fifteen stations on the eastern frontier and at Pieter Maritzburg. In
February, corporal George Pringle, having under him twelve men of the
45th regiment, threw a raft of casks for the passage of his Excellency
Sir Harry Smith and his guard, over the rivers Umgani, Mooi, Bushman’s,
and the two Tugelas. Sir Harry was taking a peaceful tour of the colony
from the frontier to Natal, during which he inquired into the
disaffection of the Boers, and settled matters with Pretorius relative
to the sovereignty of some territory north of the Orange river, and
eastward as far as the Draakenberg mountains.[35] Corporal George
Pringle and party, under Lieutenant Gibb, R.E., went from Pieter
Maritzburg to the foot of the Draakenberg range, about 120 miles, to
meet him. His Excellency noticed corporal Pringle for the activity and
intelligence he displayed on this service. When crossing the Mooi, in
consequence of the strain on the hawser which had been previously
fastened to the opposite bank, the raft capsized, and threw the pontoon
party and fifteen men of the Cape mounted rifles into the stream.
Corporal Pringle and a man of the 45th regiment, alone clung to the
raft; and as it swept along with the rapid current, whirling round and
round with the eddy, the corporal dexterously seized the end of a
breast-line, jumped into the stream, and swimming to the shore, moored
the raft to a clump of bush, by which it swung in safety. All the
saddles and carbines, the waggon, and Sir Harry Smith’s horse, which
were on the pontoon at the time, were thrown into the river. The horse,
by means of a lasso, was soon rescued; and the waggon, about five feet
under water, was recovered by the coolness of the corporal, who swam to
the spot, and lashing it to the boom, hauled it, with the assistance of
his party, to the bank. All the soldiers were saved. The corporal now
adopted another method to take his Excellency and the guard across, and
the passage of the Mooi, more than fifty yards wide, was eventually
effected without accident to the troops or injury to the baggage.
Six privates, under sergeant Alexander M. M‘Leod, left King William’s
Town on the 2nd August with a division commanded by Sir Harry Smith, to
chastise the rebel Boers at Boem Plaatz. On nearing the Konap, the party
was sent in advance to discover the ford. All night was spent in the
tedious search, but by daylight next morning it was effectually traced
and the march across the Konap commenced. The train, however, was soon
stopped in its progress, as the leading waggon, unskilfully conducted by
the vorlooper in charge of it, got off a ledge of rock upon which it was
proceeding safely, and sinking into the water, the gunpowder it
contained was destroyed. At the same time the vorlooper, young and weak,
unable to stand against the current, was swept off his legs. In this
emergency Colonel Buller directed the sergeant to assist the train in
crossing. Standing in the centre of the stream, he controlled the
refractory oxen and drove them to the opposite shore. There, however,
fresh difficulties arose, for, as the soil was greasy and the bank
steep, the oxen could not draw the waggons out of the river. Instantly
the party of sappers reduced the bank, and throwing the excavated earth
on the slippery beach, the waggons were at length dragged to the shore.
Arriving at the Great Fish River, the troops, guns, and baggage were
ferried across on the India-rubber raft taken with the sappers, while
the empty waggons were drawn over by means of a hawser. On the 20th the
Orange River was reached; next day four other sappers were added to the
party, and on the 22nd, at day-light, the India-rubber float was
launched for the passage of the division. The river was 250 yards wide
and a very rapid tide was running, when, having stretched a sheer line
across the stream fastened on either shore to a tree, the operation was
successfully carried out. Forty men were ferried across at a time, the
expedient of the guiding hawser considerably lessening the labours of
the party. Three guns and several waggons were also taken over. The
latter were simply rolled on the raft without disturbing their loads,
and were deprived of any dangerous motion by blocking their wheels. Not
a single accident occurred; and in compliment to the unfailing zeal and
efficiency of the men, Sir Harry Smith took occasion, on a general
parade at Graham’s Town in October, 1848, to acknowledge that to the
royal sappers and miners he was “greatly indebted for the means with
which he had been enabled to make the passage of the Orange River, many
of the men swimming in the river like dolphins in getting across the
baggage and material.”[36]
Marching for Boem Plaatz the detachment was present in an engagement
with the Boers, remaining for a time in the rear in charge of ten
ammunition tumbrils, and four engineer waggons, containing engineer
tools and stores; but ordered to the front by the Governor’s
aide-de-camp, Captain Holdich, they pressed forward with four ammunition
waggons, and did good service, during the remainder of the action, by
serving out the cartridges to the troops.
It was not long before the Boers were beaten, and the column advanced,
followed by the sappers and the train of waggons. The grass was on fire
on either side of the road. Just at this time the fore-skean or
linch-pin of the leading waggon broke, the near fore-wheel came off, and
the tumbril upset. Another minute and the burning grass would have blown
it up; but there were resolute spirits in the party, who, undaunted by
the danger, rushed to the spot, raised the dismembered waggon from the
fire, and replacing the wheel, fastened it by the drag-chain through the
spokes to the tessel-boom. The expedient answered its purpose for twelve
miles, when, by Sir Harry Smith’s orders, the ammunition was removed to
a commissariat waggon.
On the 30th August, at Bloem Fontein, the Sovereignty was proclaimed to
be British territory. A few days after, marching for Wynberg, the
sappers cut a road up the steep and rugged banks of the river they
crossed on the route, and repaired a drift for the waggons at Wynberg.
There a review was held by Sir Harry Smith. Moshes, the paramount chief
of the Sovereignty, and his sons were present, attended by a cortege of
800 armed horsemen clothed in European garb, and 1,500 foot warriors in
their war costume and accoutrements. When the display terminated, the
Kaffirs formed a circle round Sir Harry Smith and the chief Moshes, and
performed a frantic war-dance to serve as an additional proof of the
re-establishment of peace. The sappers with the other troops witnessed
this barbaric demonstration, and afterwards returned to Bloem Fontein.
The companies at Gibraltar, brought to a strength of 197 men by the
arrival of a reinforcement of 53 rank and file, were inspected by the
Governor, Sir Robert Wilson, in May, and his report complimented them on
their efficiency, zeal, and capacity. “Under arms,” Sir Robert added,
“their appearance is soldier-like, and their exercises were creditably
performed.” His Excellency, however, had to regret “that the vice of
drunkenness should exist in a corps otherwise so respectable.”
In October, Major-General Stavely inspected the half company at Hong
Kong, but while he commended the men for their “fine looks” and “being
well dressed,” he censured the irregularity which had recently marked
their conduct. Intoxication, the greatest bane of the colony, was the
chief predisposing cause of disease; and the sappers, who from the
nature of their service were continually employed and often much exposed
to the sun, carried the propensity to an extent which produced much
sickness, and justly called for the Major-General’s animadversion.
Very different, however, was the conduct of the seventh company at
Corfu, which, having completed its tour of foreign duty, was relieved
early in the year and returned to Woolwich. The Lieutenant-General spoke
of their constant good conduct and exertions during the period they had
been under his command, and commended them for the excellency of their
services. In parting with the company he expressed his good wishes for
their welfare, and a vast concourse of the inhabitants cheered them
through the streets to the point of embarkation. Since 1824, the
companies successively sent to Corfu were chiefly employed in the works
of the citadel, and the defences of Vido. Fort Neuf and the church in
the citadel, as well as Fort George, Lunette Wellington, and the
Maitland Tower at Vido, attest the skilful workmanship of the sappers.
Individuals or small parties were at different times detached on
particular duty to Santa Maura, Zante, Paxo, and Cephalonia. Of this
special duty some idea may be formed, from the nature of the employment
of a corporal, who being sent to Santa Maura in December, 1845, by order
of the Lord High Commissioner, superintended the workmen engaged in
opening a new channel into the port, to render the inner passage once
more practicable for ships sailing either up or down the coast.
The detachment at the Falkland Islands was removed from that settlement
on the recall of Governor Captain Moody, and landed at Woolwich the 29th
November, 1848. For more than six years the party had discharged all the
duties of soldiers and artificers, assisted by about forty civilians
chiefly labourers; and in that short period a considerable improvement
had been made in the colony. Several buildings had been erected,
including the Government-house and offices; also a school-house and
barracks, and cottages for emigrants and workmen, with houses for boats
and stores. Jetties were also constructed, sea-walls made, roads traced
and formed, bridges thrown, weirs made for fishing, and kraals for
cattle, with numerous ditches, drains, sod walls, and sod huts. To these
must be added the performance of an endless variety of services, which
the wants and contingencies of a new and inhospitable colony rendered
indispensable. Four of the detachment were discharged in the settlement,
and the remaining four, soon after reaching England, left the corps by
purchase or on pension.[37]
-----
Footnote 32:
This year was enlisted a calculating youth named Alexander Gwin, a
native of Londonderry, who had a brother and an uncle in the corps.
When only eight years of age, he had “committed to memory the
logarithms of all the natural numbers from one to a thousand.” Two
years later, his fame having spread, his precocity was tested at
Limerick “in the presence of Colonel Colby, Lord Adare, and several
other gentlemen of distinction,” to whom he repeated the whole series,
without a mistake, taking up two hours and a half to deliver himself
of that gigantic mental effort! “His rapidity and correctness in
calculating trigonometrical distances, triangles, &c.” were equally
remarkable. “In less than one minute, he could make a return in acres,
roods, perches, &c., of any quantity of land, by giving him the
surveyor’s chained distances; while,” it is added, “the greatest
mathematician with all his knowledge would certainly take nearly an
hour to do the same, and not be sure of truth in the end.”—‘Year-Book
of Facts,’ 1842. ‘Boys’ Own Book,’ p. 381, published by Bogue. This
calculating boy, making allowance for the hyperbole of his admirers,
was without doubt a youthful prodigy. He is now a corporal on the
survey, useful and energetic in his duties; but as the opportunities
for improving his faculty for figures have been considerably lessened
by the nature of his employments, he has not become what his infantine
capabilities promised—another Bidder.
Footnote 33:
He never received any additional remuneration at the close of the
work, but his high rate of working-pay may have been considered a
sufficient equivalent for his services.
Footnote 34:
Sergeant James Anderson was one of those who was thus favoured. On
obtaining his discharge, with a pension of 1_s._ 10_d._ a day, in
August, 1845, he received an appointment in Worsley-yard, belonging to
the estate of Lord Ellesmere, as superintendent and storekeeper of the
yard, at a salary of 120_l._ a-year, with a residence. Since then,
such has been his scrupulous character for honesty and careful
supervision, that a very handsome addition has been made to his
income, and the utmost confidence is reposed in him.
Another was colour-sergeant John Ross, a very ingenious mechanic, who
after his discharge, in April, 1848, was appointed engineer at
Runcorn, to attend to a small steam fleet in the canal, under the
Bridgewater Trust. He invented the drawbridge at the entrance of Fort
Albert, Bermuda, the largest of its class in any military
fortification, and which can be easily worked by two men, either in
throwing it across the ditch, or pulling it in. Many years of his life
had been spent in perfecting a new system of locomotion for ships. His
great idea was the construction of a vessel which should ride above
the control of the waves, resting upon an arrangement of large
cylinders, to serve, like the piers of a bridge, as the natural
supports of the ship, and within which should be placed his revolving
paddle-wheels, to be moved by steam appliances. By a very ingenious
contrivance he provided that the sea, which should come in contact
with the paddles, should not only be deprived of its resistance, but
made to assist in the propulsion of the vessel. The speed he
calculated to obtain by his system was almost incredible. Personal
trials of an imperfect model, in the waters at Bermuda, convinced him
of the practicability of his bold scheme. After quitting Runcorn,
ambitious of higher employment, he emigrated to Canada, where he is
pursuing the study and development of his novel notions of
shipbuilding and locomotion. He received a gratuity and medal for his
services in the corps, and might have been promoted to the rank of
sergeant-major, but, restless and speculative, he preferred to try
what his mechanical genius would yield him in civil life.
Footnote 35:
‘Cape and the Kaffirs,’ by Mrs. Captain Ward. Bohn’s edit. 1851, p.
230.
Footnote 36:
‘Graham’s Town Journal,’ October 14, 1848.
Footnote 37:
Sergeant Hearnden, so frequently spoken of in these pages, purchased
his discharge and emigrated with his savings, nearly a thousand
pounds, to North America, where, from his enterprising spirit and
commercial tact, he is realizing a fortune. Throughout his service of
twelve years in the corps he was constantly employed on particular
duty. In the practical instruction of the Cadets at Sandhurst and
Woolwich, and in one of the early expeditions to the disputed
territory in the state of Maine, he showed much talent and energy, and
obtained great credit. For his services at the Falkland Islands no
higher testimony could be afforded to a soldier than the repeated warm
acknowledgments of Governor Moody. A word may also be given about his
horse. Blanco was brought from South America; was perfectly white, and
exhibited signs of good breeding. Hearnden purchased him at a rather
high figure; but his subsequent usefulness and hardihood in a trying
climate gave him ample reason to be satisfied with his bargain. On the
7th January, 1847, at the Falkland Island races, Blanco had the good
fortune to win the Governor’s cup, worth 50l. The cup, made of silver,
by Hunt and Roskill, stood about eighteen inches high, and was richly
ornamented and chased. On one side the sergeant was represented
mounted, with sword, sabre-tache, and gauntlets. In another panel was
the inscription. The cover was very massive, and both cover and cup
were lined with silver gilt.
1849.
Breach in the sea embankment at Foulness—Company to
Portsmouth—Augmentation to corps—Homeward journey of the Arctic
expedition—Private Brodie—Great Slave Lake party—Expedition arrives in
England—South Australia—Sergeant R. Gardiner—Road-making in
Zetland—Survey of Dover—Wreck of the ‘Richard Dart’—Miserable
condition of the survivors on Prince Edward’s Island—Found, and taken
to the Cape—Remeasurement of the base-line on Salisbury
Plain—Shoeburyness—Eulogium by the Marquis of Anglesey—Fatal accident
at Sandhurst College.
On the 10th January fifty-five men, under Captain Tylee of the
engineers, were sent by express conveyances from Chatham to Foulness
Island, near the entrance of the river Burnham on the coast of Essex, to
repair the sea embankment which for about 200 feet had been forced away
by a heavy sea. The detachment took with it a quantity of intrenching
tools, water-boots, and stores, including 300 fascines and 3,000
sand-bags, which were made and filled in about three hours. In less than
twelve hours from the commencement of the work, the breach was
effectually mended by an ingenious placement of fascines and sand-bags,
at an expense not exceeding 6_l._ 10_s._ The party worked in two
divisions. The day was extremely wet, but the men laboured with the
utmost zeal, and their conduct both on sea and land was exemplary.[38]
A company was sent from Woolwich to Portsmouth in January to supply the
place of the one removed from that garrison to Dublin in February, 1848.
The return of a company to Portsmouth induced much opposition to its
employment on the part of the civil workmen, and disparaging remarks,
with respect both to its conduct and its mechanical abilities, appeared
in the provincial journals of the time.
One company, the twenty-first, was raised 1st February, and another, the
twenty-second, on the 1st March, thereby increasing the establishment of
the corps from 1,985 to 2,185 of all ranks. The royal warrant,
authorizing the formation of the last eight companies, is dated 22nd
August, 1849, and on its authority the companies were organized as
follows,—
Colour
Ser- Ser- Cor- 2nd Pri- General
geant. geants. porals. Corp. Bugl. vates. Total. Total.
17 Companies, Service, each 1 4 5 5 2 83 100 = 1,700
1 Company, Corfu 1 2 3 3 2 51 62 = 62
3 Companies, Survey, each 1 6 7 7 2 82 105 = 315
1 Company, Survey 1 4 5 5 2 83 100 = 100
——-
2,177
Staff—1 Brigade-Major, 1 Adjutant, 1 Quartermaster, 2 Sergeant-majors, } 8
2 Quartermaster-sergeants, and 1 Bugle-major,
——-
Total 2,185
——-
When the summer fairly set in, the arctic expedition under Sir John
Richardson commenced its return. The van, with corporal Mackie, started
about a week before Sir John, who followed on the 7th May with Mitchell,
Brodie, and three seamen. In five and a half days the journey over the
ice was completed, and on the 12th they encamped at Cape Macdonald,
clearing away for the purpose snow to the depth of five feet. They then
moved on to Fort Franklin, where the advance division had arrived with a
good supply of provisions for the voyage. Soon afterwards a detached
party was commissioned to Fort Norman for a barge and stores, for which
Sir John Richardson waited nearly a month, having with him Mitchell and
Brodie and two fishermen, who, in the mean time, lived on trout,
whitefish, herrings, and geese, and “bivouacked under the shelter of a
boat’s sail as a substitute for a tent.” In time they quitted the
vicinity of the fishing-hut, and moved to the banks of the Bear Lake
river, where they encamped until the 9th June, when the descent of the
river commenced. In the fishing coble brought from Fort Norman, Sir John
Richardson with three of the party embarked, whilst Mitchell, Brodie,
and a fisherman named Morrison, walked along the bank of the river, each
of them carrying his own bedding and clothing. Narcisse, another
fisherman, was left behind in charge of some stores. Half an hour after
setting out, the party in the coble put ashore, “and in a short time
Corporal Mitchell and Morrison joined them, but private Brodie, having
struck into the woods with the view of making a straighter course, did
not arrive in the hour that the chief waited for him;” and expecting
that he had gone past, the voyage was resumed with Mitchell and Morrison
added to the party in the boat.[39]
Fourteen miles from the lake a _cache_ was reached; and as Brodie had
not arrived in the course of the day, it was evident he had lost
himself, and therefore corporal Mitchell and Morrison were sent “back to
the lake to acquaint Narcisse with what had happened, and to engage an
Indian living at the fishery to go in quest of Brodie. In the meantime
the party at intervals fired their fowling-pieces, and set fire to some
trees, that the smoke might be seen by the strayed wayfarer at a
distance.”[40]
Next day the men came back from the lake. “After placing written
directions for Brodie in the _cache_, the expedition re-embarked, and in
a short time came to the influx of the Black River, then flooded. There
another paper of instructions was left for Brodie, directing him to the
_cache_ for provisions, and to remain with Narcisse until the barge came
for him.” “The incident,” writes Sir John Richardson, “of Brodie’s
straying gave me much uneasiness, as I feared he would experience some
suffering, though I did not apprehend he would lose his life. He was a
man of much personal activity and considerable intelligence. When he
discovered he was walking in a wrong direction, he began to mend his
pace, and to run, as is usual in such cases, but took an inland course,
and at length came to the borders of an extensive swamp. Here the woods
being more open he obtained a distant view of the ‘hill at the rapid,’
which he recognized, from having seen it on his former journey to the
_cache_; and as he knew that he must pass it in descending the river, he
resolved on walking straight for it, in the hope of arriving there
before us. After this he came to the Black River,” a rapid, unfordable
stream, scarcely passable by a raft; but, continues Sir John Richardson,
“being a fearless swimmer, he swam across it carrying his clothes on his
head. The stream being very tortuous, came again in his way, when he
crossed it a second and a third time in the same manner; but on the last
occasion, his bundle slipping off, floated away, and he regained the
bank with difficulty in a state of perfect nudity. After a moment’s
reflection, he came to the conclusion that without clothes he must
perish, and that he might as well be drowned in trying to recover them
as to attempt proceeding naked. On which he plunged in again, and
fortunately landed this time safely with his habiliments. He now
refreshed himself with a part of a small piece of dried meat, which in
his anxiety he had hitherto left untouched, and forthwith decided on
finding the _cache_ and returning from thence to the lake. On the third
day (11th June) he found my note, together with some provisions which
had been suspended to a pole for his use, but he had so husbanded his
own small supply, that he had still a morsel of dried meat remaining. He
had no difficulty afterwards in joining Narcisse, by keeping sight of
the river the whole way;”[41] and in due course he joined the expedition
at Fort Simpson, in a barge sent to receive him.
At this fort also joined the ten sappers who had wintered on the Great
Slave Lake; and on the 25th June Sir John started again on his
homeward journey, encountering a succession of hardships, until he
arrived at Norway House on the 13th August. The services of the
mission were now wholly ended, and of the sappers, Sir John Richardson
thus recorded his opinion: “During the time these men were under my
command, not a single act of disobedience occurred. Crews better
fitted for heavy portage work and for the ordinary duties of a
winter’s residence in the north, might doubtless have been selected
_in the country_, but none that I could have depended upon with so
much confidence in adverse circumstances.”[42]
The arctic travellers arrived in England in November 1849, when three or
four, in recognition of their usefulness, received gratuities of 15_l._
each, and the remainder 10_l._ each.
Captain Freeling, R.E., appointed surveyor-general in South Australia,
with a party of five surveyors—sappers and miners—sailed for Port
Adelaide on the 6th March, and landed there the 21st June. These men
were forwarded to the colony to fill the vacancies occasioned by men
discharged. Captain Frome, R.E., who had commanded the detachment in
that province since 1839, was recalled to the corps in consequence of
his period on the seconded list having expired.[43]