoitring excursion to discover a track

from the neighbourhood of St. Helena Bay along the mountain range to

the eastward, to Cape L’Agulhas on the coast. He was out fourteen

days exploring the country, but from its inaccessible nature

returned not only disappointed and exhausted, but unsuccessful.[457]

In March, 1844, his connection with the astronomical department

ceased.[458]

-----

Footnote 457:

Ibid., p. 33.

Footnote 458:

These particulars are chiefly collected from a paper by sergeant

Hemming in the ‘Royal Engineer Professional Papers,’ i., pp.

31-39. This non-commissioned officer was pensioned at 1_s._ 8_d._

a-day, in May, 1845. Of his survey services Colonel Portlock gives

an interesting outline in his prefatory remarks to the sergeant’s

paper. His duties appear to have been confined chiefly to the

mountains of Ireland, where in winter he was exposed to fearful

inclemency and subjected to much hardship. “On one occasion,” says

the Colonel, “I had to place a young gentleman, who had graduated

at Cambridge, under the sergeant for instruction, to whose zeal,

intelligence, and respectability the pupil warmly bore testimony.

Before receiving his discharge, he was appointed clerk and

storekeeper to the road department in Cape Town, and some idea of

the responsibility of his office may be inferred from the fact

that he expended in four years, 1844-48, upwards of 36,000_l._!”

-----

The detachment at the Falkland Islands continued throughout the year

to labour in the establishment of the new settlement at Port

William, which was situated on the south side of Jackson’s Harbour,

and sloped from the shore to a ridge of rocks about a quarter of a

mile inland. Notwithstanding the stormy character of the seasons,

the detachment constructed three good jetties, made roads and

pathways, and formed several ditches to drain the land and mark the

different boundaries. They also erected and finished with interior

fitments, the Governor’s house, and besides building a temporary

barracks for the party with workshops and other convenient premises

attached, small commodious cottages were run up for persons in

official employment. Of the services and intelligence of sergeant

Hearnden the Governor wrote in terms of unqualified praise. Both as

a soldier and private individual, the influence of his example was

felt in the colony, and he is stated to have been in an eminent

degree faithful and successful in the discharge of his duty. Most of

the men were also well spoken of for their excellent behaviour and

zeal; and amid the innumerable inconveniences of their situation and

services, they maintained their military character and discipline

unimpaired. This was the more commendable as the temptation to

drunkenness—the prevailing vice in the colony—was, from the absence

of the common recreations so usual in England, and the inclemency of

the weather, almost irresistible.

On the 16th February, forty-four rank and file embarked for Bermuda

under the command of Lieutenant C. R. Binney, R.E., to fill up the

vacancies occasioned by the epidemic in the previous year, and

landed from the ‘Prince George’ transport on the 8th April. Corporal

David Harris, the chief military diver, under Major-General Pasley

at Spithead, was in subordinate charge of the party.

Sir Robert Wilson, the Governor of Gibraltar, inspected the

companies of the corps at the fortress in common with the other

troops under his command, in May and October, and on each occasion

made flattering allusion to their conduct and discipline. On the

13th May, after some general remarks of commendation, Sir Robert

Wilson adds—“All the corps and battalions merited unqualified

approbation, and the Governor bestows it with pride and pleasure.

The royal sappers and miners, however, whose laborious daily duties

occupy their whole time, except the afternoons of alternate

Saturdays, deserve, without any invidious preference, particular

commendation for preserving a soldier-like mien, and exercising as

if they had been in the habit of daily practice.” And again, on the

13th October, he wrote:—“The practice of the royal artillery

yesterday was highly satisfactory and impressive, and the royal

sappers and miners, including the detachment which arrived only the

night before, presented under arms an appearance and proficiency

which corresponded with the character established by the capacity

and assiduous labours that have distinguished this corps during its

employment on the works of the fortifications since the Governor has

had the honour to command.”

Early in May, Major-General Pasley resumed, for the sixth and last

time, his operations at Spithead. Lieutenant H. W. Barlow, R.E., was

the executive officer under whose charge were placed sergeant George

Lindsay and thirteen rank and file of the corps, with an equal

number of the East India Company’s sappers, and a strong force of

seamen, riggers, &c. The removal of the ‘Royal George,’

notwithstanding that there still remained nineteen guns of that

wreck at the bottom, was reported to be perfectly accomplished, and

the roadstead quite safe for the anchorage of shipping. The

Major-General, therefore, turned his attention to the recovery of

the guns of the ‘Edgar’ man-of-war, which was blown up at Spithead

in 1711. She had been armed with 70 guns, technically termed

demi-cannons, sakers, and falconets. The first were 32 and

12-pounders; and the others respectively 9 and 6-pounders. The great

mass of timber, embedded in mud, composing the centre of the hull of

the wreck, was discovered by corporal Richard P. Jones on the 23rd

May. The sweeps from the boat having been caught by an obstruction

below, Jones descended by them till he found himself astride a

32-pounder iron gun, which was peeping through a port-hole on the

lower deck. It happened at the time to be unusually clear at the

bottom, and to his amazement there stood upright before him the

midship portion of the vessel, with an altitude above the general

level of the ground, of thirteen feet and a half. From the open

ports, in two tiers, yawned the mouths of about twelve pieces of

ordnance, grim and deformed with the incrustations of 133 years.

This part of the ‘Edgar’ was not much shaken by the explosions, but

when the fore and after magazines took fire, the head and stern of

the vessel were blown away from the body and scattered to distances

exceeding three hundred fathoms. So violent indeed had been one of

the explosions, that the best bower anchor was not only broken in

fragments, but its flukes and shank were separated from each other,

nearly half-a-mile. The midships, sharing but little in the

convulsion, went down like a colossal millstone, scarcely heeling on

her bottom; and the armament of the decks remained as if ready for

battle, without a carriage unjerked from its platform, or a gun from

its carriage. All the woodwork, however, was so completely decayed

by the ravages of worms, and the insidious action of the sea, that

when the guns were slung, they were hauled through the decks, as if

no obstruction interposed.[459]

-----

Footnote 459:

A few minutes elapsed before Jones quitted the hobby-horse he was

exultingly riding. Meanwhile curious to explore the gun, he thrust

his hand up the bore, where a member of the crustacean family,

already in quiet possession of the apartment, and not over-pleased

with the unceremonious intrusion, fiercely disputed the passage.

Jones, unwilling to yield, did his best to capture the exasperated

crab, but its inveterate shears had so nipped and lacerated his

hand, he was forced, at last, to beat a retreat. Ever after, the

cruel wounds inflicted upon him by this peevish red-coat, had the

effect of fixing in Jones’s memory, the date of his discovery of

the ‘Edgar.’

It may strike the reader as remarkable that for the six summers of

the operations at Spithead the divers were seldom attacked by any

of the finny tribe; nor was it their privilege ever to meet in

their subaqueous labours with any fishes larger than those

ordinarily supplied for traffic in the markets. A lobster, a crab,

or a conger-eel would now and then exhibit a wish to break lances

with the intruders, but beyond these few instances of piscatorial

interference, the under-water men had little reason to complain of

the ungenerous treatment of the inhabitants of the deep.

More than once Jones was threatened or assaulted by crustacea. As

on one occasion he was traversing for guns, a lobster, measuring

not less than sixteen inches in length, approached him with so

quick a motion, it seemed as if a bird were hovering round him.

Thus attracted, he stood still to learn a fact or two in the

history of its habits. The lobster stared inquisitively at Jones,

as if to discover what the strange phenomenon could be. Apparently

dissatisfied with the extent of the information it had acquired,

it darted off like an arrow, using its fanlike tail as a rudder to

shape its course. Its movements were sharp and rapid—its track in

circles, each less than the other, till poising for a while within

a few feet of the diver, it settled warily on the ground to resume

observations. Startled by an action of the phenomenon, the lobster

sailed off again in concentric circles, swishing the fan furiously

to augment its speed; then, reaching the ground it spread out its

feelers and claws and was soon engrossed in a brown study.

Accepting the series of evolutions as a challenge, Jones prepared

for the combat. Gently lifting his pricker, so as not to excite

the instinctive suspicions of the lobster, he suddenly plunged it

forward and pinned his antagonist to the earth. Instantly grasping

it with his powerful hand behind the claws, Jones hurried on deck,

and its body, weighing as much as a young goose, furnished a

luxurious banquet for the captor and his friends.

Another lobster, less inquisitive but more combatative, advanced

upon Jones with true military boldness. Having performed the magic

circles, it was evident that the fish in armour had taken the

measure of its opponent. Pushing out its claws in front like a

couple of blunt spears, the lobster furiously battered against

Jones’s legs, which, being cased in flannel, Mackintosh cloth, and

impenetrable canvas, were proof against scars and punctures. Thick

and fast came the blows, as from a ram or catapult; and it

occurring to Jones that there was a chance of damage to his shins

if the contest were prolonged, he turned upon his intrepid enemy,

and with one kick from his leaden toe, broke up its morion and

cuirass and gained the victory.

At another time, when Jones was busy making fast to a gun, a

conger eel curled up in its muzzle forced out its slimy head to

reconnoitre. Not relishing its savage attitude, Jones considered

it best to make short work of the interview, and striking it on

the cranium, the eel recoiled within its lurking place. A tompion

being handy, Jones took it up and plugged up the bore. The gun in

due time was hauled on deck, and on removing the tompion, the eel

floundered out, and though small for a conger—about four feet

long—it fought desperately, and was with great difficulty captured

and decapitated.

-----

Before the close of the season, the whole of this mass was got up,

by the continual removal of pieces loosened by frequent small

explosions. Almost the whole of the keel was likewise sent up, with

innumerable fragments of timber, spars, &c., and many guns, eight of

which had been recovered in one week. The first was found by

corporal Jones. A great number of sinkers or large stones, by which

the wreck buoys were moored, and a number of small anchors were also

recovered. In the early part of August the operations were much

retarded by some very violent gales, preventing the divers working

from time to time; but as soon as the weather moderated, corporal

Jones, with his usual zeal, taking down with him a large crate, sent

up at one haul, besides a load of staves of casks, &c., ninety-one

shot of various sizes. The guns of the ‘Edgar’ were much scattered

at the bottom by the explosion of her magazines, and the unexpected

distances to which they were thrown, rendered a more extended sphere

of action necessary. This was effected by a simple arrangement of

ropes as guides, upon which worked a transverse line just over the

bed of the roadstead, that caught in its track any object rearing

itself above the general level. In this way the entire area of the

bottom, supposed to conceal any of the fugitive cannons, was

traversed, Jones and Sticklen being the operators; and was attended

with so much success, that nearly the whole of the guns and wreck

were sent up and deposited in the dockyard before the 31st October,

when the season closed. The party rejoined the corps at Woolwich on

the 2nd November.[460]

-----

Footnote 460:

The ‘Times,’ August 19, 1844.

-----

In addition to Jones, the divers were John Girvan, Donald McFarlane,

Philip Trevail, and William Frame, besides four of the East India

Company and five others occasionally.[461]

-----

Footnote 461:

These were sergeants Reid and Clarke, and privates Sticklen,

Herbert, McDonald, Vallely, Canard, Robertson, Gillies, Mais, and

Whelan. Clarke sent up two guns, Sticklen six, Herbert five and a

half, and McDonald two. Sticklen, the most successful diver of the

batch, met with an accident. In pulling him up from the bottom, he

was drawn against some hard substance, which broke one of the side

eyes of his helmet. His dress instantly filled, and the water

rushed into his mouth. So quickly however was his removal to the

deck accomplished, that his struggles for relief were short, and

the injury he received was scarcely more than a temporary

inconvenience.

-----

During the season corporal Jones got up nineteen guns, besides an

immense pile of other articles in endless variety; and when the

rough and generally unfavourable state of the weather which

prevailed is taken into account, his activity and industry appear

strikingly prominent. “Whatever success,” writes General Pasley,

“has attended our operations, is chiefly to be attributed to the

exertions of corporal Jones, of whom as a diver I cannot speak too

highly.”[462]

-----

Footnote 462:

With the reputation of being the best diver in Europe, he sailed

for China in February, 1845. In April, 1847, he was present in the

expedition to Canton, and took part in the capture of the Bogue

and other forts. Soon after he was reduced from sergeant, but his

energy of character and perseverance brought him again into

favour, and he is now a sergeant in the corps. He was present

during the summer of 1854 at the capture of the Aland Islands,

including the demolition of the forts of Bomarsund. After his

return from the Baltic he was placed at the disposal of Mr.

Goldsworthy Gurney of the House of Commons, to learn the

properties and management of a brilliant light that gentleman had

discovered, and which he proposed to use in the trenches before

Sebastopol to exhibit the enemy, at night, in their works. The

experiments were carried out under the auspices of Lord Panmure;

and the sergeant evinced so complete an acquaintance with its

principles, that the inventor determined to intrust him with its

use in the field. Submitted, however, for trial with rival lights

to a committee at Woolwich, it was soon seen that its results did

not equal its pretensions, inasmuch as the light at a distance was

far less intense than in the vicinity of the operator. In this way

sergeant Jones was relieved from a nightly exhibition, which would

have made him a certain mark for the enemy to shoot at. On the

occasion of the trial he also used the Drummond light, a twin

invention with that of Mr. Gurney. The third light was an electric

flame; all of which were condemned for the sole and sufficient

reason that our own workmen would have been more exposed by the

illumination than those of the garrison. Sergeant Jones served

subsequently in the Crimea.

-----

Corporal Girvan was also very successful as a diver while health

permitted, but he was prevented from rendering any particular

assistance after the 27th July, from an accident occasioned by the

air-pipe of his apparatus blowing off the pump on deck. He was aware

that something had gone wrong, and making the signal, was drawn up

sensible, but much injured about the throat and head, and blood was

flowing copiously from his mouth and ears. The air rushed violently

out of his helmet, as if no safety valve had been attached to it.

This arose from the valve not having been taken to pieces since the

commencement of the season, and, moreover, being clogged with

verdigris, could not be properly shut, and hence the air was enabled

to escape.[463]

-----

Footnote 463:

The ‘Times,’ August 19, 1844.

-----

Private John Skelton, so frequently praised for his ingenuity as a

workman and for his daring as a diver, was during the operations

drowned by accident off Southsea Castle.

The conduct and exertions of the whole detachment were flatteringly

spoken of by Major-General Pasley, particularly sergeant

Lindsay,[464] who, next to the officer in command, had the chief

superintendence. Corporal John Rae[465] and private Alexander

Cleghorn were also named for their intelligence and services in the

management of the voltaic batteries and firing of the charges, and

their duties, next to the divers, were the most important. The

divers occasionally went down as many as twenty times in a tide, and

the remuneration of each was from 1_s._ 3_d._ to 2_s._ a tide,

besides the usual working pay of 1_s._ a-day. This enabled each

first-class diver to realize between 5_s._ and 6_s._ a-day,

exclusive of his regimental allowances.

-----

Footnote 464:

Discharged with a pension of 1_s._ 10_d._ a-day, in April, 1848,

and obtained from the Surveyor-General of Prisons the appointment

of foreman over the contractors, on the part of the Government, at

5_s._ a-day. Subsequently he was removed by promotion to be

foreman of works in the convict establishment at Woolwich, which

embrace the supervision of the convicts working both in the

arsenal and dock-yard. His salary, with rent and rations, exceeded

130_l._ a-year. He now fills a similar situation at Chatham, with

a more lucrative recompense.

Footnote 465:

Subsequently became a sergeant, and was employed on special duty

at Round Down Cliff, Dover, and in the drainage works at Windsor.

After passing five terms at Sandhurst, he was rewarded for his

intelligence and good service, with a case of drawing instruments;

and in September, 1848, was promoted to the rank of staff-sergeant

at the College. Several interesting models, made by himself, of

military importance, he presented to that institution.

-----

The royal mail steamer ‘Tay,’ on her passage to Bermuda, sustained

some damage to her bottom by running a-shore on the Cuban coast. On

her arrival at Bermuda on the 16th August, corporal Harris was

employed to examine her. Supplied with a diving-helmet and suit from

the dockyard, he went down and found part of her cutwater and keel

and about twelve feet of planking on her starboard side carried

away. Forty-one times he dived in repairing the injury, and in three

days so effectually finished his work that the vessel was enabled to

return safely to England with the mails.

By an order from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, then Lord

Stanley, this non-commissioned officer was attached, late in the

year, to the department of the Naval Inspector of Works at Bermuda,

for the purpose of removing, by submarine mining, coral reefs from

the entrances of harbours, so as to make them accessible to ordinary

vessels. Lieutenant-Colonel Reid, R.E., the Governor of the Island,

carried on a correspondence which extended over a period of eighteen

months, to obtain the services of this diver.[466] The first work

undertaken by him was widening and deepening the ship channel

leading into the harbour of St. George. For three or four years he

confined his exertions to this point, and so well planned and

skilfully executed were his operations that all natural impediments

militating against the safety of the channel, were at length

completely removed by the explosions of innumerable charges of

gunpowder, fired through the agency of voltaic electricity. Under

Colonel Barry, the commanding royal engineer who had the

superintendence of the service for most of the period, the work was

successfully prosecuted. The spaciousness of the channel for the

passage of steam-vessels of large tonnage and great draught of

water, was practically tested on the 26th February, 1848, by Her

Majesty’s steamer ‘Growler,’ of 1,200 tons, Captain Hall. The vessel

steamed into the harbour against wind and tide, drawing fifteen and

one-third feet of water, and effected the passage with ease and

steadiness, having beneath her keel when passing “the bar,” the

worst part of the channel, at least five feet of water.[467] These

signally successful operations saved the Government several

thousands of pounds; and in the event of Hamilton losing its

commercial importance, the harbour of St. George will, no doubt, be

selected as the chief water for the passage of the mails and the

trade and marine of the Islands.

-----

Footnote 466:

‘Second Report, Army and Ordnance Expenditure,’ 1849, p. 617.

Footnote 467:

The ‘Bermudian,’ March, 1848.

-----

At Chatham, late in the year, some mining operations were carried on

under Colonel Sir Frederick Smith, the director of the royal

engineer establishment. The works were pushed under the glacis in

front of the left face of the ravelin, and the right face of the

Duke of Cumberland’s Bastion. All the corps at the station, with the

East India Company’s sappers, were present, working night and day in

three reliefs of six hours each, and the numerous explosions that

took place, and the attempts made to render abortive the schemes of

opposing parties, invested the operations with the character in many

essential respects of subterranean warfare. The exciting

experiments, however, were not concluded without casualty, for on

one occasion from inhaling foul air, a sapper of the East India

Company named James Sullivan was killed, and three of the royal

sappers were drawn out in a state of dangerous insensibility. These

were privates John Murphy, John A. Harris, and Edward Bailey.

Lieutenant Moggeridge, R.E., who had charge of the party, also

fainted, but he was saved from serious injury by colour-sergeant

George Shepherd rushing into the gallery and bringing him out. At

the time of the accident, the miners were about one hundred and

fifty feet from the mouth of the shaft; and several who went in to

rescue their comrades suffered more or less from the air. Singular,

however, as it may appear, lights were burning near the ground the

whole time, and instantly after the last man was carried out of the

gallery, it was traversed in its whole length by lance-corporal John

Wood,[468] who carried a light in his hand and experienced no great

difficulty in breathing.[469]

-----

Footnote 468:

Joined the corps from the military asylum at Chelsea. By his

attainments and merits he was in time promoted to the rank of

corporal. His career, however, was marked by occasional

intemperance, which at length settled into confirmed drunkenness

and mental eccentricity. Unable to control his propensity to

intoxication, he became a useless soldier, and after twenty years'

service was discharged without a pension. He is now a vagrant and

a beggar.

Footnote 469:

‘Professional Papers,’ viii., pp. 156-180, in which will be found

an interesting detail of the operations.

-----

The Hong Kong party under Major Aldrich, R.E., was inspected in the

autumn by Major-General D’Aguilar, C.B., in command of the troops in

China; and his Excellency in his official report “regretted that a

detachment of so much importance, and so well constituted, should

have been reduced by six deaths and three invalided during the half

year, and that the men present should, in their appearance, show the

effects of climate.” In December following the detachment was

ordered to be increased to a half company, and the reinforcement of

fifteen rank and file, sailing from the West India Docks in the

‘William Shand’ freight-ship, in February, 1845, landed at Victoria

on the 28th June following. In May, 1851, the party returned to

England, but its strength was reduced by casualties to six men only.

Of the remainder, four were invalided, three died, one was drowned

on passage from Victoria to Macao, and one was killed by falling

over a precipice.

1845.

Sheerness—Increase to the corps at the Cape—Survey of Windsor—Skill

of privates Holland and Hogan as draughtsmen—Etchings by the

latter for the Queen and Prince Albert—Unique idea of the use of a

bullet—Inspection at Gibraltar by Sir Robert Wilson—Falkland

Islands—Discharges on the survey duty during the railway mania.

On the 15th May twelve rank and file were detached to Sheerness,

and, with little variation in its strength, continued to work there

till April, 1849. The men were employed at their trades, and

assisted in carrying out some boring experiments to ascertain the

nature of the strata. Corporal Charles Hawkins, who discharged the

duty of foreman of works, was highly spoken of for his activity and

ability, and the men were praised for their good conduct and

exertions.

A company was added to the strength of the corps at the Cape of Good

Hope by the arrival from Woolwich of the ninth company under the

command of Captain R. Howorth, R.E., on the 20th August. On landing

at Algoa Bay, the reinforcement was removed to the different

military posts on the frontier.[470] The two companies in the colony

now reached a total of 174 of all ranks. This addition to the

command did not occasion an augmentation to the corps, but reduced

one company of the disposable force at home.

-----

Footnote 470:

The voyage was full of incident. On the freight-ship, ‘Gilbert

Henderson,’ sailing from Woolwich, the crew mutinied and left her

at the Nore. A fresh crew, chiefly foreigners, unable to speak

English, was engaged, and soon after putting to sea, the ship took

fire, but the exertions of the company soon extinguished it. Near

Dungeness she ran on a sand-bank, but by working all night, she

was got off. When about a fortnight’s sail from Port Elizabeth,

she was overtaken by a heavy squall, which carried away the

greater part of her gear, and her fore and main masts. To complete

the chapter of accidents, the disembarkation took place in a heavy

surf, and as boats refused to venture out, the men, women, and

children were borne to land on the backs of nude blacks.

-----

The survey of Windsor, including the Home Park, Castle, Frogmore,

and the Royal Gardens, undertaken by Her Majesty’s command in 1843

by a party of about twenty non-commissioned officers and men of the

survey companies, was completed in the summer of this year. Captain

Tucker, R.E., had the direction of the work, and colour-sergeant

Joseph Smith the executive charge. The drawings were accurately and

very beautifully executed on a scale of five feet to a mile, which

admitted of the fretwork of the ceilings being penned in for each

apartment of the castle. So exquisitely was the work performed, that

the drawings by privates Charles Holland[471] and Patrick S.

Hogan[472] were constantly mistaken for engravings; and Prince

Albert, to mark his approbation of their merits, presented each with

a useful and elegant case of mathematical drawing instruments. The

plans were made to show the contour levels at every four vertical

feet above and two vertical feet below the flood-line of 1841.

Several sectional plans were also executed by the party to assist

Sir Henry de la Beche in the drainage of the town and castle, which,

at the time, was considered very defective. The plan for the office

of Woods and Forests, designed with a view to the improvement of the

sewerage, was drawn on a sheet eleven feet square; and a reduced

plan was also drawn for the library of the Prince Consort. His Royal

Highness and other distinguished personages frequently visited the

office to view the progress of the work, and never quitted without

graciously commending the party for their zeal and proficiency.

-----

Footnote 471:

Became second-corporal, and after being pensioned in April, 1847,

returned as a draughtsman to the ordnance map office at

Southampton. He is, perhaps, the best man of his class in the

department, and his drawings are always executed with fidelity and

beauty. Frequently their neatness, and richness of colouring and

ornament, give them an effect truly artistic and pictorial.

Footnote 472:

Made an etching of the ‘Adelaide Oak,’ in the Home Park, which,

submitted by Sir Henry de la Beche to Lord Liverpool, obtained for

him a complimentary introduction to Prince Albert. His Royal

Highness accepted the etching, and expressed himself much pleased

with the beauty and minuteness of the execution.—‘Morning Post,’

Saturday, August 19, 1843. The tree had a pretty seat hut nearly

half round the bottom of its trunk, and in another part of it was

a remarkable hollow occasioned by time. Her Majesty the Queen

Dowager had been known frequently to sit reading under its ample

shade, and on that account it was considered to be her favourite

oak. Hogan afterwards presented, through Colonel Wylde, an etching

of the ‘Victoria Oak,’ in the Green Park, to the Prince; and His

Royal Highness, in thanking the giver, expressed the admiration he

felt for his talents as an artist, and rewarded him with the sum

of 5_l_. These handsome pair of etchings are now the property of

Her Majesty. Hogan never received promotion in the corps, as he

was unqualified for command; and being discharged, on the usual

pension in January, 1845, soon afterwards emigrated to South

Australia.

An anecdote, which is unique in its way, may be added of this good

easy man. At Trinity College, Dublin, he had gained prizes as an

artist, but when he enlisted, was as ignorant of the use of

fire-arms as a child. Having fired blank cartridge in the usual

routine of drill, he was considered to be ripe enough to enter

upon the more advanced stage of firing ball. Accordingly, with

others of his company, he was ordered to attend this instructional

duty. When directed to prime and load, he was observed to separate

the bullet from the cartridge and throw it away. Sergeant Hilton,

who had charge of the party, picked up the discarded bullet; and

on asking Hogan his reason for biting it off, he replied, “Sure,

sir, I didn’t know that the knob was of any use!”

Sir Robert Wilson inspected the companies at Gibraltar in October,

and when he concluded, was pleased to convey the expression of his

satisfaction in these words, “that on parade, they showed they had

duly attended to their military acquirements whilst employed at

work, which,” he added, “will be a lasting monument to their

merits.”

The Falkland Islands' detachment was still toiling in the formation

of the colony, subjected to all the inconveniences and vicissitudes

of a bad and depressing climate. Their duties embraced every variety

of hard and laborious service, such as making excavations, drains,

roads, jetties, building houses, huts, &c. Carrying heavy burdens of

stores, and loading and unloading boats, were among their roughest

tasks, accompanied as they were with the necessity of wading in the

water on sharp stony beaches, which destroyed in a week or two the

strongest boots. The wear and tear of clothes was almost ruinous;

and to make up for the expenses incurred in replacing them, and in

purchasing provisions which were dear, working pay, exclusive of

regimental allowances, was granted to the men from 1_s._ 6_d._ to

4_s._ 6_d._ a-day. The sergeant received the highest rate, the

privates the lowest. In winter they lived mostly in tents, with snow

around and a humid soil beneath; and being constantly at work out of

doors, they frequently returned at night, wet through, to a small

cheerless fire, never lending heat enough to dry their dripping

clothes. At times they were on short allowance; and when flour was

selling at 6_l._ 10_s._ per barrel of 192 lbs., the men were glad of

the chance of buying a small handkerchief-full of damaged biscuit

for 4_s._ 4_d._ To the recklessness of a wretched and lawless

community, composed of men of the lowest class, was opposed the five

or six gentlemen in official appointments and the sappers. The

latter, however, from constantly working with them, were incessantly

exposed to every kind of evil influence; and without amusement or

subjects of interest to occupy their attention in the intervals of

labour, four of the party gradually yielded to the prevailing

corruption and were removed from the settlement. The residue were

highly commended for their “esprit de corps,” and sergeant Hearnden

in particular, for his admirable conduct, was specially noticed in

the Governor’s despatches to the Secretary of State for the

Colonies. The sergeant’s trials were very great, his exertions

unflagging, and his unrestricted devotion of every hour to the

public weal was frequently warmly acknowledged by the Governor.

A mania for railways set in this year which caused an excessive

demand for surveyors to trace and survey the lines. This occasioned

the withdrawal of more than 200 civil assistants and about 60

labourers, besides 1 sergeant, 1 corporal, 6 second-corporals, and

19 privates, who were discharged from the survey companies at their

own request. Many of those who quitted, possessed superior abilities

as surveyors and draughtsmen. The offers made were too tempting to

be resisted; and some of the men secured employment, which enabled

them to realize an income of more than six guineas a-week. To make

up for the loss in the survey force, Colonel Colby proposed the

augmentation of another company for the duty; but the measure was

not acceded to till April, 1848.

1846.

Boundary surveys in North America—Duties of the party engaged in

it—Mode of ascertaining longitudes—Trials of the party; Owen

Lonergan—The sixty-four mile line—Official recognition of its

services—Sergeant James Mulligan—Kaffir war—Corporal B.

Castledine—Parties employed at the guns—Graham’s Town—Fort

Brown—Patrols—Bridge over the Fish River—Field services with the

second division—Dodo’s kraal—Waterloo Bay—Field services with

the first division—Patrol under Lieutenant Bourchier—Mutiny of

the Swellandam native infantry—Conduct of corps in the

campaign—Alterations in the dress—Drainage of Windsor—Detachment

to Hudson’s Bay—Its organization—Journey to Fort Garry—Sergeant

Philip Clark—Private R. Penton—Corporal T. Macpherson—Lower Fort

Garry—Particular services—Return to England.

The survey of the boundary between the British possessions in North

America and the United States, as settled by the treaty of

Washington, was completed this year. Six non-commissioned officers

selected for the duty embarked at Liverpool in April, 1843, and

landing at Boston, thence re-embarked on board a coasting steamer,

and sailed to St. John’s, New Brunswick. By boat they then passed on

to Fredericton, and on the 1st June commenced operations at the

Grand Falls. All were dressed in plain clothes. Corporals James

Mulligan, Daniel Rock, and Alfred Garnham had been for three months

at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and were instructed in the

mode of making and computing such astronomical observations, as were

considered best suited to the service to be performed.[473] Very

soon the detachment “drew forth the praise and admiration of the

American party. The Americans,” adds the despatch, “had no persons

to stand in the place of them.” So useful were they found in the

service, that, in the second season, when the work of the commission

had to be extended, the detachment was increased to twenty men of

all ranks.[474]

-----

Footnote 473:

‘Military Annual,’ 1844. ‘Corps Papers,’ i., p. 107.

Footnote 474:

‘Corps Papers,’ i., p. 107.

-----

Captains Broughton, Robinson, and Pipon, R.E., commanded the party

under Lieutenant-Colonel Estcourt, the chief commissioner; and at

the close of the second season, the survey had so far progressed,

that nine men were removed from the duty, and arrived at Woolwich in

January, 1845. The services of three other men were dispensed with

at the close of 1845, and reaching head-quarters in December, they

were followed, on the 9th July, 1846, by four more. Three were

discharged in Canada, and the twentieth man, corporal Garnham,

arrived in England 10th September, 1846.

A few details of this international service would seem to be

required to explain the nature of the duties intrusted to the men.

Having once entered the woods, the survey was continued without

interruption, until the termination of the out-door operations of

1845. Occasionally the men worked in concert with the officers of

the United States' topographical engineers. Two non-commissioned

officers were constantly employed under Captains Robinson and Pipon,

in taking and calculating observations for latitudes and longitudes,

and for absolute longitudes by lunar transits and culminating stars,

to discover the azimuthal bearings of the line, as pointed out by

the treaty of Washington. They also ascertained the comparative

heights of astronomical stations, &c., at various points of the line

from barometrical observations. One non-commissioned officer for

many months was attached to the American party to see that they

effected their survey according to the treaty; one carried the

chronometers between the astronomical camps; and the remainder were

employed singly in charge of large parties of labourers and axemen,

carrying on the general business of marking out the boundary, and of

surveying and levelling it. Embraced in the operations also was the

survey of the waters, roads, and other prominent objects in the

vicinity of the line, essential to the discovery of the boundary, at

any time, by reference to the natural features of the country; and

when the survey closed in 1845, seven of the party were, for more

than eight months, stationed with the commission at Washington,

engaged in the duty of computing and registering astronomical

observations, also in laying down and plotting the work and

finishing the plans of the line.

The process of surveying and levelling is too well known to need

notice, but it may be desirable to afford an idea of one

description of work, to show in what respect assistance was given

to obtain the longitude of a particular place. Between the

northwest branch-station and Quebec, it was required to ascertain

the difference of longitude; but as the usual method of finding it

by the interchange of chronometers could not be resorted to, a

hill some twenty miles away from the branch station, which could

be seen from Quebec, was selected as the station for an observing

party. Captain Pipon, therefore, left the woods, and established

his transit instrument on the Plains of Abraham. With a pocket

chronometer, tent, provisions, gunpowder, &c., sergeant Bernard

M‘Guckin removed to a range of hills from the station above Lake

Ishæganalshegeck, and encamped himself and his labourers on the

highest point of the range, which was covered to the top with

dense wood. Climbing the height, and finding he could see back to

the Lake Hill and forward to Quebec, he set his labourers to clear

away the summit, except one high tree which he stript of all the

leaves and branches likely to intercept the free range of the

observations. At the base of this tree he constructed a high

platform, and every evening for two hours, at intervals of ten

minutes, the sergeant fired flashes of gunpowder, by hoisting the

charge, with the assistance of a pulley, to the top of the tree

with a burning slow match attached. The quantity of powder used

for each flash varied from a quarter to half a pound. Some of the

nights the wind blew strongly, and the charge exploded before

reaching the top of the tree. On a clear night the flashes could

be seen with the naked eye at the Quebec observatory, forty miles

distant. Simultaneous observations were made on six different

evenings, and forty-six flashes were noted, sufficient to give a

good difference of longitude. The result of the experiment was

most successful. An attempt was afterwards made to find the

difference of longitude between the stations, by the transmission

of chronometers; but the effect deduced was worthless compared

with that obtained from the flashes. These observations were a

part of the scheme for tracing the straight sixty-four mile line

of boundary from the outlet of Lake Pohenagamook to the hill

station on Lake Ishæganalshegeck. When the observations were

completed, Captain Robinson left the woods and placed his

chronometers in charge of a non-commissioned officer of sappers at

Montreal, who wound them up and compared them during the

winter.[475]

-----

Footnote 475:

‘Corps Papers,’ i., pp. 125, 126, 155.

-----

The accuracy of this means of observation was further tested on the

western portion of the line ending at St. Regis by the operations of

corporal Bastard. In August, 1845, having selected the highest

summit on Mount Rougement, near Chambly, for a station, he

reciprocated flashes with Major Graham of the U. S. topographical

engineers at Rouse’s Point, with great precision and success.[476]

The same was done by corporal Thomas Forbes from the top of Jay’s

Peak in Vermont, who flashed at ten-minute intervals from the

surface of a piece of flat board. In six fine nights eighty flashes

were observed in common. These series of observations connected the

points of St. Regis and St. Helen’s, and the latter again with

Rouse’s, testing at the same time the difference of longitude

between the several stations.[477]

-----

Footnote 476:

Ibid., i., p. 155.

Footnote 477:

Ibid., i., p. 128.

-----

When not in tents, a sort of hut constructed on the spot was the

only habitation of the surveyors, and twigs of the spruce tree,

felled by the axemen, formed their bed. They had good blankets and

warm clothing; but such was the severity of the weather, and such

the inconvenience of their bivouac, that frequently in the morning

they arose for work either with stiffened limbs, or soaked with

melted snow. For the most part, however, the detachment was free

from sickness despite the intense cold in winter, and the great heat

in summer. Locked as they were in a thick forest, covered by an

impenetrable foliage, the oppressive heat of midsummer was almost

insupportable. In the spring scurvy was common among them,

accompanied with sore gums, loose teeth, discoloured legs, and

emaciated frames, but some well-known simple specifics soon restored

them to health.[478] Only one man became an invalid on the duty,

arising from an injury he sustained by falling from a shelving bank,

on account of which he was sent home and discharged.

-----

Footnote 478:

‘Corps Papers,’ i., p. 108, 109.

-----

The royal engineers with their sappers and assistants were the first

to penetrate these wilds and the first to open a way through their

mazes. Scrambling through an unbroken forest with snow-shoes on,

interrupted at every step by stunted underwood, not a little

augmented their fatigues. Often the snow was hip deep; and when the

melting commenced, the obstacles and toils of travelling became

greater. The snow-shoes then became useless, and yet without them

the men sank above their knees in half-thawed snow, and then had to

wade through the swamp. Streams in those seasons became rivers, and

rivers deep torrents; and such was the difficulty of pushing through

the snow, that one party was four days going ten miles.[479]

Difficulties like these were more especially felt in the region

embraced within the “sixty-four mile line.” A vast prairie it was,

thickly overgrown with tangled bush, undisturbed for centuries, by

the axe of industry. The full influence of many a storm, however,

had beaten down the forest and levelled trees too old to bear its

blast. These lay across the track intersected and confused, just as

the wind had blown them; and the dense bush, climbing over the aged

trunks, so matted the vegetation, that the trials of travelling were

only overshot by the general hardships of the enterprise. There were

perils too encountered of a serious character, which only stout

frames and sturdy hearts could have conquered. On one occasion,

corporal Owen Lonergan was sent to measure three check lines; it was

biting cold at the time, and the ground was covered with snow some

two or three feet deep. Though encumbered with an instrument, a

greatcoat, and heavy clothes, he entered with spirit upon his work

and rapidly completed two of the checks, but on commencing the third

he was obliged to relinquish it, as his hands, painfully benumbed,

had lost their power. The snow by this time was very high, and it

was only by superhuman effort, sustained for several hours, that he

succeeded in mastering the difficulties of his situation, and

regaining his hut before nightfall.

-----

Footnote 479:

Ibid., i., p. 114.

-----

The survey of the sixty-four mile line was important because of the

necessity imposed by the treaty of making it rigidly strait. A force

of labourers, guided in the duty by the most intelligent men with

the commission, first struck out the line as indicated by

astronomical observation. When this preliminary trace was effected,

other labourers, in strong batches, “directed by non-commissioned

officers of the sappers and miners were sent to cut the whole line

thirty feet wide, clearing a way in the centre, of about eight feet

wide, but leaving the other part with the stumps breast high and the

trees as they had fallen. These parties were guided in their

cuttings by the marks which had been set up on the ridges at no very

great distances apart from each other. When the line had been thus

cut out from end to end, a transit instrument was sent through it,

adjusting correctly all the station poles, and insuring the

straightness of the line beyond all doubt.”[480]

-----

Footnote 480:

‘Corps Papers,’ i., p. 124.

-----

At the termination of the survey, Lieutenant-Colonel Estcourt thus

wrote of the conduct and services of the detachment: “I beg to

acknowledge the valuable assistance they have rendered. The

character of the duties intrusted to them has been such as must have

been given to an officer had they not been attached to the

commission, entailing thereby a great additional expense, not only

on the score of wages, but also of equipment and assistance; and I

doubt whether the work would have been better executed. All that was

expected, therefore, from their employment has been fully realized;

their efficiency in the field, and their general good conduct and

respectability, have been very creditable to them and to their

corps. Those who are now about to leave us, and have been at

Washington during all our residence here, deserve the highest

commendation for their uniform good conduct. In no single instance

has there been the least occasion for complaint or even remark.” In

his orders to the detachment at parting, he reiterated the substance

of the above tribute, and spoke of the unmixed satisfaction he would

look back upon the whole of his intercourse with the sappers. The

survey pay of the men, in addition to their regimental pay, ranged

between 2_s._ 10_d._ and 3_s._ 9_d._ a-day, and free rations and

hotel expenses were also allowed them.[481]

-----

Footnote 481:

The senior non-commissioned officer, sergeant James Mulligan, was

much noticed for his attainments and exertions. His duties with

the commission were of a nature to require the exercise of

patience and resolution, and demanded always a scrupulous,

unremitting attention. In this he was never found to fail, but

rendered valuable services, “which,” adds Colonel Estcourt, “few

civilians could have undertaken, or, if capable, would not have

undertaken, but for the highest salary.” Mulligan’s survey-pay was

3_s._ 9_d._ a-day. After his discharge, in September, 1846, he was

awarded, for his high merit, a silver medal, and a special

gratuity of 25_l._ On leaving the corps he retired, with ample

pecuniary means, to Ireland.

-----

The war in Kaffirland again broke out this year and afforded ample

employment for the two companies of the corps, which were scattered

in sections to the several posts on the frontier. A small detachment

of sappers appears to have been the first troops to meet with

hostile interruption in the prosecution of its duties, and the

circumstance is quaintly alluded to in the following free metrical

effusion of a facetious alarmist:—

“There was a stir in Kaffirland one morning,

A chief with Government some ground disputed;

And then he very fairly sent us warning

Our plans and his were totally unsuited:

So Colonel Hare, as did of old, Mahomet,

Call’d for his boots, and flar’d up like a comet.

“Meanwhile Sandeli, who’s a lad of metal,

Swore that the sappers should not light a fire

To cook their dinners or to boil their kettle;

And so—denouncing on them vengeance dire,—

He bid them pack their tools and strike their tents,

And made believe to seize their instruments.”[482]

-----

Footnote 482:

“The Alarm,” in ‘United Service Magazine,’ 1846, ii., p. 383.

-----

The nature of the service upon which the companies were employed

precluded them from taking any very active or prominent share in the

operations of the campaign, or of their numbers being collected in

any force to render their movements impressive and conspicuous;

nevertheless, as opportunities offered of withdrawing them from

their more pacific duties, they were made to participate with the

other troops in the harassing war which, without intermission,

continued with vigour until the winter.

Corporal Benjamin Castledine, ordered to proceed from Fort Beaufort

to Post Victoria, started on the 21st March, 1846, with a gunner of

the royal artillery who was armed with a sword only, in charge of a

waggon with twelve oxen and two natives—a driver and a leader—who

had one musket between them. In crossing a drift, after marching

seven miles, the oxen were knocked up, and the corporal sent the

driver back for more cattle. At night the corporal took turn as

sentry with the artilleryman. Next morning at daylight, the leader

was ordered to collect the cattle then grazing about three hundred

yards off; but while away, shots were heard in the direction he had

taken. The corporal, leaving the waggon in charge of the

artilleryman, ran to the banks of the drift, and before he had time

to seek cover in the bush, was met by a volley from several armed

Kaffirs, who had already wounded the leader and taken his gun. The

corporal stood his ground, and wounding two of their number by his

correct firing, the rest carried off the injured men and drove away

the corporal’s cattle. Luckily, soon afterwards, a patrol of one

sergeant and seven men of the 7th dragoon guards came up, and

hearing what had happened, they pursued the Kaffirs and retook the

oxen. The corporal with his escort and cattle, except two of the

latter, which were lost on the road from exhaustion, resumed the

route and reached Post Victoria on the 22nd March. Colonel Somerset,

then commanding the frontier, hearing through Lieutenant Stokes,

R.E., of the affair, gave corporal Castledine much credit for his

conduct. This was the first skirmish in the war.

From the 16th to 18th April three men served with a demibattery of

artillery as gunners, during Colonel Somerset’s operations in the

Amatola mountains, and retreat from Burn’s hill to Block drift,

where they were present in a smart action.

Ten men took part with the artillery at the guns, from 20th April to

29th September, at Victoria, Fort Beaufort, and Block drift. At

these forts and at Graham’s Town the men for weeks together lay down

in their clothes and accoutrements ready to meet any sudden attack.

At Beaufort, four guns were manned by them, two 9-pounders and two

5½-inch howitzers: one of these had horses attached, which were

mounted by the sappers.

Graham’s Town, denuded of its garrison to scour the Amatolas, was

left unprotected. Bodies of Kaffirs pressed into the colony, marking

their track by murder and desolation. Tidings of their savage

proceedings being brought in by mounted burghers, breathless with

the intelligence, it was feared the town would be early attacked. At

once the engineer at the station set to work to fortify it, and with

the assistance of some Fingoes and Hottentots, the few sappers that

remained rapidly blockaded the streets and avenues leading into the

town. The return, however, of Colonel Somerset’s division checked

the enemy’s advance on this, the metropolis of the frontier.[483]

-----

Footnote 483:

‘United Service Journal,’ iii., 1846, p. 328.

-----

On the 23rd April, under Lieutenant Bourchier, R.E., fifty-one

non-commissioned officers and men repulsed an attack by the enemy on

the Farmer’s camp near Fort Brown. The action lasted about four

hours, and though the night was extremely dark, the sappers, serving

both as infantry and artillery in charge of two field-pieces, beat

off the enemy with the loss, as was afterwards acknowledged by the

chief _Stock_, of thirty killed. The sappers _only_ were engaged in

this affair, and their spirited and gallant conduct was reported by

Lieutenant Bourchier.

On the 17th and 31st May and 1st and 18th June, about forty

non-commissioned officers and men, sent from Fort Brown under

Lieutenant Bourchier, went in pursuit of marauding parties of the

enemy. From Double drift under the same officer, four other parties

were despatched through the bush after the Kaffirs on the 25th June,

7th July, and 7th and 18th August. Sergeant Thomas P. Cook and

corporal John Campbell were reported to have shown great

determination and intelligence in following the enemy in their

fastnesses. The former accompanied six of the patrols and the latter

seven. Near Fort Brown, three Kaffir spies, discovered creeping up

to the place to reconnoitre, were shot; two of these were brought

down by privates Alexander Irvine and John Patterson.

From 3rd June to 13th July, ten men with a company of the 90th

regiment, fifty marines and some sailors, under Lieutenant Owen,

R.E., constructed a flying bridge of boats, &c. for crossing the

Fish river mouth, and threw up a field-work on the right bank. In

this service private John Vance, a superior carpenter, “showed

remarkable zeal, skill, and intelligence.” The work was undertaken

to establish an open line of communication to Fort Peddie.[484]

Footnote 484:

Vance is noticed in Colonel Pasley’s 'Practical Operations for a

Siege’ for his assistance in executing some of the wood engravings

to the work. He was an excellent carpenter and modeller, but his

efforts at engraving show but little refinement. Untaught in the

art, his attempts to supply the place of competent practitioners

can only be regarded as the neat and more advanced stages of

carpentering. Pity, however, that such a man, so apt, so

ready—should have been enslaved by his vices. A drunkard, in the

most degraded sense of the word, no one regretted, when his

service expired, to see him quit the corps.

Under Lieutenant Stokes, R.E., twelve men shared in the operations

with the second division in the field and at the passage at the

mouth of the Keiskama river from the 6th to 16th July. From the

latter date to the 13th September, under the same officer, six other

privates served with the second division during Sir Peregrine

Maitland’s attack upon the Amatola mountains, and constructed a

field-work for the protection of the camp at Perie.

On the 15th and 16th July, sixteen non-commissioned officers and men

under Lieutenant Bourchier were present in action with the enemy at

Dodo’s kraal, under the command of Captain Hogg, 7th dragoon guards.

From the 16th July to 13th September, twelve men constructed a

field-work for the protection of the camp at Waterloo Bay under

Lieutenant Owen, R.E.

From 20th July to 12th September, thirty-eight non-commissioned

officers and men served in the field with the first division during

Sir Peregrine Maitland’s attack on the Amatola mountains; and under

the direction of Captain Howorth, R.E., restored Fort Cox. On the

29th July the camp on the Amatola flats was attacked by the enemy,

and sergeant Joseph Barns of the corps was killed.

Seven men under Lieutenant Bourchier were present, from the 25th to

30th August, with Colonel Somerset’s patrol between the Fish river

and the Keiskama.

On 24th October, the Swellandam native infantry at Fort Beaufort,

directed to escort waggons to Waterloo Bay, marched from the

parade, contrary to the remonstrances of their officers towards

Graham’s Town. There were about 350 of the levy present, and the

simultaneous and unhesitating movement of the mutineers, gave

reason to fear that the conspiracy was well organized. Captain

Ward, of the 91st regiment, the commandant, at once ordered the

two artillerymen and five sappers under corporal Edward Barnecoat

to follow in pursuit with the three-pounder howitzer. This was all

the commandant’s force. The gun was up in a few minutes, and

bounding down the street, reached the bridge, where halting, the

captain ordered the howitzer to be put in action. With only eight

men Captain Ward thought it imprudent to proceed further. Trying

the effect of firing three rounds of blank ammunition, the

mutineers pushed up the acclivity with increased speed at every

discharge, and reforming on its brow, seemed disposed to hazard a

fight. At this moment a detachment of the 90th regiment—which

happened to be at the fort on escort duty—pressed up to the

bridge. Immediately the gun was limbered up and when the little

column was about to scale the height, Colonel Richardson, who had

now arrived, countermanded the order to advance. With only a

handful of men, there was but a remote chance of success against

350 exasperated rebels all armed and posted on commanding ground;

and so swayed by merciful considerations the colonel employed two

missionaries to parley with the misguided men, who, soon, in great

part, returned to their allegiance.[485]

-----

Footnote 485:

Mrs. Ward’s ‘Cape and the Kaffirs,’ Bohn’s edit., 1851, pp.

145-147.

-----

These comprise the active services of the companies during the year,

in which, though the parties do not appear to have gained any

mention in dispatches or reports for their conduct and efficiency,

they always behaved like good soldiers, and spared no exertion to

accomplish the objects for which they were employed. They were

likewise much harassed on varied escort duty, such as conveying from

fort to fort waggons with ammunition, provisions, and wounded men,

and took part in all those multifarious services, carried on at

twenty different frontier posts and forts, which the character of

that desultory and peculiar warfare continually exacted.

In April, the small blocked epaulettes were superseded by others

with loose twisted cords of three inches long suspended from a

raised corded crescent. Those for the sergeants and staff-sergeants

were of the artillery pattern—long loose gold fringe and gilt

crescent to correspond with the privates' epaulettes. The

shoulder-strap for the sergeants and other ranks was of blue cloth

faced with gold lace. The staff-sergeants' epaulettes continued

boxed as before, with a full laced gold strap edged with raised

embroidered wire, and a gilt crescent, but the bullion was longer

than formerly. The collar of the coatee for all ranks, which had a

triangular-shaped piece of scarlet cloth at the back, was this year

entirely of blue cloth, but laced as before, with rectangular loops.

The alteration was made to give, in appearance, breadth and

squareness to the men’s shoulders.

Corporal John Rae, second-corporal John Mealey and eighteen men,

were employed from the 8th June to the 17th August, in executing

some underground works for the drainage of Windsor. These consisted

of a tunnel or cutting from the entrance of the long walk to the

north side of the quadrangle of the castle, and also the excavation

of a driftway under the north front, moving east and west. The

tunnel was approached from several circular shafts 4 feet 6 inches

in diameter, of an average depth of about 25 feet; and the

gallery—the height of which was six feet, and width 4 feet 6

inches—was driven between 750 and 800 feet through chalk, flint,

made earth, old moats, and crumbling vaults and foundations; and,

notwithstanding the difficulties of the work, was prosecuted with

such exactness, that the line of driving between the shafts, was

rarely more than an inch or two out of its true level. Indeed, it

was remarked that the tunnel, commenced at opposite sides of the

castle, was so correct in its progress, that on reaching the centre,

there did not exist two inches of difference where the tunnels

merged into one.[486] In hazardous earth, mining frames and sheeting

were resorted to, but even these expedients, at times, did not

prevent the earth from falling and impeding the workmen. Thirty

civil labourers worked the windlasses and drove the barrows for the

party. All hands worked from five in the morning until half-past six

in the evening, and made by their exertions, seven days and a half

a-week, at 1_s._ 6_d._ each a-day. Captain Vetch, late of the corps,

was the engineer for the work, and Lieutenant the Honourable H. F.

Keane, commanded the detachment. The Board of Woods and Forests paid

the expenses of the undertaking, and praised the skill and energy

with which the excavations had been conducted and completed. The

Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury also acknowledged the

great advantage which resulted from the employment of the sappers on

the occasion.

-----

Footnote 486:

The ‘Times,’ August 19, 1846.

-----

Sergeant Philip Clark and eleven rank and file embarked at Deptford,

in the ‘Blenheim,’ on the 3rd of June, 1846, for the territories of

the Hudson’s Bay Company. A detachment of artillery, and three

companies of the 6th foot, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel

Crofton, were also with the expedition. The employment of this small

force on the Red River was occasioned by the menacing hauteur of the

Americans respecting the Oregon territory, which at this period was

a momentous question between the two countries; but fortunately, the

dispute terminated in a treaty which settled amicably the national

differences.

The party was composed of excellent mechanics and well-conducted

men, two of whom were also good surveyors and draughtsmen. Three

chronometers and barometers, with measuring chains and surveying

instruments, were placed in charge of sergeant Clark. Captain H. C.

B. Moody, R.E., took command of the party on its landing at York

Factory on the 14th of August, and subsequently, for about a year,

the command was held by Captain Beatty, R.E.

It was not intended to attach the sappers to the divisions of the

troops in pushing up the country, but to employ them on services for

which they were more peculiarly adapted, such as measuring the

heights of the several falls in the course of the rivers that

occasion the necessity for the portages, and improving the latter

whenever any short proceeding would give them facilities for doing

it: also cutting, on prominent objects, bench marks to show the

height of the water for the information of travellers, and embodying

in memoranda a description of the nature of the ground traversed and

the features of the country, with suggestions for improving the

passage. Owing, however, to the scarcity of officers, the colonel in

command could not permit the employment of the detachment in this

manner. Accordingly, eight men accompanied the first division of the

force, two the second, and two, with Captain Moody, the third. The

first party took the barometers; and the chronometers were taken by

the two surveyors in the 3rd brigade. In concert with the troops,

they tracked, hauled, rowed, and poled the boats the whole way to

Fort Garry; and, notwithstanding the intensity of the cold, such was

the nature of the duty, it required them in its execution, to go

barefooted with their trousers tied above the knee. At night, for a

few hours only, they slept under canvas frequently in wet clothes,

upon the damp snow-covered ground. The distance traversed was about

400 miles, through swamps and rapids, over rocky islets, and up and

down steep and slippery banks and declivities; and the operation,

one of immense difficulty and peril, was not achieved without much

labour and discomfort.

At each portage, sergeant Clark himself carried the chronometers,

and, after examining them, placed a sentry to watch them. He also

measured the heights of the falls and took the difference of the

levels. In shoal water, or in running the several rapids, the

delicate instruments were invariably removed from the boats to save

them from shocks by bumping against hidden rocks and impediments.

The chronometers were wound up every morning at nine o’clock, and

the results and comparative differences registered. Three times a

day the indications of the barometers, the changes in the

atmosphere, and the force and direction of the wind were registered,

and these observations were recorded until the expedition quitted

the settlement.

Sergeant Clark and private Robert Penton showed great zeal and

intelligence in the manner they carried out their scientific duties

on the route, and corporal Thomas R. Macpherson, who had charge of

the party that accompanied the first brigade from York Factory, was

commended for the notes he took of the route, and for the report he

framed thereon.

At Lower Fort Garry, the troops, under the officers of engineers,

with the sappers as overseers, made a trench round the fortress, and

cleared away the wood contiguous to it for 300 yards in every

direction. A varying party was detached with corporal Macpherson to

Upper Fort Garry; and at both places, the sappers carried out all

those services which the nature of the settlement and the weather

made indispensable for the health and accommodation of the troops.

While at work the detachment wore leather jackets and trousers.

In the second year of the station, corporal Macpherson with one

sapper was sent to York Factory, and returned in charge of the

magnetic and other instruments left there the year before. Although

the intricacies of the passage were considerable, increased by the

necessity of personally carrying the cases over the portages, he

safely conveyed them to the fort without detriment or derangement.

Some of the party were employed at intervals, in the survey of

portions of the Assimboine, Saskatchewan and Red Rivers, and

corporal Macpherson[487] and second-corporal Penton, under Captain

Moody, examined and explored the country in the vicinity of the

boundary line of the United States at Pambina.

-----

Footnote 487:

In the life of some men there happen singular incidents, which

give either a romantic or a strangely-degraded cast to their

career. In this category corporal Macpherson may be fairly

included. He was a very talented and superior artificer, and his

general knowledge and experience made his services conspicuous. At

Hythe he absented himself, and leaving his clothes on the bank of

the canal, a belief prevailed that he was drowned; he, however,

turned up about a year afterwards, and was convicted of the crime

of desertion. But soon gaining favour by his diligence and

talents, he rose rapidly to the rank of sergeant, and was

entrusted with responsible duties at Gibraltar, Hudson’s Bay, and

finally in Nova Scotia. At Halifax he again deserted, with 206_l._

of the public money, but a vigilant piquet being on his trail, he

was apprehended at Annapolis, fortunately for the captain of his

company, with the whole of the treasure in his pocket. Being tried

and convicted he was sentenced to fourteen years' transportation.

A review of his useful services, and the humane intercession of

Colonel Savage, R.E., his commanding officer, obtained for him a

full pardon—only to be followed by the basest ingratitude and

crime. A few months elapsed, and the forgiven felon _a third time_

deserted. On the passage to the States he robbed a gentleman with

whom he got into conversation, but as the theft was discovered

before the debarkation took place, the gentleman repossessed his

money, and a gold watch supposed to be stolen. On landing, the

gentleman took steps for the apprehension of the delinquent, but,

by artful remonstrances, he made the public believe that the

reason of his arrest was not for theft as alleged, but for

desertion from the British service. At once the mob sympathized

with his fate, rescued him from custody, and he is now at large in

the States. The gold watch, brought to Halifax by the gentleman,

proved to be the property of a comrade.

-----

On the 3rd of August, 1848, the sappers quitted Fort Garry under

the command of Captain Blackwood Price, R.A.—Captain Moody having

then returned to Canada—and after completing the arduous and

fatiguing descent to York Factory, they embarked there on the 24th

of August, and landed at Woolwich, 18th of October, 1848. Both

Lieutenant-Colonel Crofton, and Major Griffiths, his successor in

command, awarded an honourable meed of approbation to the

detachment for its exemplary conduct and services; but sergeant

Clark was particularly noticed by the former for his attainments

and ready zeal. “His exertions,” adds the Colonel, “were never

wanting, even in matters not in immediate connexion with the

corps, and to him I owe the good arrangements made for the

garrison library, in aid of which, his services as librarian were

cheerfully given without gratuity.”[488] Sergeant Clark, corporal

Macpherson and second-corporal Penton,[489] received promotion for

their useful exertions on this expedition.

-----

Footnote 488:

Sergeant Clark was brought up in the royal military asylum. He was

for some years on the survey of Ireland, and by subsequent

application, became a fair surveyor and draughtsman. He served a

station at Corfu before going to Hudson’s Bay, and subsequently

passed a few years as colour-sergeant of the 20th company, at

Freemantle, Western Australia.

Footnote 489:

An enterprising and superior surveyor. He was importantly employed

in 1843 in the determination of the longitude of Valentia, and is

now a sergeant at Halifax, Nova Scotia, whither he had been sent

to superintend the laying of asphalte.

-----

1846.

Exploration survey for a railway in North America—Services of the

party employed on it—Personal services of sergeant A.

Calder—Augmentation to the corps—Reinforcement to China—Recall of

a company from Bermuda—Royal presents to the reading-room at

Southampton—Inspection at Gibraltar by Sir Robert Wilson—Third

company placed at the disposal of the Board of Works in

Ireland—Sergeant J. Baston—Services of the company—Distinguished

from the works controlled by the civilians—Gallantry of private G.

Windsor—Coolness of private E. West—Intrepid and useful services

of private William Baker—Survey of Southampton, and its

incomparable map.

Sergeant Alexander Calder and seven rank and file of the survey

companies embarked at Liverpool in the ‘Britannia’ steam-ship, and

landed at Halifax, 2nd July. Subsequently, the party was increased

by the arrival of four rank and file who had been employed on the

boundary survey in the state of Maine. This detachment, with two

pensioner non-commissioned officers of the corps, served under the

direction of Captain Pipon,[490] and afterwards of Lieutenant E. Y.

W. Henderson and Major Robinson, R.E., in surveying the country

between Quebec and Halifax, to ascertain the best route for a

railway to connect the provinces. The party was dressed in plain

clothes, and for the service of the woods, fur caps, pea-coats, and

over-boots were added.

-----

Footnote 490:

Accidentally drowned in the Restigouche, 28th October, 1846. His

body was identified by private John Ashplant, and taken charge of

by him and sergeant Calder until its removal from Campbelltown to

Fredericton, where it was interred in the public cemetery.

-----

Five different routes, the projects of rival interests, were

surveyed, and the neighbouring forests and wilds, abounding with

wood and water, explored. The forests were in their primeval

state—dense and rugged. Pine trees were the chief growth, and the

ground, encumbered with sharp-pointed branches thrown down by time

or the violence of winds, formed a regular abattis, and with a thick

undergrowth of shrubs and bushes rendered the woods almost

impervious. Parties exploring, as soon as they left the rivers or

beaten tracks, had to cut their way before them. The difficulties of

carrying out the service were considerable. The hills being as much

covered with the forest as the plains and valleys, views of the

surrounding country could not easily be obtained. Generally this

object was effected by climbing, in which some of the sappers became

very expert, “and, assisted by creepers—a contrivance of iron spikes

buckled to the feet—could climb well.”[491] To wander in the least

degree from the path cut or marked was dangerous, as the chances of

being benighted or lost in the prairie were very great.[492]

-----

Footnote 491:

‘Professional Papers,’ N. S., ii., p. 36.

Footnote 492:

Ibid., p. 38.

-----

The detachment was divided into parties of two each as

assistant-surveyors, with ten or twelve labourers, under a civil

surveyor of the country. “Each party had a particular line to

explore. The sappers carried either two or three barometers and

detached thermometers with them; also a 5-inch theodolite, a

measuring chain, pocket compasses, &c. As the lines were cut out by

the axemen and labourers, the sappers measured them, and took the

angles for direction, and also for elevation or depression. The

barometers were registered at the summits of ridges and bottoms of

valleys. Somewhere, at the most convenient spot, in the

neighbourhood of the exploring parties, a sapper was stationed with

a standard barometer, who did not move from his post until ordered

to do so. His duty was to register his barometer and thermometers

every hour during the day.”[493]

-----

Footnote 493:

Ibid., p. 37.

-----

The result of the surveys and investigations was an able report from

Major Robinson, describing a range of country through which a

railway could beneficially pass, extending in length to 635 miles,

from Halifax to Quebec. The proposed route was determined with

reference to the resources of the tract to be traversed, its

accessibility, and facility of adaptation to the purpose, as well as

its military and general advantages.

After completing the plans and sections of the lines explored, the

party, in September, 1848, returned to England and rejoined the

survey department.

The personal services of sergeant Calder on this duty are

sufficiently interesting to receive notice in this place; and, with

some little difference in points of duty and incident, may be taken

as an average type of the individual adventures of the rest of the

party. From Halifax to Folly Village, he surveyed a line of

seventy-five miles with the barometer, and from thence, for

twenty-five miles, measured the roads from the high-water mark of

the Bay of Fundy, by taking the heights with the theodolite, using

the angle of elevation and depression, and checking the same

simultaneously, by barometrical observation. He afterwards traversed

a varied country for about sixty miles to Amherst, from whence he

carried on the survey, barometrically, to Mirimichi. The completion

of another rough road of ten miles now took him fully into the

wilderness, where he continued his work till the winter set in.

During his labours in the woods he ran short of provisions. He was

then in charge of twelve men, carrying with them 3 lbs. of pork, 1

lb. of oatmeal, and a small bag of ginger. Upon this scanty fare the

party subsisted for three days; and, harassed as they were by hard

travelling through a mountainous country, entangled with a tissue of

bush and branches covered with deep snow, their fatigues and

privations were considerably increased. Heavy loads also they

carried, and so closely were the trees packed together, in the

exuberant vegetation of the forest, that the adventurers not only

had to tear themselves through the thicket, but were continually

impeded by logs of fallen trees and tufts of stubborn underwood. On

the evening of the third day the hunger of the men began to show its

effects in emaciation and despondency. At this moment sergeant

Calder found it necessary to relieve the party of the stores and

abandon them in the woods. The theodolite and barometers he attached

in a safe position to a tree. He then directed the men to use their

utmost exertions in tracking a spot where provisions could be found.

Scrambling down the banks of a large river they hurried onwards some

six miles, when a newly-blazed tree was discovered, indicating the

proximity of a lumbering camp. The blazed marks were followed

further on for about five miles, and then, to the unbounded joy of

the party, a light seen through the chinks of a log-hut on the

opposite shore drew the men in the dark on a fallen tree across the

stream to the desired camp, where their wants were appeased and

their exhausted strength restored. Sergeant Calder acted with

coolness and kindness throughout, and maintained the strictest

discipline and order. He afterwards recovered the instruments and

stores left in the woods, which his men, from weakness and want, had

been unable to carry.

In the second season the sergeant returned to the Cobiquid

Mountains, the scene of his former exertions. This range was the

vertebræ of the country, and the hinging point of an important tract

in the route of the proposed railway. Some doubts were entertained

as to the practicability of accurately ascertaining the gradients of

this dangerous and unknown district, and had they not been

determined, the scheme must have proved abortive; but sergeant

Calder undertook the service, and accomplished it by means of rods

and the spirit-level, to the entire satisfaction of his officers,

verifying at the same time the correctness of his former

investigations in connexion with the survey of the hills. After

this, travelling 200 miles to Cape Canso, he surveyed a branch line

along a rugged coast and through an intricate wilderness, to within

a few miles of Pictou. In conducting this work one of his labourers

was seized with fever. Calder took especial care of the man’s

comforts, which, however, from the necessity of crossing rivers and

lakes of great breadth on catamarans, or rafts of logs, were

unavoidably much restricted. As he proceeded, the trials of the

sergeant and his men multiplied, both from the fatigue of travelling

and the want of provisions. Wild berries were eaten to supply the

cravings of hunger; but to assuage the more fastidious necessities

of the sick man, the berries were taken by him with a little sugar.

What was most distressing at this time was the absence of all

shelter from the inclement weather, and both hale and sick were

therefore forced to stretch their limbs under the snow-laden boughs

of some dwarf trees, exposed to the keenness of the night frost. At

last the party arrived at a district known as the “Garden of

Paradise”—a rugged and inhospitable region, where the men were

benevolently entertained by some wild Highland settlers. Soon

afterwards the sergeant journeyed to Halifax, where he completed the

plans and sections of his surveys, and returned to England after a

service with the exploration expedition of two years and three

months.[494]

-----

Footnote 494:

This non-commissioned officer acquired, in his early service, a

sound knowledge of surveying in all its branches. For more than

eighteen years he had charge of large parties of surveyors and

draughtsmen, and his systematic habits and intelligence rendered

his assistance of great advantage. Well adapted for carrying out

any arrangement connected with the survey, and for conducting the

beneficial employment of large parties over extensive districts,

he was, in 1846, selected for the exploration duty above referred

to; and his report on a portion of the line, which embraced the

intricate parts of the Cobiquid Mountains, was considered of

sufficient interest to receive a place in the ‘Parliamentary Blue

Book,’ on the subject of that railway. In April, 1853, he was

pensioned at 1_s._ 11_d._ a-day, and, on quitting the corps, bent

his course westward and settled in Canada.

-----

A large increase to the army and artillery led to a proportionate

increase to the royal sappers and miners. This was suggested by Sir

John Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications, to maintain

a sufficient disposable force for employment in any military

services rendered necessary by the exigencies of the times. Eight

companies were ordered to be added to the corps, but their formation

was spread over three or four years. The first addition gave, on the

1st April, 1846, 1 sergeant, 1 corporal, 1 second-corporal, and 8

privates to each of the 10 service companies; and a company numbered

the 12th, of 100 non-commissioned officers and men, was formed at

the same time. The corps was thus raised in establishment from 1,290

to 1,500, and on the 1st September it was further increased to

1,600, by the formation of the 15th company. The Corfu company

remained at its original establishment of 62 sergeants and rank and

file.

On the 22nd July, eighteen rank and file embarked for China, and

landed at Hong Kong on the 26th December. This was the third

reinforcement to that command. When relieved in November, 1852, the

party had dwindled away to 8 men: 7 had died, 2 deserted, and 1 was

invalided. The total deaths in the three parties, whose united

strength was 67, amounted to 27 men.

The abandonment of the execution of some extensive works in Bermuda

permitted the recall to England of the eighth company, which arrived

at Woolwich on the 5th August, 1846. The strength of the company on

landing at Bermuda was seventy-nine of all ranks. Of this number

eight were invalided, thirty-eight had died, one was drowned, one

killed, and one transported for desertion. Only thirty-one men,

therefore, regained our shores.

A reading-room was established for the corps at Southampton in the

summer, which obtained much attention from distinguished visitors.

The Marquis of Anglesey—then Master-General—presented an engraving

of himself to the room, and the Queen also patronized it by

presenting an engraving of his Royal Highness, Prince Albert.[495]

In placing the gift in the room, Colonel Colby thus recorded the

fact in a general order to the companies under his command;—“The

valuable services of this distinguished corps, having been brought

under Her Most Gracious Majesty’s notice by the ordnance surveys of

Great Britain and Ireland, the demarcation of the boundary line

between the British dominions and those of the United States in

America, and more especially by the survey of the royal domains at

Windsor and the duchy of Lancaster, Her Majesty has condescended to

mark her gracious approval of these services, by ordering the

presentation of a portrait of the Prince Albert to be placed in the

reading-room.”

-----

Footnote 495:

A companion plate to Chalon’s portrait of Her Majesty.

-----

Twice this year the second and eleventh companies were inspected by

General Sir Robert Wilson, the Governor of Gibraltar—on the 16th May

and 17th October. On both occasions they presented a very creditable

appearance under arms. “The progress of the new work,” observes his

Excellency, “attests their skill and indefatigable diligence, and

their merits become the reputation of the service to which they

belong.”

The third company of three sergeants and forty-five rank and file,

under Captain Wynne, R.E., received orders at ten o’clock at night

on the 21st September, and in seven hours after was on route _viâ_

Liverpool for Dublin, where it arrived on the 24th. Placed at the

disposal of the Irish Board of Works to oversee the poor during the

continuance of the famine, which, from the failure of the potato

crop was now the scourge of Ireland, the company was instantly

removed in small parties to Limerick, Castlebar, Roscommon,

Newcastle, Boyle, and Castlerea, retaining at Dublin as storekeeper

and accountant for the Board sergeant John Baston.[496] From these

several stations the men were again dispersed over districts of wild

country, where the poor, clamorous for subsistence and life, were in

a state of revolt. Numbers of these turbulent but starving people

were employed on the construction of public roads, &c.; and the

sappers, appointed their overseers, not only laid out their work,

but instructed them in its performance. To this general duty several

of them united the office of steward and inspecting check clerk; and

besides controlling the check clerks, superintended and examined the

measurements of tasks, and had a general supervision of all

arrangements in the field. More than six months they continued on

this duty, and returned to Woolwich on the 8th April, 1847, with a

high character.

-----

Footnote 496:

Had charge of the implement store, at 48, City-quay, which

embraced the receipts and issues of thousands of wheelbarrows and

hand-carts, and a great assortment of road and draining tools.

These sergeant Baston was often employed to purchase, and to

obtain them he perambulated both town and country. The duties

entrusted to him were performed with promptitude, accuracy,

and fidelity. Mr. M‘Mahon, the civil engineer, found him

an exceedingly useful and zealous assistant. He is now

colour-sergeant in the corps; is a well-read and talented man, and

his qualifications as an artificer and overseer have rendered him

capable of much higher employment. He joined the corps a lad, from

the royal military asylum, and his acquirements and usefulness

have entirely arisen from his own application. Besides his home

services, he has passed with credit about seventeen years at

Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Corfu.

-----

The works superintended by them were always distinguished from other

works by the superior order and discipline which they enforced, not

unfrequently in circumstances of great personal danger, and during a

winter of unusual severity. In detecting frauds and correcting

abuses they were found particularly valuable; and their uniform

zeal, ability and good conduct, met with the perfect satisfaction of

the Board of Works and the Lords of the Treasury. Even Daniel

O’Connell spoke favourably of their employment.[497] The working pay

of the men while under the relief board ranged between 1_s._ and

2_s._ 6_d._ a-day.

-----

Footnote 497:

The ‘Times,’ November 4, 1846.

-----

While on this novel service, private George Windsor, from the

upright way in which he performed his duty, made himself obnoxious

to the peasantry in the lawless district of Croom; and but for the

gallantry with which he defended himself, would probably have lost

his life. On the 26th December this private was employed in the

barony of Cashma on the Pullough line of road, and on passing down

the line in advance of the check clerk and a number of labourers,

&c., was met by two persons dressed in women’s clothes, with veils

hanging from their bonnets covering their faces. One was armed with

a gun, the other with a pistol. Presenting their pieces, they

ordered him to kneel, but this the private refused, and though he

was unarmed, the ruffians at once closed upon him. At this moment

Windsor seized the person armed with the pistol, (dexterously

thrusting his finger between the trigger and the guard,) and getting

hold of his throat with the other hand, they fell together,

fortunately in such a way that the desperado with the gun could not,

without injuring his accomplice, shoot the sapper. He, therefore,

beat Windsor with the butt-end of his piece. Several minutes the

struggle was maintained strangely enough in the presence of a large

number of stewards and labourers; and had he met with the slightest

assistance from any of them, would have captured both the offenders;

but incredulous as it may appear, it must be added to the disgrace

of Irishmen that, just as he had overpowered the ruffian with the

pistol, a man named Joseph Lindsay[498]—brother to the check

clerk—came forward, and dislodging Windsor’s grasp, aided the

parties to decamp! For his spirited and manly conduct in the attack,

private Windsor was promoted to be second-corporal.

-----

Footnote 498:

Afterwards tried and convicted for the offence at the Limerick

Spring Assizes, 1847.—‘Saunders’s News-Letter,’ March 9, 1847.

-----

Private Edward West received three threatening notices through the

post-office warning him not to appear at work again on pain of

death, adding that, if he did, he should “drop into a bit of a hole

already dug for his carcase.” Unmoved by these missives, the private

was always the first on the line; and when the labourers were

collected, he told them he had received the notices, and then

burning them in their presence, observed in a loud voice, “that

would be the way his intended murderers would be served at another

time.” Once he was attacked by a party from behind a hedge with

stones. Struck on the head, he was stunned for a few moments, and

nearly fell. On recovering, he boldly dashed over the hedge to meet

his assailants, but the cowards made a precipitate retreat. Thirty

men suspected of being concerned in the assault were at once

dismissed from employment.

Six other men were promoted for their coolness, as well as tact and

fidelity, in carrying on their appointed services. Of these private

William Baker was perhaps the most conspicuous. A brief detail of

his services will show the nature of his duties and the difficulties

he had to contend with. Detached to Shonkeragh, eight Irish miles

from Roscommon, he was placed over a number of labourers who were in

the last stage of insubordination. At first they took their own time

of going to work and quitting it, although the regulations required

them to be present from 7 A.M. till 5 P.M. To train them to

punctuality was not an easy matter, but by checking them and

carrying out a firm discipline he soon gained his point. That there

should be no excuse for absence, he employed a strong boy to blow a

tin horn on the top of the highest hill, central among the cabins of

the workmen, to call them to work, and at its sound the rapid

gathering of the poor at the rendezvous, on all occasions, showed

their willingness to be guided by any useful reform.

This command over a half-civilized class of men made his services

very desirable in irregular districts; and among several places

where he was beneficially employed was Drumshanaugh—a desolate spot

where a knot of Molly Maguires held sway, and obtained payment

without work, by intimidating the civil overseers, who feared the

consequences of not yielding to their exactions. The farmers' sons

and others who had plenty of cattle were receiving 4_d._ a day more

than the people who really did work, and 300_l._ in this way were

paid for bad labour not worth 50_l._ With these labourers he had a

trying duty to perform; but, amid threats and insubordination, he

calmly effected his purpose, and suppressed both the spirit of

turbulence and the practice of fraud.

The labourers received from 4_d._ to 8_d._ and 9_d._ a day, and the

rough wall builders 1_s._ 6_d._, in strict proportion to the work

executed. When task-work was introduced, it was difficult to remove

the prejudices which set in against the change, and quicken into

zeal the indolence which followed. To carry out the instructions of

the Board of Works, private Baker selected some of the mildest men

of his party to work at easy tasks, by which they earned 11_d._ a

day—3_d._ more than formerly. At the end of the week the overseer

made a point of this, and paying his choice men first, made suitable

remarks as they received their money. Next came the day-men, who

being checked for wet days and lost time, only averaged about 3_s._

2_d._ a week. The disparity of the payments had a wonderful effect,

and ever afterwards the system of task labour was eagerly preferred

by the peasantry.

Deception, however, soon crept into the tasks, which it required

some tact and alertness to detect. In excavations, the labourers

frequently came in contact with stone, and for such quantities as

they dug out and heaped up, they were paid by the cubic yard; but

often these heaps were merely superficial. In every such case

private Baker had the mass pulled down and solidly repiled. Acts of

repetition were followed by the dismissal of the delinquents,

despite the danger it involved. When this cheat failed they resorted

to another, by rolling large stones into the heaps from adjacent

places; but as these always bore unmistakeable evidence of exposure

to rain and wear, the private never omitted to reject them from the

pile.

On several occasions when threatening notices of death were posted

up prohibiting the civil overseers and check-clerks from returning

to a particular line, a car was despatched, even at midnight, to

bring private Baker to the excited district. Next morning, appearing

at his dangerous post, unarmed, he would pacify or humour the

desperados into order and tranquillity.

When a pay-clerk was discharged, the regular payments were for a

time interrupted, and the labourers would clamour for a settlement.

In Baker’s district there were four lines, three of which were

superintended by civilians: the labourers on them were about 700.

These threatened daily to go in a body to Boyle, and, should they

fail to get their pay, to take the lives of the engineer and his

clerks, and burn down the town. Baker represented the state of

affairs to the authorities; and on his own recommendation obtained

permission from Boyle to give checks for meal upon a tradesman in

Carrick-on-Shannon. By this means he fed the people, and kept their

irritation in successful check. These periods of disorder occurred

two or three times, till pay-clerks were appointed to succeed those

who were discharged or had resigned. The pay-clerks seldom paid

without the protection of a sapper, who frequently, in instances of

dispute, took the bag with its responsibilities and perils, and

served out the wages himself. So well did private Baker manage the

matter at a wild place in Cashel, that the labourers stood round

like soldiers to receive their earnings; and to prevent litigation

or seizure, the money was handed to the recipients through an

aperture in the pay-hut.[499]

-----

Footnote 499:

Baker became a second-corporal, and fell heroically at the first

storming of the Redan, 18th June, 1855.

-----

Frauds were very common; and when detected, the offenders were

dismissed. Several civil overseers were, however, afraid to place

themselves in opposition to the populace; and a sapper working on

one line has in such instances been sent to another to perform the

duty. This, of course, produced much ill-feeling against the

sappers; but beyond a few threats and an occasional attack, the

sappers passed from the country without material hurt.

The survey of Southampton was completed late this year for the

Southampton Improvement Board. A detachment of the corps, directed

by Captain Yolland, R.E., under the local superintendence of

sergeant William Campbell, executed the work. The map, on a scale of

60 inches to a mile, occupies thirty-five large sheets, which have

been magnificently bound in bureau folio, and placed in the

municipal archives of the town. Sergeant Campbell attended at a

meeting of the Commissioners on the 31st March, 1847, and presented

the map, on the part of the Ordnance to the Corporation. The work is

one of extreme beauty. A more artistical display of ornamental

surveying does not exist. The stonework of the pavement, the styles

of the public buildings, the masonry of the graving-dock, the

undulation of the silt on the shores, and small streams of water

running into it from the coast, the gardens of private houses, and

the trees and shrubberies of the common, are all delineated with a

minuteness of detail and beauty of colouring unexampled in any town

map in England. Even the map of Windsor, which obtained the

approbation of Her Majesty for its accuracy and exquisite finish, is

much inferior to the map of Southampton. The draughtsmen were

second-corporals Charles Holland[500] and George Vincent, with

Patrick Hogan,[500] late royal sappers and miners, and Mr.

Maclachlan.[501] The Commissioners of the town gave a unanimous vote

of thanks to Captain Yolland, the sappers, and the assistants for

the survey and map of the borough, and also expressed “the high

sense they entertained of the great ability and unrivalled skill

displayed in the execution of the work.” A committee was formed to

take steps for rewarding Captain Yolland and sergeant Campbell “with

an adequate testimonial of the Commissioners' high approbation of

the work;” but the intended honour, on military grounds, was

declined.[502]

-----

Footnote 500:

Each received a case of instruments from Prince Albert for merit

in the execution of a drawing of Windsor.

Footnote 501:

‘Hampshire Telegraph,’ January 30th, 1847; ‘Hampshire Advertiser,’

April 3, 1847.

Footnote 502:

‘Hampshire Advertiser,’ April 3, 1847.

-----

1847.

Detachments in South Australia—Corporal W. Forrest—Augmentation to

the corps—Destruction of the Bogue and other forts—Services of the

detachment at Canton—First detachment to New Zealand—Survey of

Dover and Winchelsea—Also of Pembroke—Flattering allusion to the

corps—Sir John Richardson’s expedition to the Arctic regions—Cedar

Lake—Private Geddes’s encounter with the bear—Winter quarters at

Cumberland House—Roadmaking in Zetland—Active services at the

Cape—Company to Portsmouth.

The detachment in South Australia was in July, 1845, on the

representation of his Excellency Lieutenant-Governor Grey, ordered

to be reduced, its employment being considered no longer necessary

or advantageous to the province. Scarcely had steps been taken to

effect its disbandment, when Governor Grey, removed to another

settlement, was succeeded by Colonel Robe, who, taking a different

view of the services of the party, submitted the desirableness of

its immediate completion to the authorized establishment. In this

suggestion Earl Grey concurred, regarding it of the greatest

importance that the survey department in the province should not be

permitted to fall into arrear in its work; and under authority,

dated 22nd October, 1846, a party of seven mechanics, who were also

surveyors and draughtsmen, sailed for Port Adelaide in February and

landed there the 30th June.[503]

-----

Footnote 503:

One of the party discharged under Governor Grey’s order was

corporal William Forrest. Governor Robe, in a despatch to Earl

Grey, spoke of his entire approbation of the corporal’s

conduct, both as a soldier and surveyor. Captain Frome, the

surveyor-general, attributed the rapid progress of the field

surveys, and the general correctness of the work, to his

steady zeal and talent. At first he superintended four or five

detached survey parties, and laid out and corrected their

work; but when a sufficient quantity of land had been divided

into sections, corporal Forrest was transferred to the

triangulation of the known portions of the colony, and

connected all the detached surveys with the trigonometrical

stations. This service he conducted in a most satisfactory and

creditable manner. Returning to England, he was discharged in

April, 1848, and is now living, in ease and comfort, at

Edinburgh on his pension and his savings.

-----

The corps was increased by 200 men this year, on account of the

formation of a company on the 1st April, and another on the 1st

December. These companies were numbered the seventeenth and

eighteenth; and the establishment now reached a total of 1,800

officers and soldiers. When the estimates for the year were under

consideration in the House of Commons, Colonel Anson, the

surveyor-general of the Ordnance, in claiming an increased amount to

cover the augmentation, passed a high eulogium on the corps. After

speaking in flattering terms of the royal engineers, the Colonel

added, “He might say as much for the sappers and miners. This body

was composed of most intelligent men, who applied themselves most

assiduously to the discharge of their duties, and were equal to any

services which they might be called upon to perform.”[504]

-----

Footnote 504: