The three companies which marched to Aldershot under Major Nicholson were inspected with the division at the camp on the 15th July by Lieutenant-General Knollys. Next day all the troops that had served under fire in the Crimea were inspected by the Queen. The 17th was a day of review, when all the sappers, including the 21st company, had again the honour of appearing before the Queen. The companies manœuvred with the troops as a battalion of infantry, and though they had not been regularly drilled for some years, their steadiness was very remarkable. In line their movements were not inferior to any troops on the field, and Her Majesty did not permit the occasion to pass without expressing her approbation of their appearance. Driving through the camp on the 18th, the Queen pulled up at the quarter occupied by the sappers and directed Major Nicholson to bring before her some of the men who had distinguished themselves during the war. The order, suddenly given, did not admit of making the best selection, and a number were instantly paraded. Major Nicholson explained their services, and “the Queen was graciously pleased to express herself in terms of great admiration of the devotion shown by this branch of the service;” and after speaking a few never-to-be-forgotten words to each man, Her Majesty ordered the Major to send a list of those whom she had seen to Osborne. The non-commissioned officers and privates who were thus honoured and whose names are among the royal documents are the following:—
| Colour-sergeants |  | John Coppin. |
| Joseph Stanton. | ||
| Kester Knight. | ||
| Sergeants | | William Harvey. |
| Andrew Greenwood. | ||
| John Paul. | ||
| Corporals | | Robert Purdy. |
| William J. Lendrim. | ||
| William Trimble. | ||
| Second-corporal | William Baker. | |
| Privates |  | Neil McInnes. |
| William Orr | ||
| William Bruce. | ||
| John Perie. | ||
| Henry Bullen. | ||
| Frederick Dimmer. |
Most of the above had been decorated with medals or orders for bravery and unfailing zeal in the trenches. “Upon the sappers undoubtedly devolved the hardest work of the siege,” and Major Nicholson in his several personal interviews with the Queen was gratified to find that their services were fully appreciated. Desirous of retaining the recollection of their merits, Her Majesty ordered as an additional mark of her royal favour that four of the distinguished men should be photographed by Mr. Cundall of Bond Street. Those selected for this special distinction, and whose likenesses are among Her Majesty’s Crimean portraits, were—
| Colour-sergeants | { | Joseph Stanton. Kester Knight. |
| Sergeant | John Paul. | |
| Private | William Bruce. |
Eight sappers embarked in the ‘Clarendon’ on the 9th July at Balaklava. The troops on board were 150 and the horses 111. Lieutenant Graham, R.E., was in command. Buffeted and strained by a heavy gale the transport sprang a leak; but wearing on till the next day at noon—when the water had extinguished the fires—the troops, no longer able to remain with safety, were removed in boats without casualty to the French merchant ship ‘Constance’ off Cadiz. Several horses, however, had been killed during the storm, three of which belonged to officers of engineers. The ‘Clarendon’ after running ashore six miles to the westward of Cadiz was next day got off and towed by two steamers into the harbour with nine feet of water in the hold. In the ‘Constance’ the sappers remained about a week, from which they were transferred to H.M.S. ‘Centaur,’ and sailing for Portsmouth landed on the 12th August, arriving soon after at Chatham.
The last detachment from the East was one of 34 non-commissioned officers and men, which embarked at Scutari in the ‘Resolute’ on the 31st July, under the command of Lieutenant Malcolm of the engineers, and marched into head-quarters on the 17th August.
To complete the detail of Eastern statistics which have already been shown to the 9th September in a previous chapter, the following statement of casualties is added:—
| Number. | ||
| Died from injuries | 1 | |
| Died from other causes | 18 | |
| — | 19 | |
| Taken prisoner | 1 | |
| Wounded severely | 1 | |
| Injured by explosions | 2 | |
| — | 4 | |
| Invalided, of whom 6 died | 82 | |
| Total | 105 | |
The total casualties from the beginning of the war to the date when the last detachment quitted the Bosphorus was 550 out of a strength of 1,644 of all ranks; and if anything is calculated to excite remark and amazement it is the fact that out of so large a force only 252 had died!
Two months after Kars had fallen, second-corporal Edward Stephens and Thomas McEneney left England on the 28th January for Erzeroum to make special surveys of the city and its environs. At Marseilles they took passage on board the ‘Sima,’ and on arrival at Scutari waited till telegraphic instructions had been received, which directed them to proceed to Trebizond. Embarking on board the Lloyd’s Austrian boat ‘Egitto,’ the vessel pushed into the Black Sea, and three days after, while passing Karasund, struck on a rock and remained fast. Amid the alarm and consternation which followed, the corporals sustained the British character for firmness and courage; and seeing that boats were approaching from the little watering village, quickly got their vast stores and luggage on deck and removed them to the shore. While doing so they had to stand with bared swords at the gangway to prevent the property in their charge being tumbled into the sea; for although there was no danger to be apprehended, the rush to the boats was such as might have been expected had the ship given signs of immediate sinking. At the command of the Pacha of Samsoon, who was on board, a Turkish war steamer on the third day arrived, and pulling the ‘Egitto’ from the rock, she sailed for Trebizond. Landing there, the corporals were provided by the consul with every requisite for their journey. Fifteen horses was the measure of transport allowed for themselves and stores, and off they started for Erzeroum through a country strangely wild and picturesque. Theirs nevertheless was a long and dreary ride over mountains—one having an altitude of 9,000 feet above the sea—with the snow in places rising by drift into piles from two to twenty feet in height. Along precipices where the path was barely two feet broad they rode for an hour at a time, from which an inauspicious slip might have dashed them down the cliffs a thousand feet below. Skeletons of horses were bleaching by hundreds at the base of those terrific heights, which told a melancholy tale of accident and death. After a journey of thirteen days over tracks unimproved for centuries, they arrived at the seat of the pachalic on the 21st March 1856, and reported themselves to Colonel Geils, H.M. commissioner and chief engineer with the army of Anatolia. In a day or two the corporals had full employment. Stephens was sent ten miles away to reconnoitre an advanced position for a Turkish entrenched camp, and McEneney was despatched to Alti for a similar purpose. While these warlike reconnaissances were in execution the news of peace reached Erzeroum on the 11th April, and the surveyors were recalled to carry out services in the city and vicinity. When the last accounts were received in England the corporals were about to be employed, one in laying out a line of road from Erzeroum to Persia, and the other to Trebizond. What specific services they accomplished in connection with this or other objects are unknown at head-quarters. Enough, however, has been communicated to show that they have added, by the efficiency of their labours, to the reputation of the corps. Under date of the 3rd June, Colonel Geils wrote to Lord Panmure concerning them in these terms: “The party of surveyors have been at work from eight to twelve hours a-day since their arrival, with the exception of one Sunday. I have now had an opportunity of testing their abilities, and find them excellent draughtsmen and experienced surveyors. Their rank produces most disagreeable results when brought into contact with Turkish officers. These corporals are superior in military acquirements to most high officers in the Turkish army. Their character has been severely tested and found to be unexceptionable, and I think Her Majesty’s service would profit by their being commissioned officers. I consider the step advisable on the score of merit, even more than expediency.” And as if to fritter away this anomaly to the greatest extent in his power, the colonel promoted them to be lance-sergeants.