Demands for men became so urgent as the siege progressed, that, while waiting for reinforcements from England, Gibraltar was called upon to furnish as many sappers as possible from its effective rolls. Accordingly on the 29th August, 48 men under Lieutenant Cumberland embarked on board the ‘Orinoco,’ and landed at Sebastopol six days after its fall.
Under Lieutenant Edwards, 51 non-commissioned officers and men from Chatham arrived at Balaklava in the ‘Adelaide’ on the 18th September; and then followed on the 5th October, the disembarkation at Scutari of the twenty-third company—93 strong—under Captain Siborne. This was the driver troop, a community of little jockeys, light in weight and sprightly in action, whose antecedents as ostlers, cabbies, grooms, and carters, rendered them so ductile in military equestrianism that, when inspected at Woolwich on the 17th August by Sir John Burgoyne, he pronounced their evolutions and the management of their horses to be very commendable. Captain Siborne had the merit of achieving this proficiency, as his adjutant did not join the troop until its arrival at Scutari. Eighty-eight horses were sent out in the ‘Assistance’ steamer with the company, nine of which were killed before the landing of the drivers. The stations of the troop were at Haida Pasha, Kulalee, and Scutari. The total force despatched to the East up to this time counted 1,127 non-commissioned officers and men.
Late in September the eighth company was removed from the docks. A month later the eleventh company was sent to the Karabelnaia, and took possession of the same store for a barrack. It was a cold and cheerless fabric, built on the wharf of the creek. At this time the fire upon it was considerably diminished. Two or three companies of the 18th regiment deputed to work with the sappers occupied quarters in the same range. These were the only troops except the allies quartered, at one time, in the dockyard. The French miners were cantoned in stores at the West end—the English sappers at the East. In the selection of barracks there was no occasion for national jealousies or bickerings, for neither district was a Belgravia; that of the French only possessing the designation without its style or a tithe of its comfort.
Working from the experience of the previous winter the Government entered into contracts in the summer for the immediate provision of materials for hutting the army in the Crimea. For a supply of such magnitude a forest was scarcely sufficient, and no less than thirty-four vessels of good tonnage were freighted with the residences. Between the 31st August and 10th October, all the ships were at sea, accompanied by 67 non-commissioned officers and men, chiefly carpenters, in charge. In the ‘Cochrane’ only one sapper had embarked, but in all the rest two each. The first vessels arrived on the 13th October luckily when the pressure in front had ceased, and then followed others in quick succession. Second corporal R. Lewis was appointed under the authority of a general order issuer of huts with an allowance of 2s. 6d. a-day from the 20th October. Two of the hutmen did not arrive until about the 31st December.
Between the erection of the huts and the demolition of the docks, the business of the sappers was principally divided. There were besides many other services which claimed their attention, such as dismantling the trenches and batteries, mending the roads, repairing hospitals, wharves, piers, waggons, &c., and surveying. A company was attached to each infantry division[[201]] of the army to attend to its exigencies. It was not however removed from its original hutting ground, except when the requirements of the division rendered it desirable. As this arrangement necessarily limited the command of the chief engineers in the direction of the energies of the sappers so far as any work not a divisional one was concerned, an explanatory instruction soon after followed.[[202]] Each company was considered as under the orders of the general commanding the division, and to preserve that command, the sappers when wanted for a public duty, were obtained for its performance on the authority of the commander of the forces communicated to the general officers of the respective divisions. In this way there was no check to the fullest employment of the corps, and the identification of particular companies with particular divisions was not without advantage.
With the allied expedition sent to attack Kinbourn in October there were sixty non-commissioned officers and men of the corps under Major Bent of the engineers. The British contingent was commanded by Brigadier-General the Hon. A. Spencer. On the 15th the disembarkation took place on a tongue of land stretching into the sea; and the troops were halted at a spot, which from its broken features and the presence of small patches of morass in its front, rendered it acceptable for a defensive position. Encamped on salient hillocks, the regiments were concealed from Russian observation by spreading their canvas on the reverse of the declivities. The line, traced by Major Bent and a French engineer, took advantage of the abounding irregularities of the ground, and was closed on the left by a species of hornwork with its two salients rising from the summits of two small mounds, and its flanks resting on the Licame sea. Into this “keep” it was intended, in the event of any mischance, that the troops should retire and hold it by intrepid fighting till the last man had returned to the ships. On the right of the line two small detached works were also traced on commanding heights to flank the front of the position and to be defended by pickets. In the night of the 15th the intrenchments commenced by each regiment throwing up the necessary cover in its immediate front. The “keep” and the outworks were also advanced; and wells, which produced excellent water at a depth of seven feet, were also sunk. Under the superintendence of the royal engineers and the company of sappers, the field defences, adequate for the protection of kneeling musketeers, were finished on the 17th. The excavation was six feet wide and three deep in which a banquette was formed three feet broad. When the land arrangements were perfected, the allied fleet opened a sharp fire on the old masonry fort and its two sand redoubts, mounting respectively 60, 11, and 9 pieces of artillery. A block of buildings in the fortress was speedily in flames, the old ramparts fell down, many guns were destroyed, and the carriages upon which they were mounted were shivered and disabled. To an attack so irresistibly conducted, the garrison about 1,200 strong soon capitulated with the loss of 60 killed and wounded, while the casualties in the Anglo-French fleet were insignificant. On the 20th the troops, none of whom took part in the fight, moved to the village; and on the following day, when the main body of the expedition marched to enforce a reconnaissance of the country, Major Bent, left in charge of the camp, set to work to repair the damaged barracks. At this and kindred services in which the skill of artificers was needed, the sappers laboured in unison with the French, and were warmly complimented for their “intelligence, zeal, and activity,” by the French general in chief. Major Bent and his company embarked on board the ‘Indian’ on the 29th October, anchored at Kazatch 2nd November, and soon after landed to share in the general employments of the camp. Their return to Sebastopol was followed by a communication from Marshal Pélissier, a copy of which is added, acknowledging the co-operation of the English with the French sappers in the restorations at Kinbourn.
Armée d’Orient.
Etat Major Général,
No. 815,
Au sujet de la