instruments, and sergeant Jenkins had the singular distinction of
explaining their nature to His Imperial Majesty.[131] This was the first
party of English soldiers that had been in Paris since the army of
occupation quitted the suburbs of the French metropolis in 1815.
Appearing invariably in the uniform of the corps they were regarded with
peculiar interest, and from all quarters were received with a
friendliness more than ordinarily debonair and cordial. For their
assistance in extinguishing a fire at the Manutention du Commerce, the
press of Paris handsomely acknowledged their services.[132] Individuals
left for England at different times, and on the return of the last two
in January, 1856, the Board of Trade honoured the whole party with
presents. Sergeant Jenkins received a silver watch with the most
approved compensation arrangements for use in connexion with
astronomical observation; Key a gold one; Mack an expensive photographic
apparatus; and the other three each a case of beautifully finished
mathematical instruments. The gifts bore an inscription to the effect
that they were given “for services at the Paris Exhibition, 1855.” The
French Commissioners also gave them bronze medals.
An agitation which for more than a quarter of a century had exposed the
inappropriateness of the old costume, at last succeeded in effecting its
abandonment. Involved in the change the royal sappers and miners adopted
an uniform under royal sanction, which has the credit of being the
neatest in the service.
Late in the summer the coatee with its double breast, short body, garish
trimmings, and narrow skirts gave place to a scarlet single-breasted
tunic with facings and edgings of dark blue plush. Falling back with a
curve, the collar is bound all round with yellow cord while the pointed
cuffs are embellished with an Austrian knot of yellow cord which,
stretching over the plush rises with a flowing involution more than
seven inches up the sleeve. Plain skirts measuring about twelve inches
long, lined with white shalloon, are broken in their plainness by two
upright pocket slashes with plush edgings having three points and as
many buttons. Double cords take the place of the huge epaulettes of
former days, and the buttons unaltered in shape and device, are sewn two
inches asunder down the breast as low as the waist, and two smaller ones
add to the ornamentation of the cuff. All ranks wear the same
description of tunic. That for the drivers is shorter in the skirts for
riding.
Corresponding with their grades the sergeants and staff-sergeants have
finer cloth and wear royal gold cord on those parts where the rank and
file display yellow worsted cord only. Rank is shown by chevrons of gold
lace worn above the elbow, but the badges to denote the staff-sergeants
occur just above the sleeve knot with the points upward. Lance-corporals
have one stripe on the right arm; other ranks have the marks on both
arms. Second corporals one on each arm; corporals two; sergeants three
and an embroidered crown; colour-sergeants an equal number of chevrons
surmounted by an open banner and based by a couple of crossed swords;
and the staff-sergeants four badges of broader lace and an embroidered
crown. The last, in addition, have facings of garter blue silk velvet,
shoulder knots of treble twisted gold cord with blue eyes bearing silver
embroidered grenades; sleeve knots traced in and out with Russia gold
braid and the skirts lined with white kerseymere. The bugle-major’s
rank, in addition to the chevrons and crown, is indicated by a musical
device with banners, which must have puzzled the professors of
embroidery to make it sufficiently characteristic, elaborated with cross
trumpets, rams’ horns, tambourines, and other insignia, around a lyre
and grenade.
The artificers of the driver troop—farriers, shoeing smiths, wheelers,
and collar-makers—are distinguished by the usual devices, worn above the
elbow.
The buglers wear worsted embroidered cross trumpets on both arms, and
the good conduct men are distinguished by badges of narrow gold lace on
the right arm just above the knot.
No better colour for trowsers than dark Oxford mixture cloth could be
introduced. They have therefore been retained, as also the red stripes
down the outer seams. The working trowsers are of the same colour, and
similarly striped, but a few shades coarser in texture. The driver troop
wear strapped trowsers of the regimental quality, of which each man
receives two pairs annually.
In the midst of a variety of conflicting ideas as to what constitutes
the best head-dress, the uncomfortable chaco still holds its unsightly
place as a component of sapper uniform. Top-heavy for the drivers in
riding, the chaco forms no part of their uniform, and so the forage-cap
is made to do double duty.
The fatigue jacket is of red cloth. Loose and suitable for working it
descends as low as the hips, but is militarized by blue cloth pointed
cuffs, single twisted shoulder-cords of yellow worsted, and a blue cloth
rounded collar. As before, the buttons are small and convex, bearing the
garter device, and worn about an inch apart, evincing less coxcombry
than in the defunct days of close buttons. All the non-commissioned
officers wear gold chevrons and gold single twisted shoulder-cords.
Scarlet jackets, after the fashion of the fatigue ones, are worn by all
ranks on drill parades and in walking. In addition to their chevrons the
sergeants and colour-sergeants wear embroidered crowns, the latter rank
being distinguished from the former by a fourth chevron. Besides the
plain single-breasted blue surtout, modernized with a rounded collar,
the staff-sergeants appear, on parade occasions, in scarlet jackets with
the badge of their rank, gold studs down the front, and dark blue silk
velvet cuffs and collar, both trimmed with Russia gold braid, and
finished with what the tailors, in the poetry of their trade, term
crowsfeet. There are no buttons on the jacket, except two on each cuff
and two to sustain the double shoulder-cord. The fronts are closed by
hooks and eyes.
The cloth forage-cap—a delicate institution of peaceable times—was set
aside by the adoption of a small Kilmarnock bonnet and chin-strap, well
suited for the rough usages of war. Worn with a dragoonish air in the
day, it offers itself as a substitute for a pillow at night without the
fear of spoiling its shape. It is of dark blue wool banded with a yellow
stripe manufactured in the web and decorated with a brass boss in the
centre of the crown. The buglers wear the distinction of a pair of
crossed trumpets on the front of the cap, while the sergeants and
staff-sergeants have small dark-blue cloth caps with large projecting
peaks, trimmed with scarlet piping and gold lace bands. The crown of the
cap, à la cavalry, is formed of eight pieces—a curious fancy—radiating
from the centre and covered at the point of union with a gold netted
convex boss. The band of the staff-sergeants is wider and richer than
that of the sergeants.
That important article of dress, “the ammunition boot,” has been much
improved in these late days. Before railways were invented the laced-up
boot was a favourite among soldiers, particularly those who could boast
of having performed long marches in the Peninsula and France; but when
travelling by rail began to be the fashion of the service, it was
discovered that the laced-up boot was not only odious in regimentals and
uncomfortable, but not water-tight. So by degrees the Blucher boot was
introduced in the army, and the sappers, the last troops, perhaps, to
adopt it, received Bluchers this year for the first time. The troop of
drivers wear half Wellingtons.
The carbine introduced in 1843 being discarded, the Lancaster
percussion-musket was given to the corps late in the year. Bored
elliptically without groove, and carrying an elongated bullet, its range
exceeds 1,000 yards: that of the carbine, even in extravagant instances
of flight, scarcely ever struck a mark at 300 yards and was uncertain at
200. After a few rounds had been fired it was inefficient, and impromptu
expedients had to be resorted to, when the bore fouled with the powder,
to ram the cartridge home. Many a man broke the ranks to find a brickbat
or other rude assistance to hammer the ramrod into the barrel. These
primitive severities are now at an end. The bayonet can be used in the
double capacity of a sword or bayonet. With a hilt partly of black skin
cross-pressed, and partly brass, with a transverse brass bar guard, it
is fixed to the musket by a suture and spring. The blade, about two feet
long, has a rounded back and runs on with a spine to the point, from
whence a return stretches with a slight swell up its back, and then
loses itself in the spine about ten inches from the tip. Thus the sword
for a certain distance is two-edged, and when fixed, the length of the
musket, prepared for a charge, is shorter by one inch than the abandoned
carbine and sword bayonet.
The accoutrements remain as formerly; but the appointments of the
staff-sergeants, now of white patent buff, consist of a waist-belt with
slings and gilt waist-plate bearing the royal arms, and a pouch-belt,
both plain and two inches broad. To the latter is attached a black
leather pouch carried by gilt rings and mountings, having on the flap
the device of the royal arms and supporters with the corps motto. Swords
hilted like those of the quartermasters, but of a peculiar metal,
sheathed in steel scabbards and tasselled with gold acorns, complete the
improvements of this period.
The drivers have no rifles or muskets, but are armed with light Prussian
swords having half basket-hilts and buff leather tassels. The gripe is
partly of black japanned wood, ridged; all else, with the scabbard, are
steel. The narrow buff waist-belt, with slings which suspend the sword,
have a plain brass waist-plate. In addition, the non-commissioned
officers have a buff pouch-belt carrying a small plain black leather
pouch. The former bears a brass slide at the breast as a substitute for
a buckle. All ranks wear swan-necked spurs with spiked rowels.
Of the dress of the quartermasters nothing has yet been recorded in
these pages. Their costume is similar to that of the subalterns of
engineers, with the exception of the appointments. The tunic harmonizes
with that of the staff-sergeants, except that the sleeves bear no device
beyond the Austrian knot, and the gold cord is larger.
The jacket is also similar to the staff-sergeants, deviating only by the
addition of gold Russian braid down the fronts and round the girth,
finished at the centre of the waist and collar seam with crowsfeet.
A waistcoat is also worn of scarlet cloth, single-breasted, with gilt
studs crowded down the front. Hooks and eyes serve the place of buttons.
Collar, pockets, and edges are trimmed with gold braid and graced with
crowsfeet at the centre of the collar, and at each end and centre of the
pockets.
A surtout is permitted as a lounging appendage to the costume, but it
would require the professional assistance of a Buckmaster to describe
without fault the man-millinery of this military frock. It is of
dark-blue cloth, single-breasted, opening five inches down the breast to
show the waistcoat, up to which from the waist the fronts are closed by
hooks and eyes. Eight loops of braid nearly two inches broad, with two
rows of netted barrels or olives on each side—two on each loop—descend
from the shoulders in lessening lines to the waist. The ends of the
loops inwards have flys three inches long which fall down like tags,
covering the inner row of barrels. The front edges, rolling collar, and
pointed cuffs, hind arm and back seams are trimmed with braid
seven-eighths of an inch broad traced in and out and finished on the
cuffs and centre of collar with crowsfeet. From the back seams flow two
streamers eight inches long on each skirt of the same width of braid as
that which covers the seams; and the tracing on both edges terminates in
two crowsfeet. All the trimming and traceries are of mohair braid.
The trowsers are the same as the uniform of the corps, but with gold
lace stripes one inch and three-quarters wide for dress occasions. The
cloak is of blue cloth, riding length, with sleeves. Lined with scarlet
shalloon, and amassed with a cape, make it waterproof in a storm. An
upright collar of scarlet cloth with gilt fuming grenades, chains,
hooks, and buttons, make up the sum of its ornaments.
Every non-commissioned officer, as he ascends the weary ladder of
preferment, keeps his eye steadily on the cocked-hat. It would therefore
be unpardonable to omit the description of a badge which has given rise
to more ambition in the ordnance corps than can possibly be satisfied.
It is the _only_ commission open to them, and the struggle to gain it is
far more difficult than for born gentlemen to attain the rank of
General. If life be spared this comes as a matter of course, but only
one in thousands can hope to be invested with the latter. The cocked-hat
then is a small one compared with the Kelvenhuller, and though as
confined in its dimensions as the Ramilies, is very unlike it. It seems
to be a sort of compromise between the two. The right leaf stands six
inches and three-quarters high, while the fan, its fellow leaf, tops it
by nearly an inch. The former bears a cockade of black watered ribbon
and a gold-laced loop two inches broad, which is stayed by a regimental
button. The corners or shoots are nearly five inches long and two and a
half broad, bearing tassels of small gold and crimson bullion affixed to
gold netted pads which lie snugly in the recesses formed by the
overlapping of the fan. The ribbon worn on the sides of the left leaf is
of plain black silk. Surmounting all is the plume, five inches and a
half long, made of cock-tail feathers, which fall over the crown of the
hat in the shape of a mushroom.
The forage-cap is assimilated to that worn by the staff-sergeants; the
gold-laced band being broader and richer.
Coming to the appointments, they consist of waist and pouch belts of
white patent leather, respectively one inch and a half and two inches
wide, the former having narrow slings, gilt buckles, rings, and
waist-plate with the corps’ device in silver, and the latter a gilt
engraved buckle and mountings to correspond with the hilt of the sword.
These ornaments are worn on a fly of the belt just above the pouch,
which is small, of black patent leather, bearing the regimental badge of
the royal arms and supporters with the corps’ motto, and attached to the
belt by rings issuing from gilt leaves. The sword is thirty-two inches
and a half long by one inch and a half wide. Its gripe, of black
fish-skin, is ribbed with treble gold wire, sustained by a plain gilt
back, the lower half grated to assist the grasp. The hilt is of the
half-basket kind, formed of rolled gilt metal, scrolled, pierced, and
engine-turned, embellished with a gold acorn attached to a length of
royal gold cord, which after ramifying the perforations, evolves in a
tassel. To complete the details, let it be added, that the scabbard
which sheathes the blade—proof against any amount of hard work and
figured with military insignia—is of burnished steel.
Some important augmentations had been made to the corps, which will be
found among the services out of which they in great part arose. Other
desirable additions followed, which, belonging more to the incidents of
home, will follow in this chapter. A number of sergeants usually
employed as clerks, drill-masters, and instructors in the schools,
always kept the companies to which they belonged more or less
impoverished; so to end a system that could not be avoided, but which
operated injuriously, Lord Panmure gave authority, on the 9th October,
for the removal of fourteen specially employed sergeants from the
companies, bearing them on the rolls of the corps as supernumeraries.
Two of the number were appointed staff-sergeants.
Widening daily into unwieldy dimensions, with a meagre controlling
staff, gave rise to other essential appointments in the corps. On the
17th December, an Adjutant (Captain F. E. Cox, R.E.) and a Quartermaster
(Michael Bradford, from the rank of sergeant-major) were
commissioned.[133] The appointment of Brigade-Major, long felt to be an
inadequate staff rank, was changed to that of Assistant
Adjutant-General. Heretofore the chief executive of the royal sappers
and miners held no higher regimental rank than that of Captain, with the
staff commission of Brigade-Major. Under the same authority a
sergeant-major and a quartermaster-sergeant were added to the corps.
There was an Exhibition at Fort George, Mauritius, in December, 1855, of
a collection of productions indigenous to the island, and subjects of a
constructive nature, to represent the industrial habits of the community
in that distant region. Indebted for the idea to its great prototype in
London, the Exhibition originated with the 22nd company of the corps
stationed there, and most of the articles—such as models of inventions
and objects of mechanical interest in the island—were contributed by
non-commissioned officers and privates of the company, of whom sergeant
Frederick Hibling was the chief exhibitor. The exposition was open for a
week. Each day had its appointed charge varying from 3_d._ to 2_s._, and
the surplus receipts were applied to charitable purposes.
From Bermuda the 21st company arrived on the 22nd December, leaving a
small detachment of invalids to carry on the works. Its removal was
accompanied by a representation which told of the loss the colony would
sustain by the step; but the urgency of affairs in the East admitted of
no consideration interfering with the resolve of sending the company to
the Crimea, constituted as it was of climatized men and competent
artificers. At the time of their landing, however, there were strong
indications of diplomatic negociations putting an end to existing
differences; but to prepare the company for the worst, it was forwarded
to Aldershot on the 8th January, 1856, under the command of Lieutenant
J. H. Wilson, to be trained in camp to the discipline and usages of war.
Another of the changes which resulted from the incorporation of the
ordnance service with the army was the removal of the head-quarters from
Woolwich to Chatham. Successive Directors of the establishment at
Chatham had shown the benefits probably to accrue to the corps by the
measure, but forty years’ representation were insufficient to dispose of
the counter-advantages which were considered to be the effect of
instruction carried out at two stations—one for forming the soldier, the
other for working up the soldier into a sapper. At a time when the
country was expecting changes, and those changes promised a return to
the State more beneficial than an adherence to old systems was likely to
yield, nothing was permitted to stand in the way of making the trial.
Accordingly the fiat was issued by Lord Panmure; and Chatham from the
10th January became the head-quarters of the corps. On that day,
Lieutenant-Colonel Yorke, Assistant Adjutant-General, marched into
Brompton Barracks at the head of the sappers, leaving for the works at
Woolwich a strong company quartered in temporary huts erected in Mill
Hill road.
A detachment had been sent to Van Diemen’s Land in 1852 at the request
of the Colonial Legislature to carry on the surveys of the settlement,
but it had barely entered on its duties when a feeling of hostility was
shown to its employment. Whenever a chance offered of presenting it in
an unfavourable aspect, the Legislative Council greedily accepted it,
and gave the imperial party the full weight of its opposition. In
August, 1855, the Governor-General sent a message to the Council
recommending Captain Hawkins who commanded the surveyors, for the
appointment of Surveyor-General, but between a select committee
nominated to inquire into its necessity and the Legislative Council, the
office was never conferred. Matters went on coldly enough; the Council
had grown stubborn in its sentiments; and to show that the colony had a
will of its own, notwithstanding a royal warrant had been issued to form
the detachment in accordance with the warm wishes of those who had
authority to represent the wants of the province, the colonial secretary
coolly intimated to Captain Hawkins, on the 16th October following, that
himself and detachment were at the disposal of the Governor of New South
Wales! The men composing the party were volunteers, had made sacrifices
to emigrate, had purchased land in the vicinity of their labours, and
were collecting about them members of their families, who, by ones and
twos, had struggled to leave their English homes and were on their way
to distant Tasmania. In revoking the service, the conduct of the rulers
was as heartless and supercilious as absolute; and in beguiling men, by
fair promises, to volunteer to serve them; then discountenancing their
efficient exertions, and finally, without consulting their wishes,
arranging for their transfer to any colony which might be in need of
such a detachment, was a feature in colonial management strongly
savouring of exceptional faith. The end of all was, that a few of the
party, sooner than break up their new homes, took their discharges, and
the remainder leaving Hobart Town on the 9th February, arrived in five
days after at Sydney, to renew in that colony, under the auspices of Sir
William Denison, those services so little appreciated by the censors of
Van Diemen’s Land. Captain Hawkins, still in command of the detachment,
fixed his head-quarters at Paramatta.
Under the authority of Lord Hardinge, the Commander-in-Chief, dated 2nd
April, several increases and alterations took place in the corps. The
23rd company being composed of drivers was thrown out of the numeral
roll of the companies and designated the A troop of the royal engineer
field equipment. Its constitution and pay was fixed as under:—
_s._ _d._
1 troop sergeant-major 3 9 a-day.
1 troop quartermaster-sergeant 3 9 ”
4 sergeants each 2 10 ”
6 corporals ” 2 4 ”
6 second-corporals ” 2 2 ”
1 farrier 3 4 ”
4 shoeing smiths each 2 0 ”
2 collar-makers ” 2 0 ”
2 wheelers ” 2 0 ”
100 drivers ” 1 9 ”
2 buglers ” 1 9 ”
To fill up the gap occasioned by its withdrawal, another company,
numbered the 23rd, was formed in April. The Corfu company which held a
distinct organization, had its establishment risen from 82 to 120, so
that it might take its place among the general service companies. A Band
was also formed, consisting of one sergeant, one corporal, one second
corporal, and thirty private musicians. The detachments raised by
special royal warrants for service in Van Diemen’s Land and Sydney were
absorbed in the 20th company. The result of all was that the corps
gained a clear augmentation of 169 non-commissioned officers and men,
and its organization was established according to the following detail:—
Colour
Ser- Ser- Cor- 2nd Pri- General
geant. geants. porals. Corp. Bugl. vates. Total. Total.
22 general service companies, 1 5 6 6 2 100 120 = 2640
each
1 survey company 1 5 6 6 2 100 120 = 120
3 survey companies, each 1 7 8 8 2 99 125 = 375
3135
The band 1 1 1 33 33
——
Sergt. Q.-mast.- 2nd Artif-
Major. Sergt. Sergts. Corpls. Corpls. icers. Bugl. Drivers. Total.
Driver troop 1 1 4 6 6 9 2 100 129 = 129
Staff—Supernumerary sergeants with the rank of colour-sergeant 12
4 sergeant-majors; 4 quartermaster-sergeants; 1 bugle-major, and 2 11
staff-sergeants
1 assistant adjutant-general; 2 adjutants to corps, 1 adjutant of field 8
equipment, and 4 quartermasters
——
General Total 3328
This establishment was far greater than had been allowed even during the
oppressive years of the Peninsular war, and the number of companies,
long in its teens, had swept on by successive augmentations to 27—one
being a driver troop.