Brave British soldiers and the Victoria Cross / a general account of the regiments and men of the British Army, and stories of the brave deeds which won the prize "for valour"

by Unknown

The necessity for an efficient body of trained artizan soldiers became, indeed, every day more obvious; and no expedition of any consequence was undertaken without a body of these men being included in the forces sent out. In America, in the Indies, East and West, on Mediterranean service, in the Peninsula, in the Low Countries, they were alike needed, and rendered excellent service. At home, also, they were continually employed in erecting new and strengthening the old fortifications, for it was anticipated that Bonaparte would visit our shores, and that stone walls as well as wooden walls would be required for our defence.

Throughout the Peninsular war the services of the corps were invaluable; in sap, battery, and trench work, in the making of fascines and gabions, in repairing broken batteries and damaged embrasures, in constructing flying bridges over the Guadiana, the Artificer vied with the regular engineers. Major Pasley, R.E., on his appointment to the Plymouth station, began regularly to practise his men in sapping and mining. He was one of those officers who took pains to improve the military appearance and efficiency of his men, and to make them useful, either for home or foreign employments. He is believed to have been the first officer who represented the advantage of training the corps in the construction of military field-work. After the failure at Badajoz (1811) the necessity of this measure was strongly advocated by the war officers. Then it was recommended to form a corps under the title of Royal Sappers and Miners, to be composed of six companies, chosen from the Royal Military Artificers, which, after receiving some instruction in the art, was to be sent to the Peninsula to aid the troops in their future siege operations.

In April, 1812, a warrant was issued for the formation of an establishment for instructing the corps in military field-work. Chatham was selected as the most suitable place for carrying out the royal orders, and Major Pasley was appointed director of the establishment. Uniting great zeal and unwearied perseverance with good talents and judgment, Major Pasley succeeded in extending the course of instructions far beyond the limits originally assigned, and he not only filled the ranks of the corps with good scholars, good surveyors, and good draughtsmen, but enabled many, after quitting this service, to occupy, with ability and credit, situations of considerable importance in civil life.

At Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, and other places made famous in the Peninsular war, the Military Artificers won the praise of Wellington, conducting themselves with the greatest gallantry and coolness.

On the 5th of March, 1813, the title of the corps was changed from that of Royal Military Artificers to that of Royal Sappers and Miners. A change of equipment was also introduced. In this respect many irregularities had crept in, the members of the corps in various parts of the world being variously armed, rather to suit their own fancy than to meet the exigencies of the work. Uniformity in the matter was of great importance, and this was gradually and effectually introduced.

When Napoleon, escaping from captivity in Elba, re-appeared in France, and the armies of the allies were again summoned to the field, at the instance of the Duke of Wellington the whole corps of Sappers and Miners was sent to Brussels to join his Grace’s force, and were employed in constructing indispensable field-works, or improving the fortifications at Ostend, Ghent, Tournay, Oudenarde, Boom, Antwerp, Lille, Liepkenshock, and Hae. At the battle of Waterloo the Royal Sappers and Miners were not engaged, but three companies were brought conveniently near, to act in the event of their services being needed. After the battle, all the companies of the corps moved with the army towards Paris, and rendered valuable service in the construction of pontoon bridges. After the capitulation the men were encamped in the vicinity of Paris, until they could be removed to other stations or sent home. Two companies remained with the army of occupation; and in the naval victory of Algiers three of the companies worked at the guns with the seamen of the fleet, and gained equal credit with the navy and marines for their noble support.

In the Canadas the Sappers and Miners rendered themselves very useful, especially in the formation of a new citadel at Quebec; their efficiency also in pontoon work was universally acknowledged; of all the soldiers in the army no men more deserved well of their country—useful as they were alike in time of war and peace. “Indeed,” says Sir John Jones, “justice requires it to be said, that these men, whether employed on brilliant martial services or engaged in the more humble duties of their calling, either under the vertical sun of the tropics or in the frozen regions of the north, invariably conducted themselves as good soldiers; and by their bravery, their industry, or their acquirements, amply repay the trouble and expense of their formation and instruction.” In taking a bird’s-eye view of the formation and growth of some of our military institutions, the Rev. G. R. Gleig thus speaks of the corps: “Besides the infantry, cavalry, and artillery, of which the army was composed, and the Corps of Engineers, coeval with the latter there sprang up during the period of the French Revolution other descriptions of force which proved eminently useful, each in its own department, and of the composition of which a few words will suffice to give an account. First, the Artificers, as they were called, that is to say, the body of men trained to the exercises of mechanical arts, such as carpentry, bricklaying, bridge-making, and so forth, which in all ages seem to have attended on a British army in the field, became the Royal Sappers and Miners, whose services on many trying occasions proved eminently useful, and who still do their duty cheerfully and satisfactorily in every quarter of the globe. During the late war they were commanded, under the officers of engineers, by a body of officers who took no higher rank than that of lieutenant, and consisted entirely of good men, for whom their merits had earned commissions. Their education, carried on at Woolwich and Chatham, trained them to act in the field as guides and directors to all working parties, whether the business in hand might be the construction of a bridge, the throwing up of field works, or the conduct of a siege. Whatever the engineer officers required the troops to do was explained to a party of Sappers, who, taking each his separate charge, showed the soldiers of the Line both the sort of work that was required of them and the best and readiest method of performing it. The regiment of Sappers was the growth of the latter years of the contest, after the British army had fairly thrown itself into the great arena of Continental warfare, and proved so useful, that while men wondered how an army could ever have been accounted complete without this appendage, the idea of dispensing with it in any time to come, seems never to have arisen in the minds of the most economical.”

In the erection of the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1851 the Sappers and Miners afforded very valuable assistance, and won for themselves a warm eulogium from the Prince Consort. In the formation of the Camp at Chobham they were also very useful, and they were especially complimented for their exertions by Colonel Vicars and Lord Seaton; but it was during the war with Russia that they again figured most prominently before the public.

On the outbreak with Russia a detachment of the Sappers and Miners was sent out with the Baltic fleet, and a second company was despatched to the Aland Islands. They played an important part in the destruction of the forts and the capture of Bomarsund. Other detachments were sent to Turkey, and did good service at Gallipoli, Boulair, and Ibridgi, winning the “entire approbation” of Sir George Brown. At Scutari, Varna, Derno, and Rustchuk they were still further distinguished. Before Sebastopol, when shot and shell swept furiously into the trenches, the conduct of the men was everything that could be desired. “The country,” wrote Lord Raglan, “was covered with water; the trenches extremely muddy, their condition adding greatly to the labours of the men employed in the batteries, chiefly sailors, artillerymen, and sappers. They conducted their duties admirably.” Everywhere in posts of danger were the Sappers; here piling up hides and fixing gabions; there fixing platforms, renewing sleepers, and fastening bolts; here crawling on the earth, more like a gnome than a man, but busy with pick and shovel, under a shower of rifle bullets; there black with gunpowder, blasting the rock to widen the trench; there the bright hammer of the Sapper plies on the newly-reared parapet, and affords a mark for the enemy; here the horn lantern of the Sapper gives feeble light to the busy workman, but a sure target to the foe; everywhere, in battery, trench, and mine, the Sapper is the centre of each party, toiling at his hazardous avocation through the long dark night.