erection of an asylum for soldiers’ widows in memory of the late Duke of
Cambridge. From most of the companies it was met by contributions, which
in the aggregate amounted to 101_l._ 17_s._, and thus insured to the
corps a permanent interest in the institution to the extent of nine
votes at every election of a widow. The gift from the non-commissioned
officers and men of the sappers was the most liberal that had been
received from any regiment in the service.
Sergeant John Berry and one private, both surveyors, were employed under
Captain Vetch, late R.E., from June to August, in conducting a series of
tidal observations in the River Dee at Chester, for the harbour
department of the Admiralty, and to carry out also the provisions of the
“Dee Standard Restoration Act.” The observations were to extend over a
period of twelve months, but the service was concluded in a fourth of
the time. The duty was very carefully attended to, and the registrations
were always accurately made by the sergeant and his assistant.
One sergeant and fourteen rank and file embarked for Van Diemen’s Land
on the 19th July on board the ‘Lady Montagu,’ as a guard over convicts,
in conjunction with a detachment of the line under the command of
Captain J. S. Hawkins, R.E., and landed at Hobart Town on the 11th
December. The Lieutenant-Governor of the colony applied for the
assistance of the sappers to constitute, in the first instance, the
nucleus of an efficient survey body, and to carry on, both in the city
and the distant bush, the trigonometrical and detail survey of the
settlement. The men, eleven of whom were married and had families, were
selected from the survey companies, and were all competent for the duty
both as surveyors and draughtsmen. A change in the designation of the
settlement caused the party to be denominated the “Tasmanian
Detachment.” Very early after its arrival, the legislative council of
the colony showed much hostility to the employment of the sappers, and
at last gained the point for which it had pertinaciously worked. After a
service of nearly four years in the triangulation and survey of
Tasmania, the detachment quitted Hobart Town on the 9th February, 1856,
and landed at Sydney, for similar duty, on the 13th following.
A party of six men from Chatham was employed under Captain G. Bent,
R.E., from 24th September to 13th December, in surveying and levelling
the ground in the neighbourhood of St. Helier’s, Jersey, to the extent
of about ten square miles; and afterwards the same party was removed to
Alderney, where, under Lieutenant Martin and Captain Jervois, it
completed for military purposes a special survey of the island, in May,
1853.
Hostilities at the Cape were this year continued in the same desultory
and unsatisfactory manner as in the previous year. The attempts for a
fair open fight were quite unsuccessful, and the patrols undertaken to
drive the enemy into action were equally as harassing and arduous as in
any former war. In these operations the sappers participated to the
extent of their numerical means, not without, in one particular
instance, suffering greatly both in loss of life and property. The
following detail embraces the active services of the corps on the Cape
frontier this year.
A party of two sergeants and sixty-five rank and file, under Captain H.
C. B. Moody, R.E., returned to King William’s Town on the 1st January,
1852, after three days’ march in escorting supplies to Forts White and
Cox.
One sergeant and thirty rank and file accompanied a patrol of nearly 500
troops from King William’s Town, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel
Skipwith, 43rd regiment, on the 3rd January. Captain Moody with
Lieutenant Fowler, R.E., commanded the sappers. The American pontoon was
carried with the party. The division crossed the Kei on foot, at a
drift, on the 7th and 8th. On the 14th Colonel Eyre’s division appeared
in sight, but as the Kei had then risen considerably, the pontoon was
used with effect to cross the stream. About one mile and a half above
the drift, at a point where the water was smooth though the current was
strong, the raft was employed. The river was about 100 yards wide, with
a muddy bottom; the bank was easily accessible by infantry, but not by
cavalry or artillery. To form the communication a strong hawser was
passed over to the opposite bank, and the pontoon, attached to it by two
short lines with running loops, was passed from shore to shore, carrying
forty men at each trip. On the first day, seven companies of the 73rd
and 60th regiments were in this manner ferried across, as also about 100
Fingoe women and children. During the day the tide again rapidly fell,
and the waggons, &c., crossed the stream at the main drift. Captain
Moody, in reporting upon the conduct of his detachment, said, “Nothing
could exceed the energy and willingness with which they all worked.”
From the 31st January to 2nd February one sergeant and forty rank and
file, under Lieutenant Fowler, R.E., accompanied the patrol under the
command of Captain Campbell, Cape mounted rifles, and, supplied with
sickles, assisted in devastating the crops of the enemy in the
neighbourhood of Perie and cutting off their supplies. On the Mangoka
river a like razzia was effected, and after a night’s bivouac on the
Gwokkobi, several huts were burnt and fifty acres of corn cut down.
Further destruction was carried on up the Gwokkobi and Umnaza rivers to
the Perie station, to the extent of eighty acres. After a slight
skirmish with about 200 Kaffirs in the Perie bush, the patrol returned
to King William’s Town, laying waste in its route the gardens in the
vicinity of Fort Beresford and down the Umtabini to the point of its
junction with the Buffalo river, comprising another area of about eighty
acres of thriving corn.
Captain Fenwick, R.E., with twenty rank and file, formed the European
part of an escort of 100 strong, which conveyed supplies in five bullock
waggons, in addition to seventy head of cattle, to Major Kyle’s column
in the Tomacha—a distance of seventeen miles from King William’s Town,
to which place the detachment returned on the 5th February after two
days’ patrolling.
From 27th January to 28th February ten rank and file, under
second-corporal William Roberts, were attached to Lieutenant-Colonel
Eyre’s column, and during the operations on the march to the Keiskama,
and beyond it, were employed in making drifts practicable for waggons,
throwing temporary bridges for the passage of the troops, and assisting
in the destruction of the enemy’s crops.
A similar party during the same period, under corporal George Grubb,
accompanied Major Kyle’s division to Seyolo’s country; and, in addition
to the ordinary duties of the camp, assisted in devastating the crops of
the Kaffirs, and improved the drifts for the passage of the waggons and
the fording of the troops. This detachment also formed part of the
waggon escort which conveyed provisions to the column from Fort White.
On the 22nd and 23rd February one sergeant and sixty rank and file were
on patrol to Fort White, with supplies for the columns of Colonel
Mitchell and Major Kyle. Ten waggons were in charge of the party, five
of which were delivered to an escort from Major Kyle’s patrol, and the
remainder were unloaded at the Fort. The party then returned to King
William’s Town, capturing on the road two Kaffirs and six horses.
From 5th to 27th March nine rank and file under Captain Robertson, were
present in the operations of the force under his Excellency the
Commander-in-Chief, in driving the enemy from the Waterkloof and
adjacent fastnesses, and finally from the Amatola mountains. The
sappers, commanded by Captain Fenwick, R.E., were most useful in
rendering the drifts injured by heavy rains practicable for the passage
of waggons. On this service four men of each regiment accompanied the
head-quarters as the Commander-in-Chiefs escort. The party of sappers
also shared in the honour, by being permitted to add five men to his
Excellency’s body guard. One corporal was also attached to the division
under Colonel Eyre, and was present in all its operations from 5th March
to 27th April. To this patrol were added seven rank and file on the 20th
April, who assisted in the concluding services of the division.
Sixty sappers formed part of a patrol of 150 men, under the command of
Captain Moody, R.E., sent out on the 27th March to co-operate with
Colonel Eyre’s division, and also to intercept fugitives, cattle, &c.,
flying from him in the direction of the Isili range. That day Captain
Moody formed a junction with Colonel Eyre’s force under Murray’s
Kraantz, and in working up by Kaffir tracks to the high ground burnt
several of the enemy’s huts. The service required that the party should
descend again: this was done in a different direction over shelving
rocks and through dense underwood. It then crossed one of the sources of
the Buffalo, scoured the country in its vicinage, and returned again
through the bush under the Buffalo range towards Colonel Eyre’s camp.
The paths were most intricate and rocky, and the detachment consequently
marched in Indian file. While in the heart of the bush night came on.
The darkness was so intense that the men were obliged to trail on by
feeling and calling to each other. It was with the greatest difficulty
that the path was kept, but at last it was lost altogether, and halting
near a stream the men lay down on the wet ground, without fires, and
passed the night in a comfortless bivouac. At grey light next morning
the patrol was in motion, and the sappers emerged from the bush after
about four hours’ exertion. One man missed his way in the jungle, and
spent eighteen hours in endeavouring to gain the detachment. He had
nearly exhausted his energies in extricating himself from the steep and
broken rocks that lay in his track, when luckily he was rescued by some
of his comrades who were sent in quest of him. After renewed efforts to
clear the bush of prowling Kaffirs, and driving them and their cattle in
the direction of Colonel Eyre’s division, the detachment on the 29th
March returned to King William’s Town, laying waste on the route three
Kaffir gardens. “As usual,” wrote Captain Moody, “the sappers behaved in
an excellent manner.” Their conduct also met with the approval of
Colonel Eyre.
With a patrol of about 240 troops, commanded by Captain Robertson, R.E.,
was sent a party of one sergeant and forty rank and file, under
Lieutenant Siborne, R.E. The patrol left King William’s Town on the 30th
March. The sappers, broken up into small sections, aided in scouring the
Isili Berg. On the 1st April the patrol quitted the bivouac at the
source of the Yellow Wood river, destroyed a few huts and several fields
of corn, and reached head-quarters on the 2nd April.
A patrol of 300 men, under Captain Moody, R.E., conveyed supplies of
cattle and provisions to Fort Cox for the divisions working in the
Amatolas, and returned with the empty waggons without opposition from
the enemy. The escort was out three days, from 5th to 7th April, and 100
sergeants and rank and file of the corps, under Lieutenant Siborne,
R.E., formed a part of the force.
Sergeant John Mealey and ten rank and file accompanied, on the 7th
April, a small escort under Lieutenant Broke, 60th rifles, with
provisions in waggons to the Green river for Colonel Percival’s
division, and returned the next day to King William’s Town.
Soon after this, a detachment of thirty-one men, under Lieutenant
Siborne, R.E., built a defensible tower in the Keiskama Hoek, for the
purpose of making a demonstration of a fixed purpose permanently to
eject the Gaika tribe from that territory and to occupy the Amatolas.
The head-quarters of the ninth company was removed from King William’s
Town on the 28th May by Graham’s Town and Fort Brown to Beaufort, at
which fort it arrived on the 19th June. Previously to its arrival it was
overtaken in the Konap pass on the 13th June by a body of 200 rebel
Hottentots, under Ian Cornelis and Damon Kuhn, and at noon was suddenly
brought into action. The small force under Captain H. C. B. Moody, R.E.,
consisted of two sergeants, thirty-one rank and file, and one bugler, in
charge of five waggons containing baggage, arms, engineer stores, and
30,000 rounds of musket-ball ammunition, with four women and ten
children. The Pass—a long and dangerous one—has a serpentine direction,
accommodating itself to the tortuous ravine through which it ascends. On
the left, the whole way is a rocky precipice some forty feet high,
scarped either by manual labour to form a road or by descending torrents
in bygone ages, the summit of which is covered with bush. On the right
rises a steep hill, inaccessible, and thickly wooded to the brim; a
better position adapted to a lurking foe could not well be imagined,
affording the means of enfilade fire at every turn of the road.[102]
Acquainted by spies with the movements of the convoy, the rebel
Hottentots had before its approach concealed themselves in an
impenetrable ambuscade, and as the sappers ascended the hill, the
advanced guard was met with a volley which killed three of the mules in
the leading waggon and stopped the progress of the train, the road being
too narrow to turn it. So sudden and fierce a beginning did not appal
the detachment, for instantly, without disorder, they joined issue with
the enemy though far superior in force and almost unassailable in
position. Some of the party soon tried to push into the bush above them,
but the rebels already occupied it close to the edge of the road; and as
the thicket was too dense to work in, the men were compelled to retire.
At this moment one of the leading drivers showed unmistakeable symptoms
of treachery and fraternization with the rebels, and he was instantly
shot down by a sapper.[103] In a few seconds the firing was general for
more than 150 yards on both sides of the Pass, but the detachment,
careful of its ammunition, only fired when the enemy could be seen and
picked off. At length the advance men fell back and took cover under the
bank, and between it and the leading waggon, where they received a
reinforcement of a few men from the rear. Each waggon was now defended
with great determination and intrepidity, and each man fought his way
through fearful straits. The firing was chiefly within five yards and
less of their antagonists. Sometimes in venturing from their shelter to
fire upon the rebels in the kloof, they were opposed by a deadly fire
from behind, which always lessened the number that returned. At the head
of the road a force of the enemy occupied a position which enfiladed the
detachment, but the rebels there were held in check by the steady firing
of a few men who kept a vigilant look out for them. Without diminishing
his fire in the parts he already occupied, the enemy rapidly increased
the extent of his flanks and was trying to surround the little band, but
to prevent this, and as the men had been driven to the last stand and
were fast falling, Captain Moody gave the reluctant order for the women
and children to leave the waggons, and all to commence a retreat. Not a
move was made to the rear until the order was given; and, with as many
of the wounded as could assist themselves, and the women and
children—the retreat towards the old Konap post was conducted with
steadiness and without precipitation under a spirited fire from the
rebels. On clearing the gorge, a section of the men was extended into
the bush to keep the advancing enemy in check, and under its cover the
detachment gained an abandoned inn, which was soon converted into a post
of defence by barricades and loopholes. Here a final stand was to be
made, but the Hottentots, although they were aware of the weakness of
the party, dared not renew the attack. The action lasted an hour;
three-fourths of the time being spent in defending the waggons, which
were riddled with balls. The casualties were——
Killed 7— Lance-corporal John Hitchings; bugler David
Brotherston; privates John Crilly, John Gillies,
James Marr, Edward Phillips, and William
Sanderson.
Also the wife of private Thomas Hayward, and three
or four of the drivers, including young Webb, a
lad of eighteen years of age, who was shot dead
while receiving some caps from a sapper.[104]
Died of wounds 2— Privates William Forgie and John Arthur.
Wounded 6— Corporal Edward Wilmore; second-corporal William
severely Marshall, and privates Henry Scott, John
Cloggie, Philip Gould, and James Reynolds.
Wounded 1— Private Thomas Seaman.
slightly
——
Total 16
——
The enemy, though ensconced in the thicket, had many killed.[105] All
the spare arms, Minié rifles, ammunition, oxen, baggage, and equipments
were captured by the rebels, but the waggons, engineer stores, and some
minor articles were recovered.[106] The Minié rifles luckily had been
“rendered useless by the precaution of removing the nipples.”[107]
Captain Moody’s conduct throughout commanded the confidence of his men.
Of their coolness and courage he reported in the highest terms.
Colour-sergeant Alexander Spalding who commanded the rear-guard, and
sergeant William King, who had charge of the advance, were favourably
noticed in the Captain’s despatch. Sergeant John Davis of the 12th
regiment, was also highly spoken of, as well for his coolness and
courage, as for his offer to proceed with four volunteer sappers to Fort
Brown for assistance. While Captain Moody was assisting the men in their
charges, one of the rebels took a steady aim at him by resting his gun
on the branch of a tree, but his piece snapped, and before he could
re-cap he was shot down by private John Murphy.[108] Three times
sergeant King collected his men, and bravely headed them in their
fruitless charges on the rebels.[109] Private Thomas Hayward volunteered
to go to Fort Brown alone, in disguise, after dusk for assistance, but
the firing having been heard at that fort, a detachment of the 12th
regiment soon appeared, and rendered the hazardous enterprise of the
private unnecessary. The arrival of the reinforcement, however, put the
men again on their mettle, and Captain Moody and his sappers returned
with the party to the scene of the disaster. On both sides of the road
they scoured the jungle, but the rebels had decamped with as much booty
as they could carry off.[110] “The little band of sappers,” wrote a
London journal, “were noble fellows, who often before, under another of
their officers, had fought bravely in a fairer field.”[111] In the
Government notice of the Commander-in-Chief, dated June 16th, 1852, the
conduct of the men “in defending the waggons to the last,” and their
“steady and good order in retreat after inflicting a severe loss on the
enemy,” were much lauded. The notice then added, that “the greatest
credit is due to Captain Moody and his small party of sappers for their
soldier-like and gallant bearing on the occasion.” Even the rebel
Hottentots themselves in speaking of the massacre said, that “the
sappers fought like men.”[112]
The remnant of the party, taking with it the killed and wounded, and the
women and children, reached Fort Brown at dusk on the 14th June. There
the brave men who lost their lives were interred. A subscription was
forthwith made among the officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of
the royal artillery and 12th regiment to meet the urgent wants of the
party, and the necessities of the motherless children of private
Hayward. A further sum of 100l. was collected among the benevolent
citizens of Graham’s Town for the same purpose, and the amount was
distributed to the sufferers in proportion to their losses and wants.
A visit to the fatal spot a day or two after afforded unmistakeable
evidence of the obstinate nature of the conflict. Dead horses, oxen and
mules, shot in the fray, blocked up the road. Two of the Hottentots lay
stanched in their blood, and wells of gore were scattered about the path
in sickening frequency. Two waggons, speckled with shot-holes, had been
overturned; and further on, in the line of retreat, were strewn
quantities of torn uniform, broken muskets, blood-stained linen, and
commissariat supplies.[113]
Captain Moody, having under him thirteen rank and file, was out on
patrol with the force under General the Honourable George Cathcart, from
the 6th to 15th July. The sappers kept with the guns. They carried with
them a proportion of tools to improve the roads, and assisted in some of
the operations for driving the enemy from the Kroome range and the
Waterkloof.
On the 25th July sergeant John Mealey and nine men of the corps at Fort
White were present with about 100 men of the 12th Lancers, 2nd Queens,
and Cape Corps in repulsing an attack on the cattle guard. The
Hottentots, about 200 in number, under Uithaalder were on the plain in
front of the fort in good skirmishing order. After crossing a drift they
stood for a time, and kept up a smart fire on the garrison. They then
retreated with the loss of six men to Slambie Kop, to the foot of which
they were pursued. The British casualties only counted two slightly
wounded. The sappers turned out with great promptitude, not waiting to
cover themselves with their jackets, and conducted themselves as good
soldiers. Captain Robertson, R.E., was also present, and two of the
sappers were near to him in the hottest of the fire. The rebels had a
bugler among them who was proficient in his duty. The bugle on which he
sounded had been captured by the Hottentots in the Konap Pass a month
before from bugler Brotherston, who was killed in the action.
Again Captain Moody, in command of twenty-eight rank and file of the
corps, was attached to the troops under his Excellency, which operated
from the 29th July to the 29th August across the Kei, by Aland’s Post
and Whittlesea. On the 6th August the party was increased by the arrival
of nine men at Brome Neck, with the patrol from King William’s Town
under Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell. This party brought up the
India-rubber pontoons, but the low state of the tides rendered their use
unnecessary. The detachment more immediately with Captain Moody was
employed on the journey in repairing the defective drifts, and
establishing a defensible kraal on the Kei at the standing camp. The
conduct of the sappers was well spoken of by the Captain, and his
Excellency expressed his satisfaction with all that had been done by
them.
A detachment of twenty-seven non-commissioned officers and men landed at
the Cape from England on the 11th September, which increased the corps
in the colony from 268 to 285 of all ranks.
Eight rank and file left Fort Beaufort, under Captain Moody, on the 11th
September, and were attached to the division under his Excellency, to
make a demonstration in the Waterkloof. At Nelle’s Farm, under the
direction of Captain Jesse, R.E., they constructed an intrenched camp,
assisted by the rifle brigade, and formed a similar one in the valley of
the Waterkloof near Brown’s Farm. These services were rapidly and
creditably executed.
Four rank and file were present in the field services of the column
under Colonel Eyre, from 30th September to 30th October. Four also
served in the various operations with Major-General York’s division from
the 12th to 28th October.
To the expedition against Moshesh commanded by his Excellency
Lieutenant-General the Honourable George Cathcart, were attached, on the
7th November, serjeant Joseph Ireland and 13 privates of the corps under
Lieutenant Siborne of the engineers. In the column of route, the sappers
marched in front of the leading waggon, which carried the intrenching
tools; and on several occasions preceded the force, clearing away
impediments in the drifts to prevent delay in the progress of the
troops. Lieutenant Siborne, aided by Lieutenant Smith of the Kat river
levy, directed the sappers in these hurried interstitial labours.
Streams and rivers abounding in the country, the India-rubber floats
were necessarily resorted to, to push on the army. The first water of
any magnitude on the line of march, was the Orange River, which, having
sunk to an accessible depth, the troops breasted it; but to free them
from hazard in crossing, their arms, appointments, knapsacks, and
personal war equipment were ferried over on the raft by the party of
sappers.