History of the Royal Sappers and Miners, Volume 2 (of 2) / From the Formation of the Corps in March 1712 to the date when its designation was changed to that of Royal Engineers

by T. W. J. Connolly

For the two attacks there were fifty sappers provided at dusk to shore up the works and mend the breaches in the parapets during the night. Some of the troops who occupied a dangerous post in front to guard the trenches fell asleep, and thus failed to fire into the embrasures of the Redan. This arose from a misconception of orders. It is worthy of record, nevertheless, to show how cool were those brave men who, only a bow-shot from danger, as if in undisturbed possession of an English barrack-room and unaffected by care, reposed on the banquettes. The working party on the right attack in No. 9 battery evinced great want of spirit in the measures necessary to repair it. A ruinous fire had broken it up and knocked down its embrasures. Much exertion was needed to make it equal to the struggle, and the party quitted at the time for relief, without having made that progress which it was calculated would result from the number of men appointed to make good the damages. The corporal of sappers in charge of the workmen who was consequently involved in their inactivity, was subjected to the penalty he merited. Lieutenants James and Somerville were the engineers responsible for the restorations on the right, and they had under their orders thirty-two sappers. Half of the number had been taken from the ninth company newly arrived from England. This being their first time in the trenches they scarcely understood their duty in the impromptu way in which war teaches it; but yet, they left the advance that night with approbation. Corporal David Simpson of the ninth company, was conspicuous for his tact and coolness in mending an embrasure at grey light in the morning, while shells fell wide of the devoted man who filled up the gap. Lord Raglan awarded him two sovereigns in token of his satisfaction. Throughout the night the cannonading was continued principally by vertical fire and additional damage was done to the works; but, with few exceptions, the injuries were repaired, and all the embrasures supplied with sound gabions and sand-bags before daybreak. Even the batteries which kept up their fire were attended to, and the shattered baskets and tubs, and the torn hides and sand-bags, were replaced during the intervals of the several rounds. No time was lost, no exertion withheld, to give an appearance to the general works of freshness and strength. The sapper carpenters repaired the various platforms in the 21-gun battery and the roof of the right magazine of No. 9 battery, which, struck by a shell, was much shaken. Alexander Montgomery, the sergeant in executive charge of the sappers on the right—who had served in many a fight as a military adventurer in maintaining the royal cause both of Portugal and Spain against insurgents ranked on the side of powerful pretenders—was commended by Major-General Jones for his zealous conduct and intelligent assistance to his officers.

A party of sailors thrown into the trenches worked exceedingly well. Indeed, without their help the repairs to the 21-gun battery could not have been completed. The man-o’-war’s-man labours in his own way, and does it with so much heartiness that, however singular and incautious may be his modes of proceeding, he achieves his end in time. Five of the seamen were wounded, but none of the sappers, though equally exposed, were hurt.

Just as the sappers were paraded at the engineer hut in the first parallel to return to camp, an artillery officer appeared and represented that the embrasures of No. 11 battery—the only work which raked the picket-house ravine—needed immediate attention. The news was not pleasant to men who had performed a fatiguing night’s labour. Feeling the hardship of this extra duty, the engineer officer was disinclined to order any of his sappers to undertake the repairs, and so, calling for volunteers, his wishes were instantly met by several willing men offering for the service. Such unhesitating renunciation of themselves was deservedly applauded. Corporal Joseph Lockwood, lance-corporal Samuel Varren, and privates John Jaffray and Charles Carlin, passing from No. 5 by the trench which rounded No. 9, pushed onwards by the continued communication into No. 11, and leaped into the embrasures. In about two hours, with such old materials as they could find, they patched up the shapeless cheeks in as solid a form as the urgency of the occasion permitted. The repairs were necessarily of a rustic character, for wooden and iron gabions, sandbags, fascines, earth, and loose stones—the available litter of the battery, in fact—were all employed in tinkering the breaches. From the moment the Russians perceived the sappers in the openings, a steady fire of Miniés was maintained against them, and a couple of furious shells burst in their rear; but they passed untouched from the trenches, and their exertions and resource were acknowledged by Major-General Jones in brigade orders.

The works of the adversary which had been uprooted by the fierceness of the besiegers’ fire were rebuilt and rearmed in the night. There were some, however, which seemed to totter on their bases. Wondrous must have been the energy employed to give completeness to such a series of extensive formations as comprised their defences. There was, let it be acknowledged, a Vauban in the fortress. Todleben was he, an ardent and skilful general and engineer, whose genius made him equal to any pressure and capable of compassing any amount of devastation. We, too, had Vaubans, disciples of the most approved military masters; and the solid field structures founded by their talent and directed by their skill and sleepless industry, prove their worthiness to rank with the best engineers of any country. It only wanted this unprecedented siege to make clear that which, for forty years, was an open question.

No working party was furnished for the left attack on the 7th. There were, however, 54 sappers in the trenches who mended the embrasures and threw up the rock by mining in different places in the third parallel. Private Walter Conning, a delicate man but of robust purpose, was noticed by Major Bent for his calm activity while mending an embrasure in No. 4 battery on the left attack. His duty was to attend to the repairs of the platforms; but as these were in a serviceable state and he did not choose to remain idle, he leaped into an embrasure and assisted his comrades to rebuild it. While doing so he was struck down by a spent shot which knocked him from the aperture against the traverse. This self-imposed employment, an instance of unobtrusive devotion, coupled with his uniform steadiness and zeal in working the advanced trenches, gained for him promotion and the decoration of the Military War Medal of France.

Adam McKechnie—a private—was no less conspicuous in No. 9 battery repairing with sand-bags two embrasures which had been knocked to pieces. A blaze of fire was upon him during the whole time, but he continued his exertions for more than two hours with a bearing so manly, that Lieutenant Oldfield of the royal navy and his seamen, looked on with as much admiration as surprise.

Among those who were the most praised was private Andrew Fairservice. He is stated to have been “exceedingly active in repairing embrasures under heavy fire;” so much so, indeed, that his valour and perseverance gained him the honour of a “distinguished service” medal and a gratuity of five pounds.

For the right attack the numbers detailed—about forty—were told off to their posts by sergeant Donald McFarlane. Captain Dawson of the engineers, the officer on duty, was killed early in the morning in the 21-gun battery. He was the captain of the ninth company and this was his maiden tour in the trenches. In little more than two hours after leaving the camp he was borne back dead, his head having been shattered by a round shot. Incessant repairs to the embrasures and parapets kept the sappers constantly exposed, and they toiled with all the ardour for which they had now become famous.

Some men of the ninth company in the 21-gun battery were unequal to the hard work of the embrasures, and Captain Peel of the navy urged the necessity of sending some old sappers—meaning men who had been at the siege from the commencement—to be allotted to the duty. Second-corporal George H. Collins and a brigade of eight men were at once sent to the front, and so incessant were their labours, they were never clear of the embrasures for five minutes during the ten hours they served in the battery. All day long the sun was hot and burning, the sky clear, and not a man that thrust himself into the shattered apertures could reckon for an instant on his safety. Not a shadow was thrown to conceal him from observation, and he trusted to his agility to escape, when the “look-out man” warning him of approaching shot or shell, gave him the chance of making a desperate leap from the opening.

Most assiduous were the carpenters in strengthening the platforms, for the continued friction of the guns in their heavy and irresistible recoil injured not a few of them. A platform on the right of the 21-gun battery required in haste for an effective piece of ordnance was rapidly refitted; but before the mortar could be shifted on it, a 13-inch shell from a battery in rear of the Redan struck the flooring and broke it in pieces.