A rising of the Chartists being anticipated, measures were taken to thwart their designs. Troops were collected with rapidity from all quarters and appointed to various posts in London, to act if occasion required. Late in the evening of Saturday the 8th of April, a company of 100 strong with sergeant-major Bradford, under the command of Captain Tylee, R.E., was detached from Woolwich to the Tower of London. Each man took with him forty rounds of ammunition. The company slept in the Tower that night, but early next morning, two sergeants and thirty-two rank and file, under Lieutenant Sedley, R.E., were sent to the Ordnance Office, Pall Mall, to oppose any attempt at possession by the Chartists. Another party with sergeant-major Bradford under Lieutenant Wilkinson, R.E., was removed to the Bank of England. On the roof of this edifice were built platforms; and at certain places, massive timbers with loop-holes were run up as positions for defence. Several thousand sand-bags filled the upper tier of windows facing the Royal Exchange, and others as high as a man were piled upon the parapet of the roof, with apertures between them for musketry. Over the entrance of the building, a strong wooden machicouli, resting upon ponderous beams, projected into the street, which held a party of the corps ready to open a volley on the rabble, had an attempt been made to force an entrance. In the yard leading to the workshops, &c., the sappers also erected an enormous barricade of casks, handcarts, &c.
The detachment at the Tower was no less zealous. At the Byward tower, the face—overlooking the entrance to the fortress from the Thames by the bridge—was loop-holed, as also a building to command the other entrance. About thirty yards inside—from the gate of the Byward tower—a strong intrenched stockade was erected; and on the wharf near the Traitor’s tower, two barricades were constructed of crates with bricks in them, iron coal boxes, &c., which were loop-holed for musketry. Along the Traitor’s wall was an erection of sand-bags with openings for firing, and on the roof of the barracks, banquettes, to enable the troops to play on the mob in the rear near to the Mint, were formed of scaffolding and military forms. The old bricked-up embrasures facing Tower Hill were also rendered ready for the reception of guns by picking out the bricks and clearing away the debris, which for years had been accumulating there. Fortunately no outbreak occurred, and the company returned to Woolwich on the 14th of April.
There happened at the time to be a handful of the corps in London employed in the metropolitan survey, who, as the occasion was ominous and pressing, were relieved from their professional operations to assist in those of defence. So well did they discharge the duties intrusted to them in barricading the entrances to the high offices of the State, that their conduct was acknowledged in a communication from Lieut.-Colonel Alderson of the engineers in these terms. “I have been requested by Mr. Trevelyan, on the part of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other authorities of the government, to express their satisfaction at the good conduct of the detachment of royal sappers and miners, under the command of colour-sergeant Smith, during their employment under me at the Treasury and government-offices on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday last; also in the efficient professional aid they afforded, in putting the Treasury-buildings and Downing-street in a state of defence.”
In May, Captain Webb, R.E., with one sergeant and one private, both surveyors, proceeded to Zetland by an order from the Commissioners of the Treasury, and laid out and surveyed nearly ninety miles of road, upon which the poor of the islands were employed to afford them relief. In September, the party returned to Woolwich, where Captain Webb and the sergeant completed the plans of the work for the Home Office. The conduct and zeal of sergeant R. Forsyth were specially brought to the notice of the Treasury, and in a letter from Sir Charles Trevelyan to Captain Webb, dated 26th of December, 1848, it is stated, “that my lords have received with satisfaction your report of the zeal and intelligence displayed by sergeant Forsyth in assisting in this service; and that if his exertions shall continue to be equally useful, they will be prepared to grant him some moderate additional remuneration when these operations have been brought to a close.”[[33]]
A new station was opened for the corps this year, by detaching to the Mauritius a company of 100 strong, under the command of Captain J. Fenwick, R.E., which embarked at Gravesend on the 2nd of May, and landed from the ‘Edmundsbury’ on the 19th of August. A half company had previously been employed there, but on the completion of the citadel in 1840, it was removed to the Cape of Good Hope.
Captain John Walpole, R.E., was commissioned as brigade-major to the corps on the 1st of June, 1848, vice Major Sandham removed to the ordnance office as second inspector-general. With the sappers, Major Sandham had served for many years, and the great interest he took in their concerns is well known. Strict impartiality and a penetrating discrimination marked his whole conduct; and his attention to the discipline and drill, raised the character of the corps for military appearance and efficiency. The ready testimony of Lord Bloomfield, the commandant of Woolwich garrison, was frequently awarded to Major Sandham for his success in these particulars, and never was the corps present at a garrison parade, but his lordship called the attention of his staff to its correct marching and manœuvring. A sterling friend to the sappers, Major Sandham, with hearty goodwill, provided many non-commissioned officers and men with comfortable and lucrative situations in civil life, although in doing so, he laid himself under many and deep obligations to those from whom he obtained the patronage.[[34]]
At the Cape of Good Hope, the companies were still dispersed to about fifteen stations on the eastern frontier and at Pieter Maritzburg. In February, corporal George Pringle, having under him twelve men of the 45th regiment, threw a raft of casks for the passage of his Excellency Sir Harry Smith and his guard, over the rivers Umgani, Mooi, Bushman’s, and the two Tugelas. Sir Harry was taking a peaceful tour of the colony from the frontier to Natal, during which he inquired into the disaffection of the Boers, and settled matters with Pretorius relative to the sovereignty of some territory north of the Orange river, and eastward as far as the Draakenberg mountains.[[35]] Corporal George Pringle and party, under Lieutenant Gibb, R.E., went from Pieter Maritzburg to the foot of the Draakenberg range, about 120 miles, to meet him. His Excellency noticed corporal Pringle for the activity and intelligence he displayed on this service. When crossing the Mooi, in consequence of the strain on the hawser which had been previously fastened to the opposite bank, the raft capsized, and threw the pontoon party and fifteen men of the Cape mounted rifles into the stream. Corporal Pringle and a man of the 45th regiment, alone clung to the raft; and as it swept along with the rapid current, whirling round and round with the eddy, the corporal dexterously seized the end of a breast-line, jumped into the stream, and swimming to the shore, moored the raft to a clump of bush, by which it swung in safety. All the saddles and carbines, the waggon, and Sir Harry Smith’s horse, which were on the pontoon at the time, were thrown into the river. The horse, by means of a lasso, was soon rescued; and the waggon, about five feet under water, was recovered by the coolness of the corporal, who swam to the spot, and lashing it to the boom, hauled it, with the assistance of his party, to the bank. All the soldiers were saved. The corporal now adopted another method to take his Excellency and the guard across, and the passage of the Mooi, more than fifty yards wide, was eventually effected without accident to the troops or injury to the baggage.
Six privates, under sergeant Alexander M. M‘Leod, left King William’s Town on the 2nd August with a division commanded by Sir Harry Smith, to chastise the rebel Boers at Boem Plaatz. On nearing the Konap, the party was sent in advance to discover the ford. All night was spent in the tedious search, but by daylight next morning it was effectually traced and the march across the Konap commenced. The train, however, was soon stopped in its progress, as the leading waggon, unskilfully conducted by the vorlooper in charge of it, got off a ledge of rock upon which it was proceeding safely, and sinking into the water, the gunpowder it contained was destroyed. At the same time the vorlooper, young and weak, unable to stand against the current, was swept off his legs. In this emergency Colonel Buller directed the sergeant to assist the train in crossing. Standing in the centre of the stream, he controlled the refractory oxen and drove them to the opposite shore. There, however, fresh difficulties arose, for, as the soil was greasy and the bank steep, the oxen could not draw the waggons out of the river. Instantly the party of sappers reduced the bank, and throwing the excavated earth on the slippery beach, the waggons were at length dragged to the shore.
Arriving at the Great Fish River, the troops, guns, and baggage were ferried across on the India-rubber raft taken with the sappers, while the empty waggons were drawn over by means of a hawser. On the 20th the Orange River was reached; next day four other sappers were added to the party, and on the 22nd, at day-light, the India-rubber float was launched for the passage of the division. The river was 250 yards wide and a very rapid tide was running, when, having stretched a sheer line across the stream fastened on either shore to a tree, the operation was successfully carried out. Forty men were ferried across at a time, the expedient of the guiding hawser considerably lessening the labours of the party. Three guns and several waggons were also taken over. The latter were simply rolled on the raft without disturbing their loads, and were deprived of any dangerous motion by blocking their wheels. Not a single accident occurred; and in compliment to the unfailing zeal and efficiency of the men, Sir Harry Smith took occasion, on a general parade at Graham’s Town in October, 1848, to acknowledge that to the royal sappers and miners he was “greatly indebted for the means with which he had been enabled to make the passage of the Orange River, many of the men swimming in the river like dolphins in getting across the baggage and material.”[[36]]
Marching for Boem Plaatz the detachment was present in an engagement with the Boers, remaining for a time in the rear in charge of ten ammunition tumbrils, and four engineer waggons, containing engineer tools and stores; but ordered to the front by the Governor’s aide-de-camp, Captain Holdich, they pressed forward with four ammunition[ammunition] waggons, and did good service, during the remainder of the action, by serving out the cartridges to the troops.