were inspected with the division at the camp on the 15th July by
Lieutenant-General Knollys. Next day all the troops that had served
under fire in the Crimea were inspected by the Queen. The 17th was a
day of review, when all the sappers, including the 21st company, had
again the honour of appearing before the Queen. The companies
manœuvred with the troops as a battalion of infantry, and though
they had not been regularly drilled for some years, their steadiness
was very remarkable. In line their movements were not inferior to
any troops on the field, and Her Majesty did not permit the occasion
to pass without expressing her approbation of their appearance.
Driving through the camp on the 18th, the Queen pulled up at the
quarter occupied by the sappers and directed Major Nicholson to
bring before her some of the men who had distinguished themselves
during the war. The order, suddenly given, did not admit of making
the best selection, and a number were instantly paraded. Major
Nicholson explained their services, and “the Queen was graciously
pleased to express herself in terms of great admiration of the
devotion shown by this branch of the service;” and after speaking a
few never-to-be-forgotten words to each man, Her Majesty ordered the
Major to send a list of those whom she had seen to Osborne. The
non-commissioned officers and privates who were thus honoured and
whose names are among the royal documents are the following:—
{ John Coppin.
Colour-sergeants { Joseph Stanton.
{ Kester Knight.
{ William Harvey.
Sergeants { Andrew Greenwood.
{ John Paul.
{ Robert Purdy.
Corporals { William J. Lendrim.
{ William Trimble.
Second-corporal { William Baker.
{ Neil McInnes.
{ William Orr.
{ William Harvey.
Privates { William Bruce.
{ John Perie.
{ Henry Bullen.
{ Frederick Dimmer.
Most of the above had been decorated with medals or orders for
bravery and unfailing zeal in the trenches. “Upon the sappers
undoubtedly devolved the hardest work of the siege,” and Major
Nicholson in his several personal interviews with the Queen was
gratified to find that their services were fully appreciated.
Desirous of retaining the recollection of their merits, Her Majesty
ordered as an additional mark of her royal favour that four of the
distinguished men should be photographed by Mr. Cundall of Bond
Street. Those selected for this special distinction, and whose
likenesses are among Her Majesty’s Crimean portraits, were—
Colour-sergeants |{| Joseph Stanton. |{| Kester Knight. Sergeant | |
John Paul. Private | | William Bruce.
Eight sappers embarked in the ‘Clarendon’ on the 9th July at
Balaklava. The troops on board were 150 and the horses 111.
Lieutenant Graham, R.E., was in command. Buffeted and strained by a
heavy gale the transport sprang a leak; but wearing on till the next
day at noon—when the water had extinguished the fires—the troops, no
longer able to remain with safety, were removed in boats without
casualty to the French merchant ship ‘Constance’ off Cadiz. Several
horses, however, had been killed during the storm, three of which
belonged to officers of engineers. The ‘Clarendon’ after running
ashore six miles to the westward of Cadiz was next day got off and
towed by two steamers into the harbour with nine feet of water in
the hold. In the ‘Constance’ the sappers remained about a week, from
which they were transferred to H.M.S. ‘Centaur,’ and sailing for
Portsmouth landed on the 12th August, arriving soon after at
Chatham.
The last detachment from the East was one of 34 non-commissioned
officers and men, which embarked at Scutari in the ‘Resolute’ on the
31st July, under the command of Lieutenant Malcolm of the engineers,
and marched into head-quarters on the 17th August.
To complete the detail of Eastern statistics which have already been
shown to the 9th September in a previous chapter, the following
statement of casualties is added:—
Number.
Died from injuries 1
Died from other causes 18
— 19
Taken prisoner 1
Wounded severely 1
Injured by explosions 2
— 4
Invalided, of whom 6 died 82
——
Total 105
——
The total casualties from the beginning of the war to the date when
the last detachment quitted the Bosphorus was 550 out of a strength
of 1,644 of all ranks; and if anything is calculated to excite
remark and amazement it is the fact that out of so large a force
only 252 had died!
Two months after Kars had fallen, second-corporal Edward
Stephens and Thomas McEneney left England on the 28th January
for Erzeroum to make special surveys of the city and its
environs. At Marseilles they took passage on board the ‘Sima,’
and on arrival at Scutari waited till telegraphic instructions
had been received, which directed them to proceed to Trebizond.
Embarking on board the Lloyd’s Austrian boat ‘Egitto,’ the
vessel pushed into the Black Sea, and three days after, while
passing Karasund, struck on a rock and remained fast. Amid the
alarm and consternation which followed, the corporals sustained
the British character for firmness and courage; and seeing that
boats were approaching from the little watering village, quickly
got their vast stores and luggage on deck and removed them to
the shore. While doing so they had to stand with bared swords at
the gangway to prevent the property in their charge being
tumbled into the sea; for although there was no danger to be
apprehended, the rush to the boats was such as might have been
expected had the ship given signs of immediate sinking. At the
command of the Pacha of Samsoon, who was on board, a Turkish war
steamer on the third day arrived, and pulling the ‘Egitto’ from
the rock, she sailed for Trebizond. Landing there, the corporals
were provided by the consul with every requisite for their
journey. Fifteen horses was the measure of transport allowed for
themselves and stores, and off they started for Erzeroum through
a country strangely wild and picturesque. Theirs nevertheless
was a long and dreary ride over mountains—one having an altitude
of 9,000 feet above the sea—with the snow in places rising by
drift into piles from two to twenty feet in height. Along
precipices where the path was barely two feet broad they rode
for an hour at a time, from which an inauspicious slip might
have dashed them down the cliffs a thousand feet below.
Skeletons of horses were bleaching by hundreds at the base of
those terrific heights, which told a melancholy tale of accident
and death. After a journey of thirteen days over tracks
unimproved for centuries, they arrived at the seat of the
pachalic on the 21st March 1856, and reported themselves to
Colonel Geils, H.M. commissioner and chief engineer with the
army of Anatolia. In a day or two the corporals had full
employment. Stephens was sent ten miles away to reconnoitre an
advanced position for a Turkish entrenched camp, and McEneney
was despatched to Alti for a similar purpose. While these
warlike reconnaissances were in execution the news of peace
reached Erzeroum on the 11th April, and the surveyors were
recalled to carry out services in the city and vicinity. When
the last accounts were received in England the corporals were
about to be employed, one in laying out a line of road from
Erzeroum to Persia, and the other to Trebizond. What specific
services they accomplished in connection with this or other
objects are unknown at head-quarters. Enough, however, has been
communicated to show that they have added, by the efficiency of
their labours, to the reputation of the corps. Under date of the
3rd June, Colonel Geils wrote to Lord Panmure concerning them in
these terms: “The party of surveyors have been at work from
eight to twelve hours a-day since their arrival, with the
exception of one Sunday. I have now had an opportunity of
testing their abilities, and find them excellent draughtsmen and
experienced surveyors. Their rank produces most disagreeable
results when brought into contact with Turkish officers. These
corporals are superior in military acquirements to most high
officers in the Turkish army. Their character has been severely
tested and found to be unexceptionable, and I think Her
Majesty’s service would profit by their being commissioned
officers. I consider the step advisable on the score of merit,
even more than expediency.” And as if to fritter away this
anomaly to the greatest extent in his power, the colonel
promoted them to be lance-sergeants.
Out of the treaty of peace arose the appointment of distinct
commissions to carry on special surveys of the territory to
be ceded by Russia both as a penalty for her aggressive
predilections and to lessen the chances of future pretexts for
interfering with neighbouring states. To assist these commissions
Lieutenant-Colonel Stanton and two officers of royal engineers with
seven sappers—corporal James Fisher being the chief subordinate—were
sent to Bessarabia in May to survey the line of the new boundary
between Russia and Moldavia; and Major Stokes, R.E., having under
his orders five of the corps, including the two lance-sergeants from
Erzeroum, was despatched soon after to survey and regulate the
Danubian demarcations. These two men joined Major Stokes from
Erzeroum early in September. As the surveyors will have to undergo
great hardships in carrying on the work, much in water, along muddy
shores and through the winter, usually severe in those regions, Lord
Panmure has sanctioned the issue to them of rates of survey pay to
the extent of four shillings a-day according to the amount of
ability and energy each may display.
--------------
To supply the place of the company removed from the Cape of Good
Hope during the war, the twenty-fifth company under Captain Akers
embarked for that colony on the 25th July, increasing the sapper
force there to two companies.
The singular honour of permitting a non-commissioned officer of
sappers to be present at the coronation of the Emperor of Russia is
an incident in its history of which the corps may be honestly proud.
Corporal James Mack, whose services in connection with the Great
Exhibition, the Department of Practical Science and Art, and the
Paris Exposition have been so highly appreciated, was selected for
this interesting tour. He left for Moscow at the end of July with
the Embassy Extraordinary to Russia, and returned to London at the
conclusion of the fêtes and reviews in October, bringing with him a
collection of photographs of the most striking scenes he had
witnessed, and which he had himself photographed for national uses.
A greater honour succeeded. A day was fixed for his attendance at
Windsor Castle, when in person he was permitted to present to Her
Majesty and Prince Albert a set of his photographic views,
explaining, as the Queen and His Royal Highness passed from one to
the other, the incidents and specialities of each.[211] He has also
had the gratification of exhibiting them to H.R.H. the Duke of
Cambridge, Lord Panmure, Mr. F. Peel, and Sir Benjamin Hall.
A new station was opened for the corps at Portsmouth on the 5th
August, on which date the eighth company, under the command of Major
De Vere, was removed from Chatham for the duties of the engineer
department. A few days after, a detachment of the company was sent
to the Isle of Wight, taking up quarters in Cliff-end Fort.
The strength of the sappers at Aldershot was increased on the 9th by
the arrival there of the 4th company under Major Nicholson.
On the 12th August twelve non-commissioned officers and men were
sent to Kensington Palace to remove the Museum from Marlborough
House to Brompton House at Kensington Gore, and to assist in its
re-arrangement. The services of the sappers were so truly useful
that an addition of eighteen men was made to the party two months
subsequently.
Devonport, another new station for the corps, was occupied by the
seventh company, which proceeded thither on the 26th August under
Lieutenant Anderson.
As the army works corps had been disbanded, and the disasters in the
Crimea, arising from an insufficient sapper force leading to sudden
and expensive organizations, had shown the necessity of maintaining
the corps in tolerable strength as a working body to meet unforeseen
pressures in war, its establishment was increased on the 1st
October, from twenty-six to thirty-two companies, exclusive of the
troop of drivers, each company being constituted as follows:—
Colour
Serg- Serg- Corp- 2nd Pri- General
eant. eants. orals. Corp. Bugl. vates. Total. Total.
28 general service companies, each 1 5 6 6 2 100 120 = 3360
4 survey companies, each 1 7 8 8 2 94 120 = 480
The band 0 1 1 1 0 30 33 = 33
Troop Troop Far- 2nd Shoe- Collar
Serg.- Q.M. Sergts. rier. Corpls. Corpls. ing Mak- Wheel- Trump- Drivers. Total.
Major. Serg. Smiths. ers. ers. eters.
Driver 1 1 4 1 6 6 4 2 2 2 100 129 = 129
troop
Staff— Non-commissioned officers: 4 sergeant-majors; 4 quartermaster-sergeants; 1 bugle-major; 2 } 23
staff-sergeants, and 12 supernumerary-sergeants
Officers— 1 assistant-adjutant-general, 2 adjutants to corps, 1 adjutant of drivers, 4 quartermasters, } 9
and 1 veterinary surgeon
——
Total 4034
——
Three non-commissioned officers with sergeant Winzer in charge,
sailed for Ceylon on the 8th October in the ‘Sumatra’ from London.
This little party of observers, surveyors and draftsmen, were asked
for by Captain W. D. Gosset, the surveyor-general, who having for
many years been the executive under the superintendent of the
national surveys, knew the varied qualifications of the sappers and
the value of military organization in conducting the duty “in a
country chiefly wooded and excessively rough in many districts.”
While he sought to obtain subordinates with the amplest
qualifications for colonial survey duty, Captain Gosset took care to
secure, as an equivalent for their employment in a hot climate, an
income which has far exceeded any remuneration ever offered to a
soldier. According to their merits and exertions he has the power to
reward each with a daily pay ranging from 5_s._ to 15_s._, exclusive
of imperial pay and other colonial allowances.
Four non-commissioned officers under the command of Lieutenant R. M.
Smith embarked at Portsmouth in the ‘Gorgon’ on the 13th October for
Greece to be employed, as may be directed by Mr. Newton the
vice-consul at Mitylene, in making excavations in the buried city of
Teos, now Boudroun, to discover monuments, statues, and other
antiqua for the British Museum. The party was selected with
reference to the nature of the work to be carried out. One was a
draftsman and photographer; the others respectively a carpenter, a
stonemason, and a blacksmith, all able and handy men, adapted by
strength, experience and intelligence to any service. Two of them
had been travellers prior to their enlistment, and understood Greek.
To associate these sappers with an interesting mission their names
are given below:—
Second-corporal William Jenkins.
Lance-corporal Benjamin L. Spackman.
” Patrick Nelles.
” Francis Nelles.
All but Spackman had been in the Crimea and received medals and
clasps. Jenkins, a ponderous man with a shaggy beard, the true type
of an Englishman, was well known throughout the army for his
services at the siege; and his gallantry on more than one occasion,
was acknowledged by the gift of a medal “for distinguished service
in the field.”
On the 17th October—the second anniversary of opening the siege—the
designation of the Royal Sappers and Miners was altered by Royal
authority, probably as a compliment to the corps for its approved
services before Sebastopol. The announcement was made in the ‘London
Gazette’ as follows:—
“The Queen has been graciously pleased to direct, that the corps of
royal sappers and miners shall henceforward be denominated the corps
of royal engineers, and form one body with the existing corps of
royal engineers.”[212]
Thus is removed that standing misnomer by which the sappers and
their officers, virtually one body, were by some incomprehensible
caprice in the now obsolete military economy of the ordnance, called
by a plurality of titles. Separated by name from their officers, and
thrown seemingly into a cold unfriendly shade, the want of a family
patronymic—one title of identity in common—was keenly felt by the
sappers. Sir Charles Pasley was the first to moot the question. His
representations ran through a period of forty years. Many other
officers, considering that no sacrifice of exclusiveness should
stand in the way of improving the _status_ of the corps, adopted his
views; and with the generous assistance of Sir John Burgoyne and the
ready acquiescence of Lord Panmure the change was effected—breaking
up an anomaly which it is proudly hoped will interlink and cohere
both officers and men.
Accompanying this change was the abandonment of the rank of
private—an unmeaning name for a well-defined grade, and substituting
for it the more expressive and appropriate designation of sapper.
The history of the Royal Sappers and Miners is now closed.
Henceforward its services belong to the history of the Royal
Engineers.
-----
Footnote 208:
“I think,” wrote Lady Georgina Cathcart, in returning thanks to
the fourth division, at whose expense the memorial was erected,
“the whole design handsome. The manner in which it has been
executed, of solid and durable granite, in the midst of many
difficulties and dangers, as well as privations, reflects great
credit on all those engaged in it, and for which we feel most
grateful.”
Footnote 209:
The Balaklava monument was enclosed within an iron handrail of
twelve bars taken from the bridge on the locks across the docks of
Sebastopol. Its epitaphs run thus:—“In memory of those who fell in
the battle of Balaklava, 25th October, 1854.” This was on one
panel. On another was cut the words—“Erected by the British army,
A. D. 1856.” On the third, occurred both these records in Russian;
and on the fourth was a sunken cross. Corporal Cameron was
overseer of the work.
The Inkermann monument was thus inscribed:—“In memory of the
English, French, and Russians who fell in the battle of Inkermann,
5th November, 1854.” Sergeant McQuillin was the overseer and
corporal Cameron the leading mason.
The Redan one bore this, as its principal epitaph:—“In memory of
those who fell in the trenches and assaults upon the Redan, 1855.”
Corporal John Ross, of the second company, was the foreman.
The two latter monuments announced that they had been “Erected by
the British army, A. D. 1856.” On the third panel the inscriptions
were repeated in Russian, and on the fourth was a cross—in
relievo—bearing the Christian initials of I.H.S. for the Inkermann
monument, and a sunken cross for that at the Redan.
Footnote 210:
One was of marble, not worked in the Crimea, and the other of
freestone. The first bore an epitaph in English; the latter in
Russian. The Russian one was lettered by private D. Thompson. A
large slab, seven feet by three feet three, was also laid to the
memory of his Lordship, under a willow-tree, by a well in the
hollow in front of head-quarters. It was placed there by
Lieutenant Brine, at the request of Lieut.-Colonel the Hon.
Leicester Curzon of the rifle brigade, and bore this simple
epitaph:—“To the memory of Field Marshal Lord Raglan, G.C.B.,
Commander-in-Chief of the British army in the Crimea. Died 28th
June, 1855.” This inscription was cut by Thompson and private
James Dickson.
Footnote 211:
By command of the Queen, Colonel Phipps presented the sum of five
pounds to corporal Mack, “as a mark of Her Majesty’s approval of
the execution of the photographs.”
Footnote 212:
On that day foot races and games were carried on at Chatham, which
drew thousands of holiday people to the lines to witness them. The
races were so arranged that each of the principal services in
garrison should win a prize. These were the royal sappers and
miners, provisional battalion, royal marines, and medical staff
corps. Each corps in turn ran its own approved racers, and the
best man among them received a reward. The successful competitors
afterwards drew up on the course in aerial costume—the
representatives of their regiments—whose athletic reputation
seemed to depend on their energies and success. With significant
but pardonable conceit and confidence they took their stations,
all certain of winning. They started—their pace was beautiful.
Well together, it was difficult to say who would first reach the
goal, but corporal Pennington of the sappers, rushing ahead with
the swiftness of the wind, flew past the winning post cleverly by
several yards and bore away the “Champion’s belt,” thus
inaugurating by his conquest the altered designation of the royal
sappers and miners.
1856.
Concluding Chapter.
Establishment of the corps—Organization of
companies—Distribution—Establishment at Chatham—The Ordnance
Survey—Its divisional districts—and military
character—Qualifications of the observers—List of the
non-commissioned officers employed as such—Greatest distances
observed by them—Importance of the services of the
non-commissioned officers, as proved by the reduction of the
officers—Situations of trust filled by them—Strength of the
companies—Average distribution in the United Kingdom—Division of
labour—Great triangulation—Private James Weir—Secondary and minor
triangulations—Other general survey duties—Perambulation of
boundaries—Sergeant Robert Meade—Pay and allowances—Skilful and
distinguished talents and usefulness of eleven non-commissioned
officers; and of quartermaster William Young—Merits and services
of the survey companies.
The establishment of the corps, excluding the nine staff officers
attached to it, counts a total of 4,025 of all ranks. This number is
divided into thirty-two companies, twenty-eight of which were raised
for general service, and four for the duties of the national
surveys. There is also one troop of drivers.
Each general service company is organized, with respect to trades,
in numbers equivalent to the assumed wants of the service; and thus
constituted, it is in a position, in proportion to its numerical
efficiency, to undertake and accomplish any work within the scope of
military purpose and requirement. The skill of the workmen and their
ability as a body are rendered certain, by the enlistment of none
but good or promising artificers, and the extreme care taken to form
a company for duty.
Such, however, is not the rule in completing a survey company, for
men of superior intelligence and acquirements only are drafted to
them, irrespective of any classified organization of their
establishment with respect to trades.
The distribution of the corps is as follows:—
Companies.
Chatham 6
Woolwich 1
Aldershot 2
Portsmouth 1
Devonport 1
Gibraltar 2
Malta 2
Corfu 1
Halifax, N. S. 1
Mauritius 1
Cape of Good Hope 2
Western Australia 1
New Zealand 1
Detachments from the above are at the following places:—
London—Department of Practical Science and Art.
Shoeburyness.
Alderney.
Isle of Wight.
Greece—Boudroun.
Danube.
Bessarabia—Bolgrad.
Turkey—Scutari—(one corporal only closing up, under Major
E.C.A. Gordon, the transfer of the buildings in charge of
the expedition).
Ceylon.
Bermuda.
South Australia—Port Adelaide.
Victoria—Melbourne.
Sydney, New South Wales.
Companies
Service companies 22
Companies not formed 6
Survey companies 4
——
32
Aldershot—Driver troop 1
——
Total 33
——
For Sandhurst a detachment is furnished for two periods in each year
for the practical instruction of the cadets in field engineering,
pontooning, and bridgemaking. A similar party is also provided for
the instruction of the gentlemen cadets at Woolwich; but its
services are simply confined to the construction of a few
field-works, and the making of fascines and gabions.
It will be unnecessary to allude to the present employment of the
sappers further than to notice, that at all engineering stations at
which they are quartered, they are appointed to share in the
execution of ordnance works.