1853.

Expedition to Central Africa—Private E. Swenny—Journey to Beni-Olid—Hospitality of the natives at Sokna—Black Mountains—Privations and exertions—Private John Maguire—Gatrone—Sufferings of the slaves in their march across the desert—Evidences of the number that perish—Trials of the expedition; halts at Kouka—Party with the department of Practical Art—Sanitary survey of Woolwich—Detachment for survey of Van Diemen’s Land—Additional commissions to the corps—Company at Alderney—Corporal James S. Taylor at New York—Company recalled from the Cape—Company to the Mauritius—Party to Melbourne—Inconvenience of its popularity—Epidemic at Bermuda—Detachment for the Mint at Sydney—Greatcoats.

Corporal James F. Church and private Edward Swenny, energetic and intelligent men, were appointed on the 19th February to join the expedition to Central Africa under Dr. Barth. The former was a carpenter, and the latter a surveyor and draughtsman acquainted with the management of philosophical instruments, and had, previously to his enlistment, travelled in Belgium, France, Algiers, and Milan. From political considerations they quitted in the character of civilians, but were armed each with a Colt’s revolver, a rifle, a double-barrel fowling-piece, a bowie knife, and an axe.

On the 20th February they embarked at Southampton, under Dr. Vogel, a young German astronomer attached to the expedition, and after a short stay on shore at Malta, proceeded to Tripoli, where they tarried for some months, devoting their leisure to learning the Arabic dialect, and familiarizing themselves with the mode of riding on camel-back. Corporal Church also mastered the use of the sextant, mountain barometer, azimuth compass, &c., so as to make ready observations with them.

From a dangerous illness private Swenny could not go on with the expedition, and was sent to England with high testimonials for zeal and ability from Dr. Vogel and Colonel Herman, the Tripoline consul. The ill chance which deprived the enterprise of his valuable services was much regretted by Lord Clarendon, who granted the invalid in addition to his salary a gratuity of 15l. His place was supplied by private John Maguire, a fine soldier and skilful mechanic, who was selected from among thirty-six volunteers of the company of the corps at Malta.

The caravan under Dr. Vogel was a large one of thirty-seven camels, carrying upwards of four tons of baggage and presents for the sultan of Bornou and other chiefs. The organization of the force, with the packing and distribution of the baggage, was chiefly confided to corporal Church, who in consequence of the temporary indisposition of Dr. Vogel set out in charge of the expedition on the 19th June, in company with Mr. F. Warrington, a gentleman well known in Tripoli, to Beni-olid, where he arrived on the 26th. There Dr. Vogel joined on the 2nd July, and a day or two afterwards the caravan was again in motion.[motion.]

At Sokna, midway between Tripoli and Moorzuk, a number of the natives approached them with greeting, and conducted them to an ample residence already prepared for their accommodation. A supply of provisions, consisting of melons, green figs, dates, two sheep, two large dishes of bazeen, and three dishes of some other compound, owning a name more curious than intelligible, was placed at their disposal. In the evening a similar presentation was made to them, and the like extravagant proofs of generosity were continued to the travellers for four days more. Presents were made in return to compensate for this hospitality; but the natives would only accept a few specimens of English cutlery in the shape of knives and razors. On quitting Sokna the governor and the people accompanied the caravan a short distance on the road, and took their leave of the adventurers with unequivocal demonstrations of sympathy and good will.

Next day the expedition entered the pass of Gible Asswaa, or Black Mountains, a region of dreariness and desolation. In every direction masses of basalt seemed to have been upheaved by some convulsion of nature, whilst in some places the rock had all the semblance of iron suddenly cooled after leaving the furnace. Much of the road was of the worst character for travelling, for it was not only hard and broken, but ridged with knife-like edges, which gashed the camels’ feet and lamed them. This sterile region extended for more than fifty miles without even a shrub or an insect to invite observation. To add to their trials, the travellers were four days and a-half without water save that carried by the camels, which from being constantly acted upon by the sun was always more than tepid and lost much of its relish. In these mountains the heat was excessive. When exposed to the full blaze of the sun the mercury in the thermometer rushed up speedily to 150°; and afterwards, when corporal Church withdrew the instrument from the sand in which he had buried it about six inches deep, the indication was 130°. After passing the Black Mountains, the corporal counted in one day nine skeletons of camels which had fallen in the waste from exhaustion.

The expedition now traversed a far-spreading plain, and being short of water, pushed on night and day by long marches for the well called Omhul-obid, or the Mother of Slaves. Before gaining it, they were wearied with sixty-six hours’ exertion in the saddle out of eighty, and the camel which Church had ridden from Tripoli, fell dead at Erfad from fatigue.

In a few days afterwards—5th August, 1853—the expedition reached Moorzuk, where private Maguire joined it on the 31st of the same month. This soldier, cool and confident, journeyed from Tripoli with three or four Arabs who were unable to speak a word of English. He was equally unable to exchange with them a word of Arabic. Gesture and grimace, therefore, were the means employed by him to communicate his orders and to express his feelings of satisfaction or discontent; but notwithstanding this impediment, he gallantly drove on, and in thirty-four days accomplished the journey under a fierce sun, without casualty and with credit.

On the 16th October the adventurers left Moorzuk, and had a toilsome journey as far as Gatrone, where they arrived on the 24th of the same month. Seven days Dr. Vogel and his sappers remained at this place to await the arrival of the rest of the lagging camels and stores. In that time they were joined by a caravan of merchants with about fourteen Arabs from Egypt, going to Bornou to purchase slaves.

While at Gatrone a batch of more than 700 slaves, nearly all women and children, passed through the place. The grown-up men in the drove did not seem to exceed twenty in number. All were in a miserably withered state, and many were panting and dying from fatigue and want. Already they had been driven across a desert between 600 and 700 miles, and had yet to go to Tripoli, nearly 700 miles more. Every step of the journey was to be tramped, and most of them had burdens to bear on their heads, of from fifteen to twenty pounds or more in weight, according to their strength. The slave-masters were very cruel to the wretched creatures, for, if they showed signs of lassitude or fell exhausted on the sand, the whip was applied with unmeasured severity to their naked bodies; and if the horrid scourging failed to move them on, they were abandoned to their fate, perhaps three days from the next well, to perish from raging thirst.

The expedition reached Teghery on the 3rd November, and resting for a few days, after collecting dates for the use of the camels, moved on the 7th into the Great Desert. In the first three days no less than 250 skeletons of slaves were passed, and fragments of bones were scattered about in such vast numbers on the route, that one could traverse the wilderness unguided, without much chance of missing the track. At the wells of Meshroo, about two days’ journey from Teghery, the ground had the appearance of an excavated cemetery, or the site of a well-contested battle; and to be free from these sickening relics of mortality, the doctor and his sappers pitched their tents for the night at a distance.

The travelling was carried on at the rate of twelve or thirteen hours a-day, without halting, which was equal to a journey of from twenty-five to thirty miles. This was reckoned to be very fair work, as camels usually only go over two miles and a half of ground in an hour. The average heat of the sun ranged from 125° to 130°, and beamed upon the wayfarers with so oppressive an intensity that their substance and their strength were wasted in excessive perspiration. In the evening they halted, spread canvas, and lay down for the night. The two sappers posted themselves in turn as sentries over the caravan, to protect it from injury or surprise. During the night, owing to the state of the atmosphere falling from its fiery day heat to a temperature sometimes as low as 45°, the men suffered from a feeling of extreme cold.

In this way the expedition journeyed for sixteen days without seeing a single native. For ten marches of the period they looked in vain for the slightest trace of herbage, but at a Waddy called Ekaba, a not very luxuriant oasis, they found a little coarse grass that afforded an acceptable change to the camels after feeding for ten days upon dry dates. On the 27th November the expedition was at Ashanumra, in the country of the tribes of Tibboo.

In due time the expedition reached Kouka where it remained for a while, as Dr. Barth had gone on to Timbuctoo. The return of the chief being uncertain Dr. Vogel explored the country in the vicinity of the lake, taking with him corporal Maguire. Corporal Church was left to carry on the meteorological[meteorological] observations. Contrary to expectation, Dr. Barth, who had been reported dead, returned to Kouka, and soon after, corporal Church accompanied him home. Whatever services may since have been conducted by Dr. Vogel—of which no account has been communicated to the corps, it is proper, nevertheless, to record to the credit of the corporal the very kind terms in which, under date the 4th December, 1855, the doctor wrote of him to the Consul-General at Tripoli:—

“I beg to recommend to your special notice my faithful companion John Maguire, royal sappers and miners, who has, notwithstanding a serious indisposition under which he suffered in the beginning of our journey, used every exertion to promote the object of the expedition, and behaved in the most praiseworthy manner.” For his services corporal Church received a gift of 15l. from the foreign minister and a silver watch from the Royal Geographical Society.

The small party under Captain Owen, R.E., at Marlborough House, was increased in February to five rank and file. On the completion of the referential arrangement of the correspondence and documents connected with the Great Exhibition, they were attached in May to the department of practical science and art, under the superintendence of Mr. Henry Cole. Since the transfer they have been engaged in services of a very miscellaneous character, embracing the distribution to national and public schools of examples and models for teaching elementary knowledge, form, and colour, mounting and tinting examples and prints, preparing models, &c., and officiating as clerks and draughtsmen in the offices at Marlborough House. Corporal Mack, in addition to his ordinary duties, produced two or three plans of an interesting character. In arranging some dietary tables Dr. Lyon Playfair engaged the assistance of the corporal. The ingredients used as food, extending to twenty-three substances, having been subjected by the professor to analysis, required to be classified into a simple and consistent arrangement. This the corporal effected by means of an ingenious diagram in colours. Dr. Playfair was well pleased with the illustration, and when at a meeting of the Royal Society, to which the corporal had the honour of being invited, the professor announced his intention of publishing it for the use of schools, the promise was received with applause. True to his intention, Professor Playfair afterwards produced the plan in colours on a very large scale, and gave it a distribution as wide as the United Kingdom. On the 8th June, 1853, the diagram was exhibited at the Mansion-house, and attracted much attention. A reduced plan of the illustration was also made for the Dean of Hereford, which forms the frontispiece to the sixth edition of his work on ‘Secular Education.’ Corporal Mack constructed another elementary diagram, commencing with the diet of an agricultural labourer and ascending to that of a convict. Singular to add, by this scale it appears that good diet is increased in the same ratio as crime; and the industrious husbandman fares worse than the felon!

Corporal Gardner, with an assistant sapper, had charge of the decorative furniture of cabinetry, silk tapestry, and drawings, exhibited at Gore House. He received the various specimens, assisted to arrange them, and was intrusted with the responsible duty of securing their safety. On his removal to the royal mint, to receive instructions in the process of coining, he was succeeded by second-corporal John Pendered, who retained the charge of the cabinetry until the close of the exhibition in September, 1853. He also had the care of Gore House estate and the adjoining grounds, purchased by the Royal Commissioners. Second-corporal Frederick Key, the foreman of carpenters at Marlborough and Gore Houses, superintended the construction of the fitments for the exhibition of cabinetry, and the necessary repairs to the interior of Gore House. The working pay of the party, in addition to their regimental allowances, was 2s. each a-day, but corporal Pendered was allowed 3s. a-day, in consideration of the extra charge confided to him in the care of Gore House estate.

On the 15th February was commenced the sanitary survey of Woolwich for the Local Board of Health by corporal James Macdonald, having under him a small variable party of sappers and civil assistants. The survey comprised that part of Woolwich lying south of the river Thames, and was finished in October, the work having been delayed for a few months by the withdrawal of the party for the military survey of Chobham. Corporal Macdonald was provided with outline tracings from the 5-feet initial plan of the metropolitan survey, enlarged to ten feet to a mile. These he carefully corrected, and filled in the details, embodying such other minutiæ as were necessary to assist the local authorities in effecting improvements in the drainage, &c. The whole work, so creditable to corporal Macdonald, mapped on about twenty full sheets, was done at the expense of the Woolwich Board of Health for 450l.

Under the authority of a royal warrant dated 24th February, a detachment of one sergeant, two corporals, and twelve privates was raised for the survey of Van Diemen’s Land, which brought the establishment of the corps to a force of 2,200 officers and men. In anticipation of this sanction, the party had been organized and sent to Hobart Town in 1852.

On the 1st April two Quartermasters were added to the corps by the Master-General—Lord Raglan. One was attached to the royal engineer establishment at Chatham, and the other to the companies employed on the ordnance survey. Major Walpole originated the former, Lieutenant-Colonel Hall the latter, and Sir John Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications, ably supported the suggestions by his recommendation. These commissions were bestowed to reward merit, and to place the corps on an equal footing of advantage with the royal artillery, which regiment, taking its published force at the time as a datum, gave one commission from the ranks for every 700 men.

The eleventh company was removed from Alderney to Woolwich on the 2nd June, owing to the diminished strength of the corps there and at Chatham, rendering the withdrawal expedient. For twelve months it had been stationed on the island, and during that period its services were confined principally to the construction of the Longy lines and to scarping the rock in front of them, with the view of making the place less accessible to invasion. The masons always had full employment, but the greater part of the company, failing work at their own trades, took service in the quarries, and furnished the stones for the fortifications. Private Simon Williams was noticed as the best and most successful cutter and builder. On the removal of the company, a small party was left for special duties as foremen and clerks.

An incident occurred in July which from its novelty is deserving of record. Private William Calder committed forgery and theft, and deserted from the corps. His movements being traced and his assumed name discovered, second-corporal James S. Taylor, fully acquainted with his delinquencies, was sent to the United States, provided with a warrant from the Foreign Secretary, to demand, under the Convention, the apprehension and extradition of the culprit. He had embarked at a Scottish port on board the ‘Dirigo,’ and as she was sailing up to New York, corporal Taylor, who had arrived in a steamer before her, boarded the trader, captured the thief, and found in his possession all the property he had stolen from his comrades and the Ordnance. The case was taken before Judge Edmonds—notable for his eccentric decisions—and, contrary to the clearest evidence, he discharged the offender, and insinuated, from some extraordinary reasoning he employed, that the corporal himself had committed the forgery. Protesting against the inference, with soldier-like forbearance and respect, he induced the judge to make a promise to cancel his unjust remarks, but his Honour, regardless of his word, afterwards published them without modification. The unmerited accusation, however, did not discourage the corporal from following up his duty; and he made two other attempts to secure the person of the deserter, by asking a remand until direct evidence could be adduced from England, but the partisan judge, proof against proof, ordered the unconditional dismissal of the thief, and thus afforded an asylum to a fugitive, whose character is a reflection on the verdict that shielded him from justice. The exemplary conduct of second-corporal Taylor, eulogized by Sir John Burgoyne and Lord Raglan, gained for him promotion to the rank of corporal. ‘The Albion,’ a New York Paper, of 3rd September, 1853, gave a spirited leader in vindication of the “soldierly honour” of the corporal; and added, that he “gave his testimony with an air and tone manly, direct, and irreproachable.” On the other hand, the forensic turpitude of Judge Edmonds was strongly condemned, for treating the prisoner as the victim of government persecution instead of a renegade charged with heinous and multiplied crime. The prompt measures taken in the case were intended not merely to punish the offender but to deter others of the corps intrusted with responsibility, money, and property, from the commission of similar offences; and though it failed to secure the delinquent, it opened up for future guidance a sure line of proceeding, which it is hoped there may never be occasion to resort to.

Soon after the close of the Kaffir war the ninth company was withdrawn from the Cape, and landed at Woolwich the 19th September. During its service in the colony, its casualties in action were ten men killed and eleven wounded.

On the representation of Lieutenant-Colonel Waters, commanding royal engineer at the Mauritius, a company was detached from head-quarters in May, which disembarked there on the 25th September. On landing, the fine appearance of the men, their size and soldierlike bearing, attracted the attention of the staff officers and officers of the garrison. In the afternoon they were entertained with a substantial repast, furnished by the spontaneous generosity of the company of royal artillery there. On the following day they were inspected by Major-General Sutherland, who complimented Colonel Waters by observing, “that they were the finest company of soldiers he had for a long time seen.” A testimony like this from the Major-General, who is known not to be satisfied with even mediocrity, was certainly flattering.

A party of three men embarked under Captain A. P. G. Ross, R.E., for the colony of Victoria, landed at Melbourne on the 14th October. Selected as they were with reference to their qualifications as mechanics and general intelligence, they had been appointed to oversee the skill and labour employed in the construction of works for the defence of the harbour, and the rapidly-increasing towns in its vicinity. The defence of the bay by the contemplated fortifications was reported by the Captain to be impracticable, and the party awaited for a time the decision of the provisional government on the point. Meanwhile the sappers were efficiently employed in carrying out some subordinate details connected with the Melbourne Exhibition. It was also proposed by the Harbour commission that works should at once be commenced for the extension of the wharfage on the river Yarra, to give importance and vitality to the shipping and commercial aspects of the colony. Tenders were even called for to carry out the work, but, difficult to satisfy the antagonistic views of a capricious legislature, the suggestion was indefinitely postponed[postponed]. Thereupon the Captain and his three sappers returned to England, arriving at Woolwich in the summer of 1855.[[118]]

The yellow fever, so frequently the scourge of the Bermuda islands was prevalent at St. George’s from August to November, and carried off its victims in greater numbers than in the fatal epidemics of 1819 and 1843. It commenced among the convicts in the ‘Thames’ hulk, and spread with frightful rapidity, first to the military and civil establishments, and then to the residences of the native population. The first soldier who died was a sapper, and before the sickness had ceased, no less than twenty-five men of the corps, out of a detachment of forty-seven of all ranks, became its victims. Three women and one child of the party also died. Colonel Phillpotts, the commanding royal engineer, and Lieutenant Greatorex, R.E., were among the dead, as also the wife of Lieutenant Whitmore, R.E. All the men of the detachment except three were attacked with the fever, and many suffered relapses. To relieve them as much as possible from the influence of infection, they were early removed from their quarters to an encampment on the north side of the island, near the naval tanks, and finally to Prospect Hill and Port’s Island. “Those who were able,” reports Captain White, R.E., “showed themselves to great advantage by the cheerful way in which they attended to the sick. Their exertions were above all praise.” Several opinions have been ventured relative to the exciting cause of the epidemic, but the general belief was, that from some disturbance in the position of the hulk by the pressure of strong winds and agitated tides, the atmosphere became impregnated with mephitic gases emitted from the accumulation of impurities around her bottom. Ireland Island, where a half company of sappers was stationed, was not visited by the calamity.

A warrant dated 15th of August, sanctioned the formation of a detachment of one sergeant, one corporal, three second-corporals and eleven privates, for service in the mint at New South Wales, which increased the corps to a total of 2,218 of all ranks. To fit them for the duty, they were quartered for several months within the royal mint, near the Tower, where the departments of the establishment were thrown open for their instruction. From a desire to monopolize the craft of the mintage to themselves and their families, the moneyers viewed the employment of the sappers in this confidential work with jealousy and opposition, and just imparted to their military pupils as much knowledge of the art as they cared to divulge. The party, however, made up by attention and observation for what was withheld from them, and promptly acquired full information with respect to the working of the machinery, and the various processes used in coining. Two or three of the smiths were also initiated in the method of adjusting weights and scales, and in the construction of balances and patent locks and safes. Instruction in these mechanical expedients was given them by Mr. Hobbs, celebrated for his exploits in picking locks before considered invulnerable. The first instalment of the detachment, consisting of sergeant Archibald Gardner and nine rank and file, embarked at the London Docks on board the ‘Maid of Judah,’ on the 3rd of December, 1853, and landed at Sydney in March, 1854.

The grey greatcoat, which for nearly half a century had been worn by the corps without improvement, was in November of this year superseded by a blue cloth greatcoat of the same cut and fashion as its predecessor, except that the cuffs for all ranks were abolished, the capes diminished, and the sergeants’ collars were of scarlet, instead of blue cloth.

1853.
CHOBHAM CAMP.

Nature of the ground—Position of the sappers—Their strength—Quarters and cantonments—Equipment—Duties and services—The survey—Marking out the encampment—Forming tanks—Wells—Lakes—Construction of stables—Camp-kitchen—Oven—Incidental employments; Royal pavilion; Queen’s road—Sentry-boxes—Post-office and postal statistics—Intrenchments—Submarine mining—Passage of Virginia Water—Her Majesty’s gracious acknowledgments of the conduct of the sappers in the operation—The second passage of the lake—Also of the Thames at Runnymead—Field-days—Inspections by the Queen—Breaking up the camp—Satisfaction of Colonel Vicars and Lord Seaton.

In common with the army, the royal sappers and miners furnished detachments for the camp at Chobham about four miles from Chertsey. The common where the encampment was formed was an extensive tract of waste, varied with hill and dale. The amplitude of the district, its freedom from enclosures, from wood or bush, or from barriers or hedges to mark the boundaries of individual or corporate properties, and its succession of swelling heights, well adapted it for the purposes of an instructional encampment, and for the campaigning evolutions of a concentrated force, assembled less for military parade and display than to realize in degree some of the chequered difficulties and vicissitudes which fill up the hard and comfortless career of an army engaged in the active operations of war.

The camp was established on the concave edge of the ridge. Each end was advanced, while the centre with a sweep receded, giving to the position a curved line approaching the segment of a circle. The detachment of sappers was tented south of the ‘Magnet,’ the name given to the hill where the head-quarters were established, and next to the left of the Coldstream guards, close to the road leading across the common to Bagshot. The line regiments which succeeded, fell back from the detachment. To be regimentally correct, the sappers should have been on the right of the Grenadier guards, but the position was chosen for the corps because it was central, prominent, and easily accessible to the troops requiring the use of entrenching tools and field implements. The division, consisting of a due proportion of cavalry, artillery and infantry, was under the orders of Lieutenant-General Lord Seaton, G.C.B. The sappers were among the first troops on the ground. As[As] soon as it was determined to form the camp, the party at Sandhurst—one sergeant and twelve rank and file—was directed to suspend its services at the college, and remove to the encamping district. It commenced work on the 21st of April and ceased on the 7th of May, when it returned to the royal military college to carry out the concluding operations of the term. Lieut. Drake, R.E., commanded this party.

To make a hurried survey of the ground one sergeant and eighteen rank and file were detached from Southampton between the 27th of April and the first of May, who, as the service permitted, returned in sections to the ordnance survey. A small party detained at Windlesham for special purposes, in connexion with the military survey, did not quit the district till late in July. Lieutenant Stotherd, R.E., directed the detachment.

Colour-sergeant Henry Brown and twenty rank and file from Chatham, reached the encamping ground on the 9th of May. On the 13th following, this detachment was increased to a company (numbered the 2nd) of three sergeants and eighty-seven rank and file from the royal engineer establishment, under the command of Captain Lovell, R.E. Lieutenant and Adjutant Somerset from Woolwich, joined the company on the 14th of June. The whole were under the orders of Lieutenant-Colonel Vicars, R.E.

To diversify the operations, a pontoon train was ordered to be attached to the division; and on the 20th of June, the sappers appointed for this duty commenced to move in detachments. The force consisted of drafts from the first, fifth, and eleventh companies detached from Chatham, and reached a total of

1quartermaster—George Allan,
1sergeant-major—William Read,
12sergeants,
16corporals,
3buglers, and
156privates.
189Total

under the command of Colonel Harry D. Jones, assisted by Captains H. St. George Ord, G. Ross, and W. M. Inglis, and ten subalterns of the royal engineers. The great bulk of the men arrived at Wellington camp on the 22nd of June, on which date the totals of the combined force of sappers counted 297 of all ranks.

A day or two after the pontoon operations at Virginia Water were concluded, the first company, with a detachment of the eleventh, quitted Wellington camp, and returned to Chatham the same day.

The second company at Chobham camp was relieved on the 22nd of July by the fifth company, with the greater part of the eleventh from the Wellington camp, and repaired that day to Chatham. The company was played from the ground by the band of the 79th Highlanders, who, from good feeling, volunteered to confer the honour; and as it passed the tents of the 79th three cheers from the assembled regiment testified its esteem and friendship for the departing company.[[119]] The total force then left for the field duties of the camp, exclusive of the surveyors, numbered 100 men of all ranks.

As some further pontoon operations were ordered to be executed, and the force at the camp was considered to be numerically inadequate for the duty, sixty-five non-commissioned officers and men were sent to the field from Chatham on the 25th of July, and after the completion of the work, they returned on the 28th to their destination.

The party from Sandhurst and colour-sergeant Brown’s detachment were billeted at Sunning-hill and Sunning-dale. On Captain Lovell arriving with his company at Shrub’s-hill, finding no billets or tents he stayed for three days in a barn at Bagshot Park House. On the 16th of May the company was for the first time tented on the skirts of Colonel Challoner’s wood, then on Sheep’s-hill, and lastly on the Oystershell-hill near the “Magnet.” The division under Lord Seaton reached the encampment on the 14th of June, when in allusion to the appearance and exertions of the troops as they took up their ground, a leading journal of the day observed, “that the sappers and miners, probably the most intelligent and best-educated men in our army, make the least external show.”[[120]] The pontoon train was encamped about one and a half miles from Virginia Water, near the Wellington Bridge, from which the camp took its name. The detachment of sixty-five men furnished to assist in the formation of the bridge across the Thames at Runnymede, was billeted during its short stay at Egham.

The camp equipment for the Chobham company embraced five marquees, fourteen circular tents, one hospital tent for officers’ mess, one for orderly room, one guard tent, and one store and ammunition tent, besides fourteen Flanders’ kettles. For the pontoon train there were four marquees, thirty-four circular tents, two hospital tents for workshops and stores, one laboratory tent, and twenty-five camp kettles. Each man was supplied with a wooden canteen, haversack[haversack] and blanket, but no bedding. Straw was afforded in abundance to sleep on. The men were distributed in parties of nine and ten to each tent, which permitted the senior non-commissioned officers to be provided with ample canvas accommodation, and some spare tents to be used for various incidental military purposes.

A detail of the duties and services performed by the sappers and miners in connexion with the encampment follows. In some of them they were assisted by small levies from the guards and the line. The senior non-commissioned officers were colour-sergeants Henry Brown, Noah Deary, and Timothy Sillifant, who throughout the service were indefatigable in their exertions, and their skill and contrivances were on many occasions found very useful.[[121]] In the early stage of the preparations, Viscount Hardinge inspected the camp on Sheep’s-hill, and expressed in a few pointed sentences his satisfaction of the appearance of the field, and the steps taken to render the accommodation of the troops as comfortable as the resources of the district would admit.

It was deemed indispensable that a map should be provided of the country 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 1,000l. 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.
Inwards33,783
Outwards29,614
———63,397
Second division—from 14th July to 20th August.
Inwards42,105
Outwards37,500
———79,605
———
Total 143,002
———

Of these the number of registered letters were 257, and the postage-stamps sold realized the sum of 123l. 17s. 3d. 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—

30cylindrical pontoons,
4india-rubber ditto,
1demi india-rubber ditto,
6carriages,

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.

The time occupied in the passage of the troops was fifty minutes, and on its completion, the bridge was speedily broken up into rafts. These, with the assistance of the India-rubber rafts, manned by the same detachment as on the 5th July, were afterwards employed in ferrying back the 38th and 93rd regiments at a spot 150 yards wide, below where the bridge had been constructed. This duty was also completed in fifty minutes. In all the operations, there appears to have been a remarkable coincidence of duration, which, had the facts not been carefully ascertained and recorded, would seem to be the errors of carelessness or inexperience.

In crossing the bridge, many of the horses of the Life Guards became unmanageable. Not a few of them got into a gallop and started off, sometimes as many as three abreast. Several of the artillery horses also were restive. Among so much violence and disorder, the sappers, who lined the bridge as before, had to bear their full share of accident and danger, and before the passage was effected, as many as twenty-five sergeants and rank and file were thrust overboard. All fortunately could swim, and soon made good their places on their respective rafts.

This day’s bridging closed the operations on Virginia Water. With the exception of seven rafts and the six carriages, the remainder of the pontoons and stores were packed up and removed to their original stations at Woolwich and Chatham. The seven rafts, &c., were soon afterwards conveyed to Staines, in readiness for ulterior service over the Thames.

On the 27th July another pontoon bridge was thrown, this time across the Thames, at Runnymede, celebrated alike for its historic claims and attractions, and for the beauty of the surrounding landscape. The point chosen was an angle of the river about a mile from the town of Egham, opposite Ankerwycke House. The operation bore some resemblance to that which took place on Virginia Lake on the 5th July. The sappers commenced their march at eight o’clock in the morning, and, proceeding with the pontoons along the Windsor and Staines roads, halted on the banks of the river at Runnymede at a quarter to eleven. At once the men set to work, and under the more natural circumstances of steep banks and a strong tidal current, unfelt at Virginia Water, threw in thirty-five minutes a bridge consisting of six rafts of twelve cylindrical pontoons in open order, twelve feet apart, and two half bays. To allow the operation to be conducted without interruption, a mimic battle was fiercely carried on some distance higher up the river, and to afford protection to the bridge as it approached the Ankerwycke shore, parties of the 79th Highlanders were rapidly rowed across in punts, which at the time were lying unemployed and captured for the occasion. Soon the combat was removed to the pontoons, and a heavy fusillade was for a long time kept up. Under cover of the guns of the horse artillery, fired from a commanding position, the troops poured over the bridge in a continuous stream, and followed the retreating enemy, with all the impetuosity of enthusiastic pursuit into Magna Charta Island. There the fight was hotly maintained, and ultimately won by the little band of mixed troops under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Vicars.

The troops that crossed the bridge were a battalion of the Guards, 4th Light Dragoons, the other battalion of Guards, 79th Highlanders, the Horse Guards Blue, and some batteries of horse and foot artillery.

An accident took place just as the last battery was crossing the bridge. The vertical motion of the rafts was such as to startle the horses, and some, from the dull reverberating noise produced by their tramp, coupled with the booming roll of the heavy wheels on the superstructure, became ungovernable, and six horses tumbled into the stream dragging with them a gun with its carriage and limber. As usual, the sappers lined the bridge with extended oars, and in the struggling of the horses, four of the men were swept into the current. Three of them were injured—two severely. These were privates John Piper and William Swann,[[126]] who were also nearly drowned. The latter was entangled with the horses in the water, and it was with great difficulty he succeeded in getting on the back of one of them, when he was picked up by the crew of a boat quickly manned for the purpose. Four of the horses were cleverly rescued by colour-sergeant William Jamieson and private Henry Collins, who dexterously cut the traces; but the two wheel-horses, borne down by the carriage, could not be saved. Privates Daniel Port, Henry Collins,[[127]] and Elias Garratt conducted themselves with intrepidity on the occasion by plunging from the bridge into the river to rescue the men and save the horses.

After the operation the sappers bivouacked on the ground, and dined on the day’s ration taken with them from the camp. The bridge was afterwards dismantled, packed on the waggons, and then accompanied the troops to Staines. The company belonging to the Chobham force did not reach its tents till eight o’clock in the evening.

On field days the sappers, together with a company of the Guards, on several occasions under Captain the Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, and a company of the 23rd fusiliers[fusiliers], represented the enemy under the command of Colonel Vicars, R.E. All acted as skirmishers; and when pressed by charges of the troops, formed squares, or resorted to such other simple manœuvres as were best adapted to their position and circumstances. On these days the expenditure of ammunition by the company was enormous; 100 rounds per man at least were consumed. On the first day of the pontooning at Virginia Water, the sappers, who were posted to prevent the passage of the troops by Blacknest Bridge, fired in an hour and a-quarter about 120 rounds a man. The firing of the main body of the division was always comparatively trifling. From the hard nature of the duties that devolved upon the enemy, the men composing it gained in camp the familiar designation of “The Kaffirs.” The last field day at Chobham was one of labour and fatigue to the men. They fired more than an average quantity of ammunition, and at its close the sappers marched at the head of the line in review, before the Duke of Cambridge and Lord Seaton. Their blackened faces, dingy accoutrements, and well-worn apparel afforded a striking contrast to the clean appearance, unsoiled appointments, and bright uniform of the passing squadrons and battalions; and it was no inappropriate commendation to say on this, their last camp inspection, that in their endurance, their hardihood, their wearied but dauntless aspect, they looked like “Polish patriots—few, but undismayed.”

On the 21st June and 5th July the Queen inspected the second company in common with the rest of the troops at the camp. The Prince Albert and Lord Hardinge accompanied Her Majesty. The King and Queen of Hanover were present on the first day. The fifth company and a detachment of the eleventh were also reviewed by the Queen and the Prince Consort on the 4th and 6th August. On the latter date Her Majesty did not personally inspect the troops. On all occasions of the royal presence at the camp, the sappers were in full notice of Her Majesty, for they possessed the advantage of occupying a position close to the Bagshot road, and next to one of the special entrances, which led the Queen and the royal cortege immediately past their tents to the “Magnet.”

After the breaking up of the camp, the sappers remained for four days to dismantle the stables and collect the stores. All the canvas was stripped off the stables, and packed in two days and a half, throughout which time the men were exposed to a ceaseless rain, which fell in torrents. The pontoons and carriages were conveyed to Chertsey, and embarked for Chatham. After completing these duties, the fifth company and the detachment of the eleventh, under Captain W. M. Inglis and Lieutenant W. C. Anderson, R.E., arrived respectively at Chatham and Woolwich on the 24th August. On that day Lord Seaton finally gave up his command. A party of one sergeant and eight privates—the last troops at the camp—detained for the closing duties of clearing the ground, and collecting and packing the Ordnance and Commissariat stores, joined at head-quarters on the 27th August. Novel and memorable was the reappearance of these companies with the corps, for both officers and men had doffed their plumes, and substituted for them bunches of blooming heather, gathered from the ridges and valleys of the now famous Chobham. On their route to Chertsey they were met by Colonel Vicars, who complimented them for their excellent conduct and exertions during the period of their encampment, and expressed to them the satisfaction of Lord Seaton for their alacrity and readiness at all times to meet the wants of the service. This testimony was afterwards corroborated in a letter dated Hyam’s, 25th August, 1853, to Lieutenant-General Sir John Burgoyne, in which his lordship, after alluding to the active assistance of the officers of royal engineers, and the detachment of the corps of sappers under the command of Colonel Vicars, added “that their conduct and exertions on all occasions have been most satisfactory.”