First of the fourth battalion:
and they were employed in constructing indispensable fieldworks, or improving the fortifications at Ostend, Ghent, Nieuport, Tournay, Oudenarde, Boom, Escaneffe, Antwerp, Lille, Liefkenshoek, and Hal. Not less than 20,000 civil labourers with very strong military parties, were employed on the line of works extending from Ostend to Mons, and it was due to the intelligent manner in which the sappers carried out the duties of overseers, that this important field operation was so efficiently executed. Hal was the depôt from which the engineer brigades were equipped. The three companies in the Low Countries, before the campaign opened, were the fourth and fifth of the second battalion, and the fourth of the third battalion. The total strength of the whole ten companies reached the following numbers:—
| Sub- | Second | |||||
| Lieuts. | Sergeants. | Corporals. | Corporals. | Drummers. | Privates. | Total. |
| —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | ——— |
| 10 | 35 | 32 | 42 | 19 | 644 | 782[[222]] |
The Sub-Lieutenants were A. Ross, J. Sparks, W. Stratton, P. Johnston, W. Knapp,[[223]] J. Armstrong, A. Turner, C. Gratton, J. Adam, and E. Sanders.
—
In order that the organizations of every description with the army should be as complete as forethought could make them, the Duke of Wellington recommended the employment of two companies of seamen as pontoneers. No exertions were omitted to give effect to his Grace’s wishes, and 200 hardy man-o'-war’s men, with Captain Charles Napier, R.N., at their head, were speedily embarked in the ‘Euryalus’ to join the army as bridgemen for the campaign. Meanwhile the Duke, who was unaware of the extensive character of the instruction imparted to the sappers at Chatham, was informed, that the companies of the corps in the Netherlands had, for the most part, been trained in the art of constructing military bridges, and had acquired an expertness in all the details and management of floating equipments under the careful tuition of Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley, that promised to equal the most gigantic requirements of the service. His Grace, only too glad to learn this agreeable intelligence, revoked his original intention, countermanded the landing of the seamen, and thus the duty of forming the bridges for the passage of rivers, was wholly confined to the royal sappers and miners.[[224]]
At the battle of Waterloo the royal sappers and miners were not engaged. Three companies, however, were brought conveniently near to act in the event of their services being needed; and two companies with the pontoons, were quartered at Malines. Of the former companies, the first company, fourth battalion, is considered to have behaved with discredit in quitting the field without sufficient reason, and losing, in the precipitancy and confusion of the march, its baggage and field equipment. But the stigma seems to have been attached to the company without an adequate investigation of the circumstances under which the retreat was imperatively resorted to.
The details of the affair are as follows:—On the 17th June the company moved from Hal by Braine-la-leud towards Waterloo, marching the whole of the night, and was on the position when the action commenced on the morning of the 18th. After a time, it was ordered to the rear by Major Sir George Hoste, and accordingly it marched to the furthest end of the village of Waterloo under Lieutenant W. Faris and Sub-Lieutenant R. Turner. There the company remained till between three and four o’clock P.M., when Lieutenant C. K. Sanders, R.E., joined it. About this time a brigade of Hanoverian artillery and cavalry, and several of the British cavalry, were retiring. The latter had vainly laboured to penetrate the retreating crowds, and informed Lieutenant Sanders that the French were at the other end of the village. In a wood on the right, discharges of musketry were heard, and both officers and men, who hurried away from the battle, corroborated the general testimony, that the enemy not only had possession of the wood, but in a short time would cut off the British from the road. Still incredulous of the alarming rumours which reached him, Lieutenant Sanders sought more decisive information as to the reported advantages of the French, and at length, satisfied with the additional affirmations of hundreds of officers and soldiers, who threatened in their flight to overrun the company, he at once ordered it to retire. The circumstances fairly justified this step. But the company had not proceeded far before it was unavoidably thrown into difficulties and disorder. To relieve itself from the masses was impossible. Driven in rear, and encompassed by overwhelming numbers of different regiments, it was borne along at a very rapid rate, in the vortex of the confusion. By the presence of cavalry and cannon, and of capsized waggons and baggage, its march was interrupted and its files broken. Many of the men, therefore, who could not keep up were dispersed among the fugitives; the brigade of waggons, stopped by insuperable obstructions on the road, was abandoned, and the company thus routed lost many of its knapsacks and most of its intrenching tools, baggage, and horses.[[225]] Such are the facts of this ill-understood affair, which deserve to be viewed more with regret than animadversion; but Colonel Carmichael Smyth, jealous of the honour of the corps, and feeling this apparent taint upon its character, was highly displeased, and refused to recommend the officers and[and] men of the company for the Waterloo honours and advantages.[[226]]
Another company ordered to Waterloo on the 18th June, gained much praise for its firmness and regularity in pushing up to the field. This was the eighth company, second battalion, under Sub-Lieutenant Patrick Johnston. At 2 o’clock on the morning of the 18th it marched from Antwerp, and on arrival at Brussels Lieutenant Johnston, finding that the captain of the company as well as the commanding royal engineer and his staff were in the field, at once moved on for Waterloo. Crowds of wounded soldiers, anxious runaways, dismantled waggons and cannon, greatly impeded the march. From all he met he received the most discouraging advice, but amid the general panic and the numerous obstacles he had to contend with, he resolutely pursued his march and reached the village of Waterloo at 4 o’clock P.M., in a state that reflected great credit upon the discipline and perseverance of the company. Late in the evening, after firing had ceased, as there were many inducements to plundering and straggling, Lieutenant Johnston withdrew the company a short distance on the Brussels road, and placed it in an empty barn till next morning, when it commenced its march for Paris. In applauding the company for its steadiness and order under trying circumstances, Colonel C. Smyth alluded in a particular manner to the meritorious conduct of Lieutenant Johnston. Neither the officer nor his men were considered entitled to the Waterloo medal and extra service; and for several years afterwards many of the company claimed these advantages with unprecedented pertinacity, but without effect.
“The experience of former defects in the Peninsula,” wrote Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley, “led to the more perfect organization of the field establishment of the royal engineer department.” On the 20th June orders to effect the arrangement were issued by Colonel C. Smyth. “ Every division of the army had one engineer’s brigade attached to it; each brigade consisting of a complete company of well-trained sappers and miners, with drivers, horses and waggons carrying entrenching tools sufficient to employ a working party of 500 men, besides a proportion of artificers' tools, and other engineer stores.”[[227]] The number of companies so distributed was six. “A captain and a certain number of subaltern officers were attached to each brigade, and were responsible for the discipline of the men and efficiency of the horses,” &c.[[228]]