A severe retreat succeeded the battle, in which the party suffered very much. At Merida they were mustered on the 1st September. Lisbon was their head-quarters in November, at which time they were greatly scattered. A sergeant only was at Lisbon and the rest were distributed as follows:—one Abrantes, one Badajos, one Oeyras, four Sobral, and six Torres Vedras. Of the other artificers in Portugal, four were in the general hospital sick, and one a prisoner of war. The casualties since the opening of the campaign were six deaths, two missing, and two invalided to England.

The company of Maltese military artificers at Messina was increased in April by seventeen rank and file from Malta. On the 1st June following, sergeant Roberts and thirty-eight men of the company, were attached to the expedition for the invasion of Naples. Twelve of the royal military artificers also went with the expedition, and served under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel A. Bryce, royal engineers, in the reduction of the islands of Ischia and Procida.

Returning to Messina in August, six of the royal and eight of the Maltese artificers were added to the force under Brigadier-General Oswald, and were present, on the 2nd October, at the surrender of Zante and other Ionian islands. These parties continued at Zante until after the taking of Santa Maura in the next year.

The Maltese artificers being enlisted for a term of three years only, their engagements expired in the summer. Upwards of sixty men consequently claimed their discharge, and in July the third Maltese company was re-formed.

In the mean time a force of one sub-lieutenant—George Robinson—two sergeant-majors—Joseph Forbes and John Smith—ten sergeants, and about 280 rank and file[[158]] had been selected for an expedition to Holland under the Earl of Chatham, to destroy the fleet and arsenals on the Scheldt. The youngest and most active men were chosen for the service, and were provided with swords and belts. The greater portion were also armed with muskets, under an impression that they would have to fight their way on shore. The detachment was divided into two operations to proceed against Flushing and Antwerp; the former under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel R. D’Arcy, R.E., the latter under Colonel Fyers, R.E. Both brigades embarked the 19th July, and having landed near Goes and Walcheren, a small force was employed in the operations in South Beveland under Captain Squire, R.E., and the remainder, with Sub-Lieutenant Robinson, were engaged in the bombardment of Flushing. The meditated attack on Antwerp was abandoned. Private Anthony Webster was killed at the seamen’s battery on the 13th August, and two men were wounded.

During the bombardment, fifty of the detachment were permanently employed in making fascines and gabions, and about eighty carpenters prepared and put up the splinter-proof magazines and laid the platforms. The remainder were distributed to the batteries as sappers and miners or overseers. One of the batteries which was required in a hurry was worked solely by the royal military artificers, and completed in twenty-eight hours.[[159]] Generally they attended to the more difficult and dangerous portion of the batteries, and besides repairing the parapets and platforms, improved the embrasures when injured by the enemy’s cannonade.

In this service privates John Millar,[[160]] Thomas Wild, and Thomas Letts acted very praiseworthily in situations of great danger, and showed examples of courage, zeal, and attention to duty much beyond the rest of the detachment. On occasions when particular parts of the batteries were broken, these men fearlessly forced themselves into the embrasures to renew the work. The firing upon them was usually heavy. To effect their purpose with less interruption, they spread across the mouths of the embrasures, wet bulls' hides with the hairy surfaces to the fortress; and bearing as they did a resemblance to the newly disturbed earth, the enemy was deceived and withdrew their firing upon the work. The injured parts of the embrasures were thus restored with incredible dexterity. The two former were promoted to be second-corporals for their gallantry, and a similar rise was offered to Letts but he preferred to remain a private.

The conduct of the detachment at Walcheren is thus noticed by the Earl of Chatham:—“The active and persevering exertions of the corps of royal engineers have been conducted with much skill and judgment by Colonel Fyers, aided by Lieutenant-Colonel D’Arcy.”[[161]] Elsewhere their exertions in the construction of the batteries are stated to have been indefatigable.[[162]]

After the occupation of Flushing, the fever common to the country set in with peculiar virulence; and the royal military artificers suffered very severely. Employed as they frequently were in conducting excavations in marshy and unhealthy situations, nearly the whole of the detachment were seized with the malady and thirty-seven died. Sergeant-major Forbes was of the number.

By repeated removals of the sick, the detachment was reduced to about eighty of all ranks, who were employed, previously to the evacuation of the island, in the demolition of the basin of Flushing and the naval defences of the place under Lieutenant-Colonel Pilkington, royal engineers. Second-corporal Thomas Stephens was intrusted with the practical conduct of the destruction of one of the piers of the flood-gates. The task imposed on him was so ably executed, that when the explosion took place, the bottom of the pier was forced out and the superincumbent masonry fell without projecting a stone to any distance. Though only a second corporal he was appointed lance-sergeant on the spot for his skilful conduct.