1830-1832.
The chaco—Brigade-Major Rice Jones—Island of Ascension—Notice of corporal Beal—Detachment to the Tower of London—Chatham during the Reform agitation—Staff appointments—Sergeant M‘Laren the first medallist in the corps—Terrific hurricane at Barbadoes; distinguished conduct of colour-sergeant Harris and corporal Muir—Subaqueous destruction of the ‘Arethusa’ at Barbadoes—Return of a detachment to the Tower of London—Rideau canal; services of the sappers in its construction; casualties; and disbandment of the companies—Costume—First detachment to the Mauritius—Notice of corporal Reed—Pendennis Castle.
The chaco was altered this year to one of a reduced form, and decorated with yellow lines and tassels, which fell upon the shoulders and looped to the centre of the breast. The brasses comprised a radiated star with three guns, carriages, and sponges, surmounted by a crown. The scales were, for the first time, worn under the chin, and a goose feather ten inches long, was held upright by an exploded shell. The ear-cover was removed, and a patent leather band was substituted.—See Plate [XIV]., 1832. The sergeants and staff-sergeants had chacos of a superior description with ornaments of fine gilt, bearing guns, carriages, and sponges of silver. The lines and tassels were of gold cord, and were worn only at reviews or on special occasions. Oil-skin covers were sometimes worn by the officers, and oil-skin cases for the feather by all ranks in rainy weather. Worsted mitts were also adopted at this time instead of leather gloves. The sergeants and the staff wore white Berlin gloves.
Major Frank Stanway, R.E., was appointed brigade-major to the corps on the 8th June, vice Lieutenant-Colonel Rice Jones removed on promotion. The post had been held by Colonel Jones for seventeen years. Under his guidance, a successful check was given to those deep-rooted habits of indiscipline which had characterized the corps, and cramped its efficiency. This was not accomplished without encountering many obstacles; but firm in his purpose, and decided in his bearing and orders, he soon reaped the reward of his perseverance and diligence; and when the custom of the service required that he should relinquish his charge, he delivered the corps to his successor in a state that reflected upon him the highest honour.
Second-corporal William Beal returned to Ascension in August with Captain Brandreth, and continued with him till September, 1831. During this period he assisted in marking out the sites of the principal works proposed to be erected for the improvement and establishment of the colony as a naval victualling station, and performed his duty in an able and satisfactory manner.[[267]]
Reform was, at this period, the turbulent cry of the country, and masses of the people in consequence of its delay, assumed a menacing attitude. Anticipating an outbreak in the metropolis, one sergeant, two corporals, and twenty-eight privates under the command of Lieutenant George Page, R.E., marched to the Tower on the 8th November. The two following days the detachment was under arms with the other troops to put down any attempt at insurrection, but both days passed off without any demonstration requiring the interference of the military. After constructing some temporary works in and about the Tower, the party returned to Woolwich 22nd January, 1831.
At Chatham during the same period, Colonel Sir Archibald Christie, the commandant, did the corps the honour of confiding to it the charge of the magazines within the lines. Repeatedly the guards were approached by suspicious persons; and on one occasion private John Herkes was fired at by an unseen hand, but the ball missed him and perforated the sentry-box. The vigilance of the men and the strictness with which they discharged their duty, gained them the highest credit.
Captain Edward Matson was appointed brigade-major to the corps on the 14th February, vice Major Stanway who resigned; and Captain Joshua Jebb was commissioned as adjutant to the establishment at Chatham from the same date in the room of Captain Matson.
Colour-sergeant James McLaren was the first soldier of the corps who received the gratuity and medal. The distinction was conferred upon him in April, and well he merited it, both on account of his excellent conduct and his good services at St. Sebastian, Algiers, New Orleans, and the Cape of Good Hope. He only survived the receipt of his honours a few days.
Barbadoes was visited by a hurricane at midnight on the 11th August, and its results far exceeded in magnitude the fearful storms of 1675 and 1780. The loss of life on this occasion was calculated at 2,500, and the wounded at 5,000 persons; while the value of property destroyed, exclusive of losses by the government and the shipping, was estimated at more than a million and a half of money. But in this universal devastation the military suffered but little. The company of sappers was quartered in the barracks at the parade-ground. The lower part, occupied by the artillery, lost only the jalousie windows; while the upper part, where the sappers were located, was considerably cracked, the roof uncovered, and several of the rafters broken, by the falling of the parapet upon them. Still with all this danger no accident happened which affected life or limb.[[268]] At the hospital the consequences were different. Strongly built and appearing to defy the most powerful storm, that building was blown down, and private Charles Shambrook crushed to death in the fall.[[269]] During the hurricane it is recorded, that colour-sergeant Joseph Harris signalized himself at the hospital of the 36th regiment by his praiseworthy exertions in rescuing sufferers from the ruins; and his skilful and zealous conduct was applauded by the officers who assisted him.[[270]] Corporal Andrew Muir of the corps also, at great risk to his life, distinguished himself by his activity in every part where his assistance was required, and being a very powerful man, was eminently successful in relieving his suffering fellow-soldiers of various corps.[[271]]
Soon after the hurricane, the ‘Arethusa,’ of Liverpool, a ship of 350 tons, was blown to pieces by gunpowder in the harbour of Barbadoes, by colour-sergeant Harris and a party of the 19th company under the direction of Major, now Colonel Sir William Reid. The destruction of the ship was effected by a number of successive small charges of gunpowder applied to the ship’s bottom as near the keel as possible, and fired at high water;[[272]] and as it has not been discovered, in the history of engineering, that the entire demolition of a wreck was ever accomplished by these means, it is therefore memorable that the royal sappers and miners were the first who ever destroyed a sunken wreck by submarine mining.[[273]]
On the 7th October, the House of Lords threw out the Reform Bill, and as consequent riots had occurred in various parts of the country, it was expected that an attack would be made on the Tower of London. To assist in repelling any attempt upon that fortress, two sergeants and thirty-three rank and file under the command of Lieutenant John Williams, R.E., were sent there on the 8th November, but after being under arms for a week, they returned to Woolwich, without any necessity arising for the employment of their services.
Late in December, second-corporal Edward Deane and private James Andrews, accompanied Captain C. Grierson to Western Africa, where they were employed in surveying the coast and the town of Bathurst. On this duty they were found particularly useful, and rejoined at Woolwich in June, 1832.
The Rideau Canal, began in 1827, was finished in the winter of 1831, connecting the trade and commerce of the two provinces of Canada, on which, by means of locks and dams, vessels are raised to a summit level of 283 feet in eighty-four miles, and again descend 165 feet in forty-three miles.[[274]] The object of the undertaking was, in the event of a war with the United States, to have a secure water communication open between the lakes and Lower Canada.[[275]] Two companies of the corps were employed on this service under the command of Lieut.-Colonel By of the engineers, whose name was given to the town which rose up in the wild spot selected for the headquarters. The earliest hut in Bytown, now a flourishing settlement, was built by the sappers. For the first summer they were encamped on a height near the Ottawa, but before the winter set in were removed into temporary barracks erected by themselves. Most of the work of the canal was executed by contract, but in some parts of the line where the engineering difficulties were great, sapper labour was chiefly resorted to—the non-commissioned officers acting as foremen of trades and overseers. Parties were detached during the progress of the canal to Merrick’s Mills, Isthmus of Mud Lake, Upper Narrows, rivers Tay and Richmond, Jones' Falls, Claffey’s Mills, Newborough, and Isthmus of Rideau Lake.
Among the chief services rendered by the companies it is recorded, that a party levelled and cleared the channel of the river between Black Rapids and the head of Long Island. Over the canal they built a bridge connecting upper and lower Bytown, which still bears the designation of the “Sappers' bridge.” In the construction of the first eight locks at the Ottawa, the companies participated to an important extent, and Sir Henry Hardinge, in his evidence before the Select Committee in March, 1828, alluded to their employment at some of the most difficult parts of the work towards the Ottawa.[[276]] No less difficult was the work executed by them at Hog’s bank. The dam there had been commenced by the contractor, but he ultimately abandoned the undertaking. Sixty men of the corps were withdrawn from the Ottawa to recommence it, and, with some hundred labourers, were employed at the dam all the winter of 1828 and 1829. Before the breaking up of the frost, the masonry was nearly completed with a base of 25 feet; but on the 6th April, 1829, the water found its way through the frozen earth, and making a breach in the dam, carried away everything opposed to it. This was the second failure. Still a third time it was attempted, and under the superintendence of Captain Victor of the royal engineers, a strong framework of timber was formed in front of the breach, supported and strengthened by enormous masses of clay, stone, and gravel, with a base of 250 feet, which successfully overcame the difficulty; and the dam, in 1837, was the most substantial work on the whole line of canal.[[277]]
Royal Sappers & Miners
Plate XIV.
UNIFORM 1832
Printed by M & N Hanhart.
On the completion of the work, which cost upwards of a million of money, the two companies were disbanded in December. Their united strength on leaving England was 160, and the casualties during their period of service at the canal were as follows:—
| Deserted | 35 | Of whom two were apprehended and transported. | |
| Transported | 1 | ||
| Died | 16 | ||
| Killed | 5 | By blasting rock, either in the quarries or the canal. | |
| Drowned | 1 | ||
| Discharged | 71 | Thirty-seven at the Isthmus of Rideau Lake, and thirty-four at Bytown.[[278]] | |
| Invalids, and remnant of companies returned to England | } | 31 | |
| Total | 160 | ||
By the reduction of these companies the establishment of the corps fell from 1,349 to 1,187 of all ranks.
A material alteration was made in the clothing this year by changing the colour of the coatee from scarlet to the infantry red, and the style and decoration of the dress were also modified, to correspond with the form of lacing adopted generally in the line.—See Plate [XIV].
The coatee of the bugle-major remained in all respects the same as before. The buglers also retained the scarlet, but the style of wearing the lace accorded with that of the privates. For the working dress, a round jacket with bell buttons bearing the corps device, was established, instead of the jacket with short skirts. Of both uniform and working trousers, the colour was changed from light blue to dark Oxford mixture; but the uniform trousers as formerly, were much finer than the working ones. The red stripe down the outer seam was two inches broad on the former, and half an inch wide on the latter. Laced boots were also introduced this year in place of the short Wellingtons, issued for the first time in 1825. The leather stock hitherto supplied by the public, was now made an article of necessaries and provided at the cost of the soldier.
A detachment of seven masons and bricklayers under corporal John Reed, embarked for the Mauritius on the 25th May and arrived there in the ‘Arab,’ transport, on the 13th November. This was the first party of the corps that had ever landed at the Isle of France. On board ship, great irregularity prevailed among the troops; but corporal Reed’s party behaved in so exemplary a manner, that the report of their creditable conduct was made the subject of a general order to the corps.[[279]] The detachment was sent to the island at the recommendation of Lieutenant-Colonel Fyers of the royal engineers, for the purpose of leading and instructing the native artificers, and were quartered in some old slave huts at the Caudon. The first work undertaken by the sappers was the tower at Black River. While this was in progress, a reinforcement of one colour-sergeant, and twenty-two rank and file, under the command of Captain C. Grierson, R.E., landed from the ‘Royal George,’ freightship on the 22nd January, 1833, and afterwards assisted in the works at Black River, and also in the erection of two martello towers at Grand River. When these were completed, the services of the entire detachment were chiefly confined to the building of the citadel on the Petite Montagne.
In May six rank and file were detached from Plymouth to Pendennis Castle. In June of the next year the party was increased to two sergeants and eighteen rank and file, who were employed there until August in repairing the barracks and strengthening the ramparts.