1851.
Malta—Portsmouth—Swan River—Brown Down batteries—Kaffir war—Strength of sappers at the Cape—Corporal Castledine—Attack on Fort Beaufort—Whittlesea, &c.—Skirmish near Grass Kop Tower—Also in Seyolo’s Country—Patrol—Fight at Fort Brown—Patrol—Storming Fort Wiltshire—Patrols—Action at Committy’s Hill—Gallantry of corporal James Wilson at Fort Cox—Patrols—Increase to the Cape by withdrawal of Company from the Mauritius—Sir Harry Smith’s opinion of the sappers—Eulogies concerning them by Lieutenant-Colonel Cole and Captain Stace, R.E.
The fourth company under the command of Captain Craigie, R.E., was removed from Portsmouth on the 3rd January, and sailed from Southampton for Malta, where it landed on the 17th of that month. This was a new station for the corps, and its employment there was recommended on the ground that its services would be of great advantage in the erection of the proposed fortifications, and in providing an efficient force for the purpose of defence, in the event of the contingencies of the times rendering its co-operation desirable. Head-quarters were established at Valetta, and a large detachment was sent to St. Clement’s to build new barracks. Much opposition was shown by the working people to the employment of the company for months after its landing, and even violence in some instances was resorted to. The press of the island also entered into the controversy, and the ‘Mediterraneo’ used its agency in strong editorial articles against the company to effect if possible its removal from the island; but the ‘Malta Times’ ably defended it, and successfully exposed the statements of its contemporary. Malignant as the ‘Mediterraneo’ was, it nevertheless concluded one of its articles thus:—“The sappers and miners are, we admit, a most efficient and therefore highly useful body of men everywhere.”
Immediately on the removal of the company to Malta another from Chatham succeeded it on the works of the royal engineer department in the Portsmouth district.
The small party of five men at Freemantle, Western Australia, was this year increased to a company by the arrival of ninety-five non-commissioned officers and men under Lieutenant Wray, R.E. The additional force was sent out to superintend the convicts in the erection and repair of the various public works and buildings, and to afford military protection to the colonists in the event of any demonstration of the convicts against authority or the settlers. The first detachment of sixty-five non-commissioned officers and privates embarked at Woolwich 10th September, 1851, under Lieutenant Wray, and anchored in Gage’s Roads 17th December, 1851. The second, under Lieutenants Crossman and E. F. Du Cane, R.E., of two sergeants and twenty-eight rank and file, embarked as a convict guard 21st October, 1851, and landed 2nd February, 1852. The number of women and children that accompanied the parties were seventy-one of the former and ninety of the latter, and ten children were born on the voyage. Located for a time as a sanitary expedient on a slip of land running into the sea, called Woodman’s Point, the company was removed, as soon as the restriction was rescinded, to Freemantle, where the projected works for the formation of the convict establishment at once commenced. Many of the men were appointed instructing-warders, with working pay at 2s. a-day each. The company was soon after distributed in small sections through the penal district, superintending the formation of labour depôts for ticket-of-leave men, or working at their trades at the different convict buildings, bridges, &c., and also in the making of roads. One man for many months assisted in the duty of exploring and surveying a portion of the colony under the Surveyor-General; and another—private John Cameron—did good service as a diver in recovering from the wrecks of vessels on the coast, treasure and valuable property.
An additional company was added to the Portsmouth district by the arrival at Gosport from Woolwich on the 10th December, of the second company under the command of Captain J. H. Freeth, R.E. The object of this reinforcement was to enable the commanding royal engineer to construct two large earthen batteries on the sea-shore at Brown Down, some two or three miles below Gosport. As soon as the works were completed, the company, early in April, 1852, was removed to Chatham for instruction in the field duties of the corps.
Hostile irruptions had occasionally been made on the frontiers of the Cape of Good Hope by the Kaffirs from the adjacent territories, and murders of peaceable subjects perpetrated, which rendered it essential to check by force of arms their incursions and their crimes. With that intention the first movement of troops took place in December, 1850. The opposition of the enemy was determined and furious, and there was every appearance in the onslaught to induce the belief that the contest would be severe and protracted.
At the period of the outbreak the total of the sappers in the colony, scattered to fifteen posts and forts on the frontiers, was about 200 of all ranks, and notwithstanding that their services were much required in carrying on the temporary defences in the several localities, they were, in this war, called upon for a more general co-operation than in any previous struggle in the colony.
From the unexpected firing of a field-piece from the tower of Fort Beaufort on the 20th January, 1851, it was feared that the enemy by some means had entered the place unobserved. Corporal Benjamin Castledine of the corps, without any delay, reported the circumstance to Colonel Sutton, Cape mounted rifles, and received his orders to assemble the troops under arms at their several posts. The order was promptly obeyed; but scarcely had it been effected when a reinforcement of the Graaf Reinet levy rode up, and the tumult was readily explained. The firing was given as a salute to the reinforcement by some imprudent civilians who had not communicated their intentions to the authorities. The people who had thus so alarmed the fort were arrested, so that the affair might be fully sifted; but while measures were being taken with this object by Captain Pennington and a detachment of the 91st regiment to secure the persons of the offenders, a concourse of people assembled at Colonel Sutton’s quarters, where his lady was alone and unprotected, and there deported themselves with gross outrage, at the same time demanding an entrance. Corporal Castledine arrived at the moment, threw himself between the garden-gate and the excited people, and effectually prevented, by his firmness and military bearing, the ingress they so valorously sought. The party then made off, but all concerned were afterwards arrested to await the result of a full inquiry into their conduct. At this investigation, the explanations given being sufficiently satisfactory to exonerate them from the perpetration of intentional alarm or of complicity with the enemy, the Colonel at once released them from restraint. The “Graham’s Town Journal” of the 8th February, contained some animadversions on the conduct of corporal Castledine in this matter, which led Colonel Sutton, in the impression of that Journal for the 22nd February, to vindicate in every particular the corporal’s conduct, and added “Corporal Castledine is one of those well-educated, respectable, and efficient soldiers which are only at present occasionally met with.... During twenty-four years’ service as a regimental officer I have never met corporal Castledine’s superior in his position—seldom his equal.”
In the attack on Fort Beaufort in which Hermanus was killed, corporal Castledine was posted with seven sappers in charge of a tower where the ammunition was kept, and commanded a 24-pounder howitzer mounted on it. The post of honour was given to this trustworthy non-commissioned officer in anticipation of an attack from Sandilli, who showed in force on the opposite side of the town. At the commencement of the action corporal Castledine was nominated to be garrison sergeant-major, and held the appointment until ill health compelled him to resign. This occurred in February, 1852, when Major-General Somerset, in a division order, acknowledged that “corporal Castledine had performed its arduous duties with the highest credit.” Colonel Sutton, for many months, was the only officer at Fort Beaufort, and on many occasions, when the nature of the service required his presence elsewhere, corporal Castledine commanded the garrison in his absence. Often he had to send escorts of provisions and ammunition to supply General Somerset’s division, which service was always so satisfactorily performed that both the General and Colonel Sutton repeatedly commended him for his judgment, promptitude, and zeal.