1846.
Exploration survey for a railway in North America—Services of the party employed on it—Personal services of sergeant A. Calder—Augmentation to the corps—Reinforcement to China—Recall of a company from Bermuda—Royal presents to the reading-room at Southampton—Inspection at Gibraltar by Sir Robert Wilson—Third company placed at the disposal of the Board of Works in Ireland—Sergeant J. Baston—Services of the company—Distinguished from the works controlled by the civilians—Gallantry of private G. Windsor—Coolness of private E. West—Intrepid and useful services of private William Baker—Survey of Southampton, and its incomparable map.
Sergeant Alexander Calder and seven rank and file of the survey companies embarked at Liverpool in the ‘Britannia’ steam-ship, and landed at Halifax, 2nd July. Subsequently, the party was increased by the arrival of four rank and file who had been employed on the boundary survey in the state of Maine. This detachment, with two pensioner non-commissioned officers of the corps, served under the direction of Captain Pipon,[[490]] and afterwards of Lieutenant E. Y. W. Henderson and Major Robinson, R.E., in surveying the country between Quebec and Halifax, to ascertain the best route for a railway to connect the provinces. The party was dressed in plain clothes, and for the service of the woods, fur caps, pea-coats, and over-boots were added.
Five different routes, the projects of rival interests, were surveyed, and the neighbouring forests and wilds, abounding with wood and water, explored. The forests were in their primeval state—dense and rugged. Pine trees were the chief growth, and the ground, encumbered with sharp-pointed branches thrown down by time or the violence of winds, formed a regular abattis, and with a thick undergrowth of shrubs and bushes rendered the woods almost impervious. Parties exploring, as soon as they left the rivers or beaten tracks, had to cut their way before them. The difficulties of carrying out the service were considerable. The hills being as much covered with the forest as the plains and valleys, views of the surrounding country could not easily be obtained. Generally this object was effected by climbing, in which some of the sappers became very expert, “and, assisted by creepers—a contrivance of iron spikes buckled to the feet—could climb well.”[[491]] To wander in the least degree from the path cut or marked was dangerous, as the chances of being benighted or lost in the prairie were very great.[[492]]
The detachment was divided into parties of two each as assistant-surveyors, with ten or twelve labourers, under a civil surveyor of the country. “Each party had a particular line to explore. The sappers carried either two or three barometers and detached thermometers with them; also a 5-inch theodolite, a measuring chain, pocket compasses, &c. As the lines were cut out by the axemen and labourers, the sappers measured them, and took the angles for direction, and also for elevation or depression. The barometers were registered at the summits of ridges and bottoms of valleys. Somewhere, at the most convenient spot, in the neighbourhood of the exploring parties, a sapper was stationed with a standard barometer, who did not move from his post until ordered to do so. His duty was to register his barometer and thermometers every hour during the day.”[[493]]
The result of the surveys and investigations was an able report from Major Robinson, describing a range of country through which a railway could beneficially pass, extending in length to 635 miles, from Halifax to Quebec. The proposed route was determined with reference to the resources of the tract to be traversed, its accessibility, and facility of adaptation to the purpose, as well as its military and general advantages.
After completing the plans and sections of the lines explored, the party, in September, 1848, returned to England and rejoined the survey department.
The personal services of sergeant Calder on this duty are sufficiently interesting to receive notice in this place; and, with some little difference in points of duty and incident, may be taken as an average type of the individual adventures of the rest of the party. From Halifax to Folly Village, he surveyed a line of seventy-five miles with the barometer, and from thence, for twenty-five miles, measured the roads from the high-water mark of the Bay of Fundy, by taking the heights with the theodolite, using the angle of elevation and depression, and checking the same simultaneously[simultaneously], by barometrical observation. He afterwards traversed a varied country for about sixty miles to Amherst, from whence he carried on the survey, barometrically, to Mirimichi. The completion of another rough road of ten miles now took him fully into the wilderness, where he continued his work till the winter set in. During his labours in the woods he ran short of provisions. He was then in charge of twelve men, carrying with them 3 lbs. of pork, 1 lb. of oatmeal, and a small bag of ginger. Upon this scanty fare the party subsisted for three days; and, harassed as they were by hard travelling through a mountainous country, entangled with a tissue of bush and branches covered with deep snow, their fatigues and privations were considerably increased. Heavy loads also they carried, and so closely were the trees packed together, in the exuberant vegetation of the forest, that the adventurers not only had to tear themselves through the thicket, but were continually impeded by logs of fallen trees and tufts of stubborn underwood. On the evening of the third day the hunger of the men began to show its effects in emaciation and despondency. At this moment sergeant Calder found it necessary to relieve the party of the stores and abandon them in the woods. The theodolite and barometers he attached in a safe position to a tree. He then directed the men to use their utmost exertions in tracking a spot where provisions could be found. Scrambling down the banks of a large river they hurried onwards some six miles, when a newly-blazed tree was discovered, indicating the proximity of a lumbering camp. The blazed marks were followed further on for about five miles, and then, to the unbounded joy of the party, a light seen through the chinks of a log-hut on the opposite shore drew the men in the dark on a fallen tree across the stream to the desired camp, where their wants were appeased and their exhausted strength restored. Sergeant Calder acted with coolness and kindness throughout, and maintained the strictest discipline and order. He afterwards recovered the instruments and stores left in the woods, which his men, from weakness and want, had been unable to carry.
In the second season the sergeant returned to the Cobiquid Mountains, the scene of his former exertions. This range was the vertebræ of the country, and the hinging point of an important tract in the route of the proposed railway. Some doubts were entertained as to the practicability of accurately ascertaining the gradients of this dangerous and unknown district, and had they not been determined, the scheme must have proved abortive; but sergeant Calder undertook the service, and accomplished it by means of rods and the spirit-level, to the entire satisfaction of his officers, verifying at the same time the correctness of his former investigations in connexion with the survey of the hills. After this, travelling 200 miles to Cape Canso, he surveyed a branch line along a rugged coast and through an intricate wilderness, to within a few miles of Pictou. In conducting this work one of his labourers was seized with fever. Calder took especial care of the man’s comforts, which, however, from the necessity of crossing rivers and lakes of great breadth on catamarans, or rafts of logs, were unavoidably much restricted. As he proceeded, the trials of the sergeant and his men multiplied, both from the fatigue of travelling and the want of provisions. Wild berries were eaten to supply the cravings of hunger; but to assuage the more fastidious necessities of the sick man, the berries were taken by him with a little sugar. What was most distressing at this time was the absence of all shelter from the inclement weather, and both hale and sick were therefore forced to stretch their limbs under the snow-laden boughs of some dwarf trees, exposed to the keenness of the night frost. At last the party arrived at a district known as the “Garden of Paradise”—a rugged and inhospitable region, where the men were benevolently entertained by some wild Highland settlers. Soon afterwards the sergeant journeyed to Halifax, where he completed the plans and sections of his surveys, and returned to England after a service with the exploration expedition of two years and three months.[[494]]
A large increase to the army and artillery led to a proportionate increase to the royal sappers and miners. This was suggested by Sir John Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications, to maintain a sufficient disposable force for employment in any military services rendered necessary by the exigencies of the times. Eight companies were ordered to be added to the corps, but their formation was spread over three or four years. The first addition gave, on the 1st April, 1846, 1 sergeant, 1 corporal, 1 second-corporal, and 8 privates to each of the 10 service companies; and a company numbered the 12th, of 100 non-commissioned officers and men, was formed at the same time. The corps was thus raised in establishment from 1,290 to 1,500, and on the 1st September it was further increased to 1,600, by the formation of the 15th company. The Corfu company remained at its original establishment of 62 sergeants and rank and file.
On the 22nd July, eighteen rank and file embarked for China, and landed at Hong Kong on the 26th December. This was the third reinforcement to that command. When relieved in November, 1852, the party had dwindled away to 8 men: 7 had died, 2 deserted, and 1 was invalided. The total deaths in the three parties, whose united strength was 67, amounted to 27 men.
The abandonment of the execution of some extensive works in Bermuda permitted the recall to England of the eighth company, which arrived at Woolwich on the 5th August, 1846. The strength of the company on landing at Bermuda was seventy-nine of all ranks. Of this number eight were invalided, thirty-eight had died, one was drowned, one killed, and one transported for desertion. Only thirty-one men, therefore, regained our shores.
A reading-room was established for the corps at Southampton in the summer, which obtained much attention from distinguished visitors. The Marquis of Anglesey—then Master-General—presented an engraving of himself to the room, and the Queen also patronized it by presenting an engraving of his Royal Highness, Prince Albert.[[495]] In placing the gift in the room, Colonel Colby thus recorded the fact in a general order to the companies under his command;—“The valuable services of this distinguished corps, having been brought under Her Most Gracious Majesty’s notice by the ordnance surveys of Great Britain and Ireland, the demarcation of the boundary line between the British dominions and those of the United States in America, and more especially by the survey of the royal domains at Windsor and the duchy of Lancaster, Her Majesty has condescended to mark her gracious approval of these services, by ordering the presentation of a portrait of the Prince Albert to be placed in the reading-room.”
Twice this year the second and eleventh companies were inspected by General Sir Robert Wilson, the Governor of Gibraltar—on the 16th May and 17th October. On both occasions they presented a very creditable appearance under arms. “The progress of the new work,” observes his Excellency, “attests their skill and indefatigable diligence, and their merits become the reputation of the service to which they belong.”
The third company of three sergeants and forty-five rank and file, under Captain Wynne, R.E., received orders at ten o’clock at night on the 21st September, and in seven hours after was on route viâ Liverpool for Dublin, where it arrived on the 24th. Placed at the disposal of the Irish Board of Works to oversee the poor during the continuance of the famine, which, from the failure of the potato crop was now the scourge of Ireland, the company was instantly removed in small parties to Limerick, Castlebar, Roscommon, Newcastle, Boyle, and Castlerea, retaining at Dublin as storekeeper and accountant for the Board sergeant John Baston.[[496]] From these several stations the men were again dispersed over districts of wild country, where the poor, clamorous for subsistence and life, were in a state of revolt. Numbers of these turbulent but starving people were employed on the construction of public roads, &c.; and the sappers, appointed their overseers, not only laid out their work, but instructed them in its performance. To this general duty several of them united the office of steward and inspecting check clerk; and besides controlling the check clerks, superintended and examined the measurements of tasks, and had a general supervision of all arrangements in the field. More than six months they continued on this duty, and returned to Woolwich on the 8th April, 1847, with a high character.
The works superintended by them were always distinguished from other works by the superior order and discipline which they enforced, not unfrequently in circumstances of great personal danger, and during a winter of unusual severity. In detecting frauds and correcting abuses they were found particularly valuable; and their uniform zeal, ability and good conduct, met with the perfect satisfaction of the Board of Works and the Lords of the Treasury. Even Daniel O’Connell spoke favourably of their employment.[[497]] The working pay of the men while under the relief board ranged between 1s. and 2s. 6d. a-day.
While on this novel service, private George Windsor, from the upright way in which he performed his duty, made himself obnoxious to the peasantry in the lawless district of Croom; and but for the gallantry with which he defended himself, would probably have lost his life. On the 26th December this private was employed in the barony of Cashma on the Pullough line of road, and on passing down the line in advance of the check clerk and a number of labourers, &c., was met by two persons dressed in women’s clothes, with veils hanging from their bonnets covering their faces. One was armed with a gun, the other with a pistol. Presenting their pieces, they ordered him to kneel, but this the private refused, and though he was unarmed, the ruffians at once closed upon him. At this moment Windsor seized the person armed with the pistol, (dexterously thrusting his finger between the trigger and the guard,) and getting hold of his throat with the other hand, they fell together, fortunately in such a way that the desperado with the gun could not, without injuring his accomplice, shoot the sapper. He, therefore, beat Windsor with the butt-end of his piece. Several minutes the struggle was maintained strangely enough in the presence of a large number of stewards and labourers; and had he met with the slightest assistance from any of them, would have captured both the offenders; but incredulous as it may appear, it must be added to the disgrace of Irishmen that, just as he had overpowered the ruffian with the pistol, a man named Joseph Lindsay[[498]]—brother to the check clerk—came forward, and dislodging Windsor’s grasp, aided the parties to decamp! For his spirited and manly conduct in the attack, private Windsor was promoted to be second-corporal.
Private Edward West received three threatening notices through the post-office warning him not to appear at work again on pain of death, adding that, if he did, he should “drop into a bit of a hole already dug for his carcase.” Unmoved by these missives, the private was always the first on the line; and when the labourers were collected, he told them he had received the notices, and then burning them in their presence, observed in a loud voice, “that would be the way his intended murderers would be served at another time.” Once he was attacked by a party from behind a hedge with stones. Struck on the head, he was stunned for a few moments, and nearly fell. On recovering, he boldly dashed over the hedge to meet his assailants, but the cowards made a precipitate retreat. Thirty men suspected of being concerned in the assault were at once dismissed from employment.
Six other men were promoted for their coolness, as well as tact and fidelity, in carrying on their appointed services. Of these private William Baker was perhaps the most conspicuous. A brief detail of his services will show the nature of his duties and the difficulties he had to contend with. Detached to Shonkeragh, eight Irish miles from Roscommon, he was placed over a number of labourers who were in the last stage of insubordination. At first they took their own time of going to work and quitting it, although the regulations required them to be present from 7 A.M. till 5 P.M. To train them to punctuality was not an easy matter, but by checking them and carrying out a firm discipline he soon gained his point. That there should be no excuse for absence, he employed a strong boy to blow a tin horn on the top of the highest hill, central among the cabins of the workmen, to call them to work, and at its sound the rapid gathering of the poor at the rendezvous, on all occasions, showed their willingness to be guided by any useful reform.
This command over a half-civilized class of men made his services very desirable in irregular districts; and among several places where he was beneficially employed was Drumshanaugh—a desolate spot where a knot of Molly Maguires held sway, and obtained payment without work, by intimidating the civil overseers, who feared the consequences of not yielding to their exactions. The farmers' sons and others who had plenty of cattle were receiving 4d. a day more than the people who really did work, and 300l. in this way were paid for bad labour not worth 50l. With these labourers he had a trying duty to perform; but, amid threats and insubordination, he calmly effected his purpose, and suppressed both the spirit of turbulence and the practice of fraud.
The labourers received from 4d. to 8d. and 9d. a day, and the rough wall builders 1s. 6d., in strict proportion to the work executed. When task-work was introduced, it was difficult to remove the prejudices which set in against the change, and quicken into zeal the indolence which followed. To carry out the instructions of the Board of Works, private Baker selected some of the mildest men of his party to work at easy tasks, by which they earned 11d. a day—3d. more than formerly. At the end of the week the overseer made a point of this, and paying his choice men first, made suitable remarks as they received their money. Next came the day-men, who being checked for wet days and lost time, only averaged about 3s. 2d. a week. The disparity of the payments had a wonderful effect, and ever afterwards the system of task labour was eagerly preferred by the peasantry.
Deception, however, soon crept into the tasks, which it required some tact and alertness to detect. In excavations, the labourers frequently came in contact with stone, and for such quantities as they dug out and heaped up, they were paid by the cubic yard; but often these heaps were merely superficial. In every such case private Baker had the mass pulled down and solidly repiled. Acts of repetition were followed by the dismissal of the delinquents, despite the danger it involved. When this cheat failed they resorted to another, by rolling large stones into the heaps from adjacent places; but as these always bore unmistakeable evidence of exposure to rain and wear, the private never omitted to reject them from the pile.
On several occasions when threatening notices of death were posted up prohibiting the civil overseers and check-clerks from returning to a particular line, a car was despatched, even at midnight, to bring private Baker to the excited district. Next morning, appearing at his dangerous post, unarmed, he would pacify or humour the desperados into order and tranquillity.
When a pay-clerk was discharged, the regular payments were for a time interrupted, and the labourers would clamour for a settlement. In Baker’s district there were four lines, three of which were superintended by civilians: the labourers on them were about 700. These threatened daily to go in a body to Boyle, and, should they fail to get their pay, to take the lives of the engineer and his clerks, and burn down the town. Baker represented the state of affairs to the authorities; and on his own recommendation obtained permission from Boyle to give checks for meal upon a tradesman in Carrick-on-Shannon. By this means he fed the people, and kept their irritation in successful check. These periods of disorder occurred two or three times, till pay-clerks were appointed to succeed those who were discharged or had resigned. The pay-clerks seldom paid without the protection of a sapper, who frequently, in instances of dispute, took the bag with its responsibilities and perils, and served out the wages himself. So well did private Baker manage the matter at a wild place in Cashel, that the labourers stood round like soldiers to receive their earnings; and to prevent litigation or seizure, the money was handed to the recipients through an aperture in the pay-hut.[[499]]
Frauds were very common; and when detected, the offenders were dismissed. Several civil overseers were, however, afraid to place themselves in opposition to the populace; and a sapper working on one line has in such instances been sent to another to perform the duty. This, of course, produced much ill-feeling against the sappers; but beyond a few threats and an occasional attack, the sappers passed from the country without material hurt.
The survey of Southampton was completed late this year for the Southampton Improvement Board. A detachment of the corps, directed by Captain Yolland, R.E., under the local superintendence of sergeant William Campbell, executed the work. The map, on a scale of 60 inches to a mile, occupies thirty-five large sheets, which have been magnificently bound in bureau folio, and placed in the municipal archives of the town. Sergeant Campbell attended at a meeting of the Commissioners on the 31st March, 1847, and presented the map, on the part of the Ordnance to the Corporation. The work is one of extreme beauty. A more artistical display of ornamental surveying does not exist. The stonework of the pavement, the styles of the public buildings, the masonry of the graving-dock, the undulation of the silt on the shores, and small streams of water running into it from the coast, the gardens of private houses, and the trees and shrubberies of the common, are all delineated with a minuteness of detail and beauty of colouring unexampled in any town map in England. Even the map of Windsor, which obtained the approbation of Her Majesty for its accuracy and exquisite finish, is much inferior to the map of Southampton. The draughtsmen were second-corporals Charles Holland[[500]] and George Vincent, with Patrick Hogan,[[500]] late royal sappers and miners, and Mr. Maclachlan.[[501]] The Commissioners of the town gave a unanimous vote of thanks to Captain Yolland, the sappers, and the assistants for the survey and map of the borough, and also expressed “the high sense they entertained of the great ability and unrivalled skill displayed in the execution of the work.” A committee was formed to take steps for rewarding Captain Yolland and sergeant Campbell “with an adequate testimonial of the Commissioners' high approbation of the work;” but the intended honour, on military grounds, was declined.[[502]]