Barrels for the purpose—four feet long by two feet at the swell—were obtained from a wine manufactory in the village; chestnut planking, nails and bolts from different houses; trees from the adjacent plantations to form the framework and shore piles; and bars of iron grating, taken from the vaults of a country churchyard, were converted into a chain of 20-inch links, and stretched across the river. This chain was fastened at one bank to a huge fragment of rock, brought from a distance by means of a hastily-constructed sledge; and at the other it was held firmly by one of the ordinary methods. The number of casks employed in the formation were thirty-five, arranged in five floats or piers of seven each, two piers being lashed together at each end of the raft, 18 feet from either shore, and one in the centre with a space between of 12 feet from either float. The piers were fixed in strong cradles or frames, and by simple connections each maintained a reciprocal bearing upon the other. From the low or south shore the raft was approached by a jetty 120 feet in length, resting on young trees driven into the soil in a double row, 8 feet wide and 10 feet asunder; and from the other by a wide gangway supported on a sunken rock, which was heightened to the required altitude by a pier of stout masonry built at the moment. The superstructure consisted of planks secured to frames, and also to baulks longitudinally laid on the floats; and when all was completed, the bridge was held in position by means of poles, 8 feet in length, running from the piers and linking to small double chains, which again were moored to the great chain cable by a series of stout hanger hooks. The slopes to the raft at each end were easy and natural, and contrivances were effected which permitted the bridge to ride with the tide without disarrangement. On both sides a hand-rail was placed for the convenience of the troops, which gave it a neat and finished appearance; and though executed with the hurry which a pressing movement demanded, it was so firmly put together that it fulfilled in every respect the objects of its construction, without even sustaining a break from the force of the current or fury of the storm.[[202]]
The above company with its sub-lieutenant, and the eighth company, second battalion, struck camp in February and moved forward with the army. The former company was attached to the column under Sir Rowland Hill, and the latter to Marshal Beresford’s. Both companies, numbering 130 of all ranks, were present at the battle of Orthes on the 27th of February, but their services in the action were of little importance. A portion of the companies being attached to the pontoon train, assisted to re-establish the ruined bridge of Berenx during the night of the 26th; and on the 27th, a small party under sergeant Thomas Stephens, who had distinguished himself in the demolition of the flood-gates at Flushing, destroyed a barricade in front of a bridge which led into the town of Orthes. In this little rencontre, sergeant Ninian Melville and private Samuel Needham were wounded, the latter mortally.
These companies, still attached to the advancing army, aided in forming the several pontoon and flying bridges required for the passage of the troops, both on the march from Orthes and just before the battle of Toulouse. In this action, fought on the 10th of April, the two companies were present, but were not required to perform any service worthy of especial remark.
During the winter of 1813, the seventh company, second battalion with Sub-Lieutenant Wallace, was detached to St. Jean de Luz to prepare a bridge for the passage of the Adour; and early in January, Sub-Lieutenant Stratton with the second company, second battalion, was sent to Socoa to hasten its completion. These companies with the artificers of the guards and staff corps, and large parties of the royal navy, worked incessantly at the undertaking under the direction of the engineers.[[203]]
In the middle of February, the necessary apparatus and stores being ready and every preliminary arrangement completed, the greater part of the two companies were shipped on board the chasse-marées, intended to form the bridge. In two vessels six sappers were embarked, in others three, but the majority carried only two, who were destined to cut “away the waste boards to render the deck level, and also to spike down the timber, prepared with grooves to receive the cables, the moment the vessels should be moored.”[[204]]
On the night of the 22nd, the flotilla put to sea and encountered some stormy weather on the passage. In the afternoon of the 24th it neared the Adour, when the sea, tossed into foaming waves by a driving gale, wore an aspect of peculiar danger. A high and angry surf being on the bar and the tide furious, many of the native crews ran below in terror and refused to navigate their boats. Several fell on their knees and spent much of their energy in earnest devotion. At length, urged to their duty by the angry threats of the engineers and sappers, most of the masters yielded a reluctant but desperate submission, and steering into the channel, one vessel after another cut through the frightful breakers and soon gained the position chosen for the bridge.
This hazardous service was not accomplished without loss to the sappers. In an instant, one vessel was engulphed on the bar, and second-corporal Patrick Power and private John M‘Knight, perished. Another vessel had safely outridden the surf, but was overtaken by an overwhelming wave that dashed her to pieces. In this wreck, corporal James Gorman and private William Bunn were washed to the shore, and after several hours' insensibility and exposure to cold, reached their company in a miserable plight, the next morning.
In forming the bridge, the chasse-marées were anchored head and stern, about 30 feet apart; and as soon as the washboards were cut away and the grooved timbers spiked to the decks, the cables were stretched across the vessels from shore to shore, and the planks or superstructure quickly lashed to them. On the right bank of the river, the ends of the cables were secured to some 18-pounder guns half buried in the marsh; and on the left bank were hauled taut by mechanical ingenuity. From the violent heaving of the vessels it was unsafe to fix the planks in the intervals between them, but there were not wanting men who thought less of the danger than the prompt execution of the service. With skill equal to their assiduity, the companies laboured in completing the bridge, even working throughout the night, and the structure was fully ready for the passage of the troops on the 26th of February.[[205]] The boom was laid by the navy and completed soon after the bridge.
Admiral Penrose, in his despatch of 25th February, thus notices the services of the sappers, “That so many chasse-marées ventured the experiment, I attribute to their having been one or more sappers placed in each of them, and a captain and eight lieutenants of engineers commanding them in divisions[divisions].”[[206]] The Admiral further stated, “that the sappers not only proved themselves good soldiers, but intrepid seamen.”[[207]] Major Todd of the royal staff corps, who assisted in planning the bridge, informed the author of the ‘Peninsular War,’ “that he found the soldiers, with minds quickened by the wider range and variety of knowledge attendant on their service, more ready of resource, and their efforts, combined by a more regular discipline, of more avail, with less loss of time, than the irregular activity of the seamen.”[[208]] Honourable mention is also made by the great historian of the intrepidity of the sappers; and in winding up his remarks upon the operation, he writes, “this stupendous undertaking must always rank amongst the prodigies of war.”[[209]]
The subsequent charge of the bridge being confided to the royal staff corps under Major Todd, the two companies of sappers were removed to Bayonne to take part in the siege. Including the second company fourth battalion with sub-lieutenant Millar under Captain Blanshard, R.E., which arrived from Portsmouth in the ‘Warren’ transport, and landed at Passages on the 16th March, the royal engineers had collected for the blockade four sub-lieutenants—Wallace, Gratton, Stratton, and Millar—and a body of nearly four hundred well-trained sappers and miners,[[210]] who were chiefly employed as overseers in conducting the execution of the required fieldworks. A strong party was on duty in the trenches when the sortie was made from the citadel on the night of the 14th April, but no casualties among the men were reported. Throughout the operations the sappers and miners, from their skill and exertions, gave the highest satisfaction to their officers.