for several miles round the encampment, to guide the Generals in the
choice of positions, manœuvres, marches, &c. The district had been
surveyed sixty years before, in common with the general survey of the
south of England, and was drawn on a scale of two inches to a mile. The
better to meet the present requirement, the plans were enlarged and
drawn to a scale of four inches to a mile. All the improvements which
had arisen within the last half century were also supplied, and the
original work corrected where necessary. This was done by taking
magnetic bearings with a prismatic compass and pacing the ground. The
distance examined and corrected, included an area of about 220 square
miles, the cardinal angles of which were Chertsey, Wokingham, Farnham,
and Guildford. All was carried out and completed between the 1st May and
14th June. The principal part of the hills were sketched by Lieutenant
Stotherd, assisted by four non-commissioned officers of the corps, who,
although heretofore wholly employed in the operations of a civil survey,
were, without any previous practice in the art, made to turn their
talents to account in military sketching. The survey—comprised on four
large sheets—was compiled, lithographed, and coloured under the
direction of Captain W. D. Gosset, R.E. Corporal Sinnett drew the
12-inch plan of the encampment furnished for the use of Colonel Vicars.
A special survey of the ground at Aldershot Heath was also made and
plotted on a scale of six inches to a mile, by sergeant Spencer and
corporal Macdonald. The soldiers most conspicuous for their usefulness
in the Chobham survey were—
Sergeant Benjamin Keen Spencer; for surveying, levelling, and hill
sketching.
Corporal William Jenkins; trigonometrical observations, levelling, and
traversing.
Second-corporal James Macdonald; traversing and surveying.
Lance-corporals John Erskine Daveran and Valentine Sinnett; hill
sketching, surveying, &c.
Marking out the encampment was done by the sappers under Colonel
Torrens, assistant quartermaster-general, by driving pickets into the
ground in the places selected to mark the salient points of the
boundaries, to be occupied by the several regiments.
The springs and watercourses were sought for and collected into small
reservoirs or basins, at sites as convenient for access as practicable.
In some places small trenches were excavated, to afford easy channels
for conveying the water to the terraces. These tanks were for domestic
uses. Attached to them were larger ones for washing purposes, which were
filled by the surplus water from the drinking reservoirs through the
agency of small troughs, fixed near the top of the partitional
embankments.
From the dipping and trawling of so many utensils of different kinds
into the tanks, and the constant washing of the water against the sides
of the embankments, it became very dirty and disagreeable. To obviate
this, pumps were fixed in the tanks, large wooden troughs being added to
them to convey the water to the recipients, and sentries being posted
over the reservoirs to compel all parties to take the water from the
approved contrivances instead of resorting to the objectionable mode
which had been attended with so much discomfort.
Where springs could not be found in sufficient number, wells were sunk
to afford water for the troops. Some of these answered excellently, and
yielded a good supply. In several instances the men were interrupted in
the service by the presence of moving quicksand, which prevented them
digging to the depth they otherwise would have done. These wells,
nevertheless, were ultimately made available for use. To keep the ground
from being undermined by the sand, rough sap rollers were at first
constructed and sunk, but as these were found inadequate to meet the
difficulty, on account of the sand oozing through the interstices of the
brushwood, some barrels were securely fixed at the bottom, which at once
offered an effectual resistance to any encroachment, and secured a
serviceable quantity of good clean water. Into several of the wells two
or three bushels of pebbles and shells were thrown to purify the water
in its infiltration. Wells cased or lined with fir poles—an expedient
first resorted to—were found not to answer, as the water collected in
them tasted disagreeably of an impregnation of turpentine. Many failures
in seeking for water occurred. Three or four in elevated parts of the
field were sunk through a stratum of sand and clay to the depth of
thirty-five feet without success. Two artesian wells were also bored
late in July, one to a depth of sixty feet and the other to thirty-five
feet, without any beneficial result.
Tradition or experience was of little avail in selecting places to sink
the wells with anything like certainty of finding water. Nor were any
men present who possessed the occult and mysterious faculty of using the
divining rod to discover it. Several ingenious suggestions were made and
acted on with no better result. All depended upon chance; and to make up
for the deficiency from this source, greater attention was paid to
gathering the nests of springs, and opening up courses and channels for
their unfettered issue into reservoirs. Commonly, depths beyond thirty
feet were obtained without the use of the windlass, or the application
of materials to support the sides. Many of the sappers in these
experiments turned out expert well-diggers, and executed the heavy duty
with energy and coolness.
The formation of lakes was effected by damming up some small brooks and
rivulets, in the valleys which emptied themselves into Virginia Water.
The dams were raised on piles formed from the ends of fir poles, which,
to make a firm foundation, were driven into the ground about ten or
fifteen feet wider at the base than the road was at the top. The sides
were built with good sods, and filled in with the best soil that could
be gathered on the spot. Where the bog was unstable, it was replaced by
stiff clay, which was puddled. In this way two or three fine expansive
sheets of water were formed, which were extremely useful for the cavalry
horses; and a safe and ready passage was also afforded for the troops
across some valleys and morasses over the roadway of the dam. One sheet
was behind the cavalry stabling on Egham Common, and the others, named
“The Great Arm” and “The Little Arm,” were at the base of Black-hill and
of Sheep’s-hill.
The stables were constructed of a uniform width, but the length varied
according to circumstances. For a stable of six horses, the dimensions
were twenty-seven feet by thirteen feet six inches. The uprights or
stanchions were nine feet long, three feet of which were driven into
the ground and well rammed. A wall-plate was then fixed to the
stanchions at the height of six feet from the ground. The rafters were
made of rough poles, secured by a collar-beam four feet from the top,
and then nailed firmly down on the wall-plates, every alternate one
being strapped with hoop-iron. The centre was supported by a king-post
rammed three feet into the ground, and besides being nailed to the
collar-beam, was tied for steadiness and stability at the top with
rope-yarn. Poles were also fixed and secured on either side and at the
ends, which, with the doors, were thatched or wickered with fir
branches, compactly intertwined. The whole was roofed with canvas, and
stayed by guy-ropes. The canvas was made under contract, in pieces to
cover a stable for six horses, but after a few days’ rain the pieces
shrunk about sixteen inches, and caused throughout the period of the
camp much inconvenience to the horses. The stabling was made to
accommodate 1,800 horses at an expense of nearly 1,000_l._ An
experimental stable of the above form was run up in two hours and a
quarter by twelve men, under sergeant George Pringle, directed by
Lieutenant Drake, in the presence of the Commander-in-Chief—Viscount
Hardinge—who expressed his satisfaction both with the exertions of the
men and the suitability of the construction.
The camp-kitchen for the sappers was built six feet wide and ten feet
long, and was approached by a ramp. The flues were ten feet long and one
foot wide, with a space intervening through the entire length of twenty
inches, which was six inches deep in front and lessened to nothing as it
neared the neck of the chimney, for the purpose of facilitating the
action of the air and producing a rapid draught. Its sides were built up
with sods to the height of fourteen inches, and the top was covered over
with the blades of broken shovels. Intervals of nine inches were left to
receive the camp-kettles. A trench was dug round the kitchen from which
at one end rose, to the height of above six feet, a mud stack containing
two distinct chimneys shaped into ornamental pots. At the other end, the
two fires were lighted. The flues were kept independently of each other,
and, with the chimney-stack, were plastered both inside and out with
clay. This expedient gave to the kitchen a neat appearance, and
sufficient durability to stand the wear and tear of constant use.
Sometimes it was converted into an oven by removing the kettles, and
temporarily closing the open spaces with sods. The kitchen cooked for
100 men. Though somewhat troublesome to inexperienced men to construct,
compared with the old Peninsular _range_ adopted by some regiments in
camp, it was a decided improvement both in form and utility, inasmuch as
it economised fuel, received with readiness the few appliances used in
military cooking, and enabled the culinary art to be carried on with
more alacrity and on a larger scale.
An oven was also constructed after the model of the kitchen with one
flue and chimney only. It was built with bricks made on the spot, from
clay in the vicinity of the camp. Amid so much rusticity and so many
rude campaigning inventions, this oven, from its neatness and success,
was much admired. Sergeant Timothy Sillifant, an ingenious mechanic,
designed both the kitchen and the oven, and superintended their
construction.
Some incidental services executed by the sappers were of a character
which it may not be considered inappropriate to notice. So various were
their duties and so frequent the calls for their assistance, that the
encomiums passed upon them after a full test of their usefulness were
not extravagant when it was said “that in all their capacities, from the
driving of a nail to the marking out of a fortification, they seemed to
be equally as _au fait_ as if each service was their special and sole
vocation.”[122] They repaired and adapted the poor-house at Burrow Hill
for a general hospital; erected a flag-staff for displaying the royal
standard; enclosed a large area of ground with a canvas wall seven feet
high, within which were pitched marquees and different tented
conveniences for the use of the Queen and Her Majesty’s Consort and
guests; and watched and managed the tent-ropes of the royal pavilion,
&c., within the compound. Here likewise they erected a cookhouse of
brick, after the form of their own kitchen, and cut a road about two
miles long, from Colonel Challoner’s plantation to the “Magnet,” as a
carriage drive for Her Majesty. The road led across one of the
artificial sheets of water, and at either side of this causeway was
fixed a temporary railing, which gave it an appearance of strength and
completeness. Contrivances were also adopted for permitting the water to
run freely through the embankment so as to insure the stream rising to
the same level at both sides of the bridge. The road was, moreover, a
useful one, for in manœuvring the troops it was sometimes employed to
accelerate their movements, and the passage across it formed a grand
feature in the reviews. It was called the “Queen’s Road,” and the dam
across the sheet of water was dignified with the name of the “Queen’s
Bridge.” The sappers also attended to the pitching and adjusting of the
marquees of some of the staff officers; drained the camp ground; taught
soldiers of the line the readiest methods of effecting these duties, and
built several sentry-boxes. One was erected under the superintendence of
a French captain, of rough poles driven into the ground in a circle,
after the manner of the initial gabion. In front, one stake was omitted
for the entrance. The box was built to the usual height, was covered in
with a conical top, and the whole was thatched with, straw in courses,
which gave it in the distance, when the sun was shining upon it, the
semblance of a richly-flounced dress. Another box of this kind revolved
on a pivot at pleasure, to screen the sentry from wind or rain; and
after the camp was broken up, it was given a place in the grounds of
Colonel Challoner. A third was run up by private James Queen,[123]
which, from its mechanical pretensions, was applauded as a work of
taste, but could never be successfully imitated unless by talented
workmen accustomed to build with neatness and exactness. The structure
was of a mural character and defensible, having loopholes in its sides
and rear. An heroic bust, made of clay by the private, who had shown
some aptitude as a sculptor, was to have surmounted the box, but it was
unfortunately destroyed by some of his comrades, during an excited
criticism upon its merits.
“Much as we admired,” wrote a London daily journal, “the universal
utility of the corps, we thought we had seen the extent of their
capacities, but when looking a little more into the variety of their
employment we found them in a new sphere, and discovered that corporal
Richard J. Letton had been, under Mr. Smith, discharging the details
connected with the Post-office with the usual off-hand success which
seems to pertain to the corps.”[124] The receiving-office at the
“Magnet,” was a sub one to the post at Chertsey. The number of letters
sent to and from the camp, as detailed below, from the first day of
opening the office to the day of closing it on the removal of the
troops, shows that it transacted a fair amount of business.
_First division_—from 13th June to 13th
July.
Inwards 33,783
Outwards 29,614
——— 63,397
_Second division_—from 14th July to 20th
August.
Inwards 42,105
Outwards 37,500
——— 79,605
———
Total 143,002
———
Of these the number of registered letters were 257, and the
postage-stamps sold realized the sum of 123_l._ 17_s._ 3_d._ The number
of letters to the camp showed but little variation through the course of
the month, but those despatched _from_ it were much affected by the
field days, and on one occasion they fell from 1,526 to 601. The
management of the postal arrangements was highly satisfactory, and
reflected great credit upon Mr. Smith and the corporal.[125] The latter,
in a testimonial from his chief, was eulogized for having performed his
duty with the greatest zeal, integrity, and attention.
To give an additional warlike feature to the evolutions of the division,
some temporary field-works were thrown up. These consisted of three
redoubts, two irregular, with faces of very unequal length, on
Oystershell and Catton hills, and one regular, on Sheep’s-hill. The one
on Oystershell-hill was revetted on one of its faces with brushwood and
fir-branches woven upon pickets, while its remaining sides were cased
with sods. The other redoubts were revetted wholly with sods.
Sheep’s-hill redoubt was a square work, with two platforms for one
field-piece each, and its sides in the interior were each sixty feet
long. Four shafts of six feet deep were sunk under its right face, and
the charges, in boxes containing each 100 lbs. of gunpowder, were laid
and tamped ready for explosion on the 6th August. The Queen was present
on that day and witnessed the manœuvres, which were closed by blowing
up the redoubt. At the appointed time, the wires were applied to the
voltaic battery, but from some mismanagement, supposed from the
communication becoming disconnected, the mines did not go off. Two
sappers immediately repaired to the spot where the charges were
chambered, and after removing the earth which covered them, and affixing
in the ordinary way the powder-hose to form the train, Captain Inglis
fired it with portfire, and a successful explosion was the result. The
whole face was blown up. The field-works were completed early in August,
and were only on three or four occasions used in the general operations.
Contingents of men from the guards and the line threw them up. Some of
the sappers acted as overseers, and others took part in the trenches.
The shafts for the mines were dug and the powder placed in them in the
night-time.
A series of seven or eight sub-aqueous mines, fired by voltaic
electricity, were made in Virginia Water, to show the effect of such
expedients if the service rendered recourse to them desirable. The
largest charge fired contained 35 lbs. of powder. The charges were fixed
in tin cans of sizes to suit the bulk of the powder, and fired from the
shore. Sergeant Entwistle and one private had the preparation of the
charges, &c., and Captain Inglis, R.E., invariably fired them. One on
the 12th July was exploded in the presence of the Prince of Wales, and
was successful, a column of water being thrown into the air to a
considerable height.
As soon as the pontoon train and equipment arrived, the corps commenced
and continued for several days to carry out such instructional practice
as was considered essential to render the contemplated bridging perfect.
The train consisted of—
30 cylindrical pontoons,
4 india-rubber ditto,
1 demi india-rubber ditto,
6 carriages,
and the requisite stores, forge, &c., and all were packed on the margin
of Virginia Water on the 25th June, 1853.
In accordance with appointed arrangements, a military display took place
on the 5th July, in the presence of Prince Albert and Her Majesty. Early
in the morning about 8,000 troops were marched to the Water, on the
north side of which an enemy was supposed to have established himself,
represented by the second company of sappers and detachments of the
Grenadier guards and 23rd fusiliers. While a sharp and prolonged attack
was being made upon the brigade of Sir De Lacy Evans at Blacknest
Bridge, a body of sappers 125 strong, directed by a captain and five
subalterns of royal engineers, began to form the pontoon bridge, and to
carry out other subsidiary means for effecting the passage of the lake.
The six carriages of the train, packed with twelve pontoons and their
superstructure, were horsed by the royal artillery, and moved down to
the water’s edge, where they were unloaded. The remaining pontoons,
eighteen in number, had already been stored on the margin of the lake in
readiness for the service. The moment the order was given, the sappers
in fatigue-dress launched the pontoons, and with the greatest silence,
precision, and diligence, formed in forty-five minutes a bridge of
thirty cylinders with two bays across an arm of the lake 324 feet broad.
The pontoons were lashed in intermediate intervals of eight feet apart,
which is considered to be the proper adjustment of buoyancy for the
transport of the varied weights of artillery. While the bridge was
booming out, Her Majesty and His Royal Highness Prince Albert, with
their illustrious guests, embarked in a royally-decorated barge, drew
near the bridge and watched with evident interest the movements and
exertions of the men.
During the operation a party of twenty-one non-commissioned officers and
men, under three subalterns of the royal engineers, formed two rafts and
one demi-raft of the India-rubber pontoons, and rapidly ferried across
the lake four companies of the rifle brigade, who took shelter in the
woods close to the edge of the water. This service was executed in
exactly the same time that was occupied in forming the bridge.
About noon, the cannonade on the left at Blacknest Bridge ceased, and
the supposed enemy, having discovered Lord Seaton’s real intention,
advanced to dispute his passage over the pontoons. Not a moment was now
lost on either side. One wing of the rifles was thrown across, and
forming line on the opposite bank, opened a spirited fire on their
opponents. The batteries also boomed from the south side of the water,
and under cover of the cannonade—for the whole woodland for some minutes
was shrouded in the smoke it occasioned—a battalion of the Grenadier
guards defiled over the bridge. Scarcely had they concealed themselves
in the embowering woods when the sappers, who had left the pontoons for
an interstitial duty, suddenly returned with bundles of fern and brake,
which they strewed over the superstructure to render the passage as
secure as practicable for the batteries and the cavalry. Now followed
two 6-pounder batteries and a 9-pounder battery of 6 guns each, the 6th
Dragoon guards, and a battalion of the Coldstream guards and of the 42nd
Highlanders, with all the staff.
The remainder of Major-General Fane’s brigade of cavalry proceeded by
the iron gate to the high ground on the north side of the lake, whilst
the brigade of Sir De Lacy Evans, now unopposed by the enemy, marched by
Blacknest Bridge to Smith’s lawn, where the troops were reviewed by Her
Majesty. The second company only of the corps was present at the review;
the other companies being necessarily detained with the pontoons.
To provide as much as possible for the safety of the horses in crossing,
the sappers, with an oar extended from man to man, lined the bridge at
each side, by which a kind of railing or balustrade was formed from one
end of the bridge to the other. The plan had unquestionable advantages
in encouraging the horses and retaining them in their places, but it was
somewhat dangerous to the men. As the second battery approached the
middle of the stream, the floating motion of the bridge caused some of
the horses to become restive, and in the efforts made to control their
progress, five of the sappers were thrown into the lake. No casualty,
however, happened, and the men, after a little swimming, resumed their
stations on the bridge.
In testimony of the services of the corps on this occasion, Lord Seaton
published the following order from Her Majesty:—
“Horse Guards, 5th July, 1853.
“GENERAL VISCOUNT HARDINGE has received the Queen’s commands to
express Her Majesty’s satisfaction in having witnessed this day the
laying down of the cylindrical pontoon bridge, which was completed in
less than one hour, for the passage of the artillery, cavalry, and
infantry.
“Her Majesty did not fail to remark the order, the silence, and the
perfect acquaintance with every detail, which prevailed throughout all
ranks of the sappers and miners.
“Her Majesty highly appreciates the service of this portion of her
army.
“From the date of its original formation this corps has been
remarkable in the annals of the British army for the scientific
attainments of its officers and the practical knowledge of its men,
and has justly acquired the confidence and esteem of the army by its
skilful arrangements, and by being at all times foremost in the
perilous duties of war. In peace upholding its high reputation by the
useful labours which it so cheerfully performs.
“Viscount Hardinge requests Lord Seaton will convey to Colonel Jones,
of the Royal Engineers, who directed the pontoon train, and to Colonel
Vicars, in charge of the engineer duties in the camp, and to the
officers and men of all ranks of the Royal Sappers and Miners, the
Queen’s approbation of their state of discipline and conduct.
“By command of General Viscount Hardinge.
“(Signed) G. BROWN, _A. G._”
The 11th July was another day of field manœuvring appointed expressly
to experimentalize with the pontoons. Before the arrival of the troops
at the lake, a bridge was quickly formed with twenty-four pontoons, on
the same site as that occupied on the 5th instant, and by the same
detachment. At eleven o’clock a part of the division under Major-General
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge passed over it in the order of
movement detailed below:—
4 companies of the 93rd Highlanders,
13th Light Dragoons,
6 companies of the 93rd,
38th regiment,
17th Lancers,
1st Life Guards,
1 troop of Royal Horse Artillery—six guns,
2 nine-pounder guns; and
4 small ammunition waggons.