60. Of the following strength:—

61. ‘Morning Chronicle,’ 10th October, 1786, and periodical press generally. In most of the papers Daniel Thomson is, by mistake, named Daniel Campbell.

Fifteen bodies were washed ashore between Nieuport and Ostend, on the 27th and 28th September, and it is not a little remarkable that, of this small number, no less than fourteen should have been those of women.—‘General Advertiser.’ ‘Public Advertiser,’ 9th October, 1786.

62. I have been informed that previously to 1786, the coat was somewhat similar in colour, cut, and ornament to that shown in Plate I., but that the breeches were blue instead of white. The black leggings were banded above the knee. The working dress consisted of a long duck frock, and mosquito trowsers with gaiters attached. Everything was white even to the felt round hat, which at this period had the military symbols of a yellow band and yellow edge to the brim. Serge pantaloons were worn in winter.

63. The sergeant-major and sergeants were armed with carbines and bayonets.

64. This novel way of distinguishing the non-commissioned officers led to frequent misconception and mistake in the garrison. When dressed with the bayonet belt only, strangers regarded the corporals as the highest rank, and lance-corporals the next. Sometimes when taking an excursion into Spain, sentries have presented arms to them, and guards even have turned out to pay the compliment due to field officers! This military blunder continued, with greater or less observance, until the adoption of chevrons, about 1805.

65. These officers were also present with the corps in 1788; but after that year until 1797 no record has been discovered.

66. This laxity of discipline seems, in time, to have become general among the troops at the fortress, and the extent to which it was carried both by officers and men was little short of disgraceful.—‘Wilkie’s British Colonies considered as Military Posts,’ in ‘United Service Journal,’ 2, 1840, p, 379.

67. Martin’s British Colonies, 1835, p. 51-53.

68. ‘Journal, House of Commons,’ 14th February, 1783; vol. xxxix. p. 208.

69. If a particular acquaintance with the Duke’s plan of defence, &c., be desired, it can be obtained by referring to a work entitled ‘Observations on the Duke of Richmond’s Extensive Plans of Fortification,’ published first in 1785, and again in 1794. This work, which was brought before the public in an anonymous form, is known to have been written by Lieutenant James Glenie, of the engineers, who, after serving in the corps a few years, was compelled, as he says, p. 241, to leave it, “to avoid being ruined by the expense of continually moving from one station to another.” The attack made by this gentleman appears to have been conducted with much force and talent, displaying an intimate acquaintance with the principles of his profession. It made a great impression on the public mind, and augmented to a considerable extent the popular ferment against the new fortifications. Several of the engineers joined in opinion against them, among whom was Colonel Debbieg, who, for some expressions that he ventured, reflecting upon the Duke’s plans, was tried by a General Court-martial in 1789. In the concluding paragraph of the later edition of Mr. Glenie’s essay, the author promised to take an early opportunity of delivering his sentiments at full length respecting the corps of royal military artificers and horse artillery, which, he stated, were unquestionably great impositions on the public; but the promised exposé I have not succeeded in procuring. If it never appeared, the gallant officer, very probably, prudently relinquished the idea, or suppressed the MS., from a conviction that it was as unnecessary as unmerited. It is certainly curious that Mr. Glenie and Colonel Debbieg, who were the most violent and persevering of the Duke’s opponents, should have differed in opinion about the usefulness and importance of the corps of artificers. By the only evidence as yet discovered, it is obvious that Mr. Glenie would willingly have disbanded it; Colonel Debbieg, on the other hand, only a few years before aspired to the honour of originating it.

70. Dodsley’s ‘Annual Register,’ 1788. Second edit., 1790, p. 96.

71. Dodsley’s ‘Annual Register.’ Second edit., 1790, pp. 121-123.

72. Clause Lxxv. Public Acts, 28 Geo. III., vol. i., p. 369. This was not a specific clause to meet the case of the artificers, but the same which had existed, with possibly slight variations, since its first insertion in the Act It merely included the corps by name, and made other necessary alterations to embrace classes of persons heretofore inadvertently omitted. Why it should have caused so much discussion, more especially with reference to the formation of the corps, is almost marvellous, since a more fitting opportunity was afforded for that purpose, when the Ordnance estimates were presented and passed in December of the previous year. What were Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Courtenay, and the other opponents of the Duke of Richmond’s schemes about, to allow this measure to steal a successful march upon them?

73. In the protracted debates which occurred in 1788, on the Regency, Mr. Sheridan took occasion, when opposing the measure for reserving the patronage of the royal household, to attack the Minister—Mr. Pitt, and to wing from his bow another caustic shaft at the royal military artificers. Mr. Pitt, at some previous time, had charged a right honourable friend of Sheridan’s, on quitting office, “with having left a fortress behind him.” Sheridan admitted that the accusation was true; “but then,” continued he, in a vein of sparkling raillery, “like a coarse, clumsy workman, his right honourable friend had built his plan in open day, and retired with his friends, who served without pay. * * * Not so the right honourable gentleman over the way. Like a more crafty mason he had collected his materials with greater caution, and worked them up with abundantly more art. Perhaps he had taken the advice of the noble Duke—famous for fortification—and, with the aid of that able engineer, had provided a corps of royal military artificers, and thrown up impregnable ramparts to secure himself and his garrison. Upon this occasion the King’s arms doubtless might be seen flying as a banner on the top of his fortress, and powerful indeed must prove the effect of the right honourable gentleman’s thundering eloquence from without, and the support of the royal artificers from within, against his political adversaries.”—Sheridan’s Dramatic Works. See Life, p. 138. Bohn’s edit., 1848.

The last reference to the military artificers in Parliament was made by Mr. Courtenay on the 21st April, 1790, when, moving for a committee to inquire into the expenditure of the public money by the Duke of Richmond from the 1st January, 1784, he stated, among a variety of matter, that the corps of which his Grace was the founder, “were neither soldiers nor artificers.”—‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ part 2, 1790, vol. 60, p. 720. This was followed, in 1794, by Mr. Glenie, who, in a second edition of his ‘Observations,’ declared that the corps was unquestionably a great imposition on the public. With this announcement the party crusade against the royal military artificers terminated.

74. Thus the higher branches of promotion were reserved to the three first classes of tradesmen, and none but men of the latter trades were promoted to the rank of corporals. This rule, though enforced as much as practicable, was necessarily deviated from in the lapse of a few years for the benefit of the service.

75. The authority for this was not embodied in the warrant for raising the corps, but conveyed in a letter to the Duke of Richmond, dated 10th October, 1787. With regard to the officers falling in with their companies, it was necessary to issue a special order, as, by a previous warrant of the 25th April, 1787, the royal engineers were to take rank with the royal artillery, and to be posted on the right or left of that regiment, according to the dates of their commissions. At Gibraltar, it was the custom of the companies with their officers, to take the right of the artillery; and they were always inserted first in the Governor’s states and returns. This was a local arrangement occasioned, probably, on account of the companies being stationary at the fortress.

76. The companies at Gibraltar, although similarly constituted, paid, and officered, remained a distinct and separate body until their incorporation with the corps in the year 1797.

77. From this arrangement, it sometimes occurred that even a Major-General was captain of a company.

78. In a letter bearing date 19th March, 1788.

79. For every labourer promoted, a guinea was granted to the master artificer, either civil or military, who had the credit of training him, as a compensation for his services and an encouragement to future exertion. This was sanctioned by his Grace in a letter dated 6th December, 1791.

80. This agreement was required to be attested by every recruit until about the year 1800, when it seems to have fallen into disuse.

81. John Drew was one of the sergeant-majors. He was the first soldier that entered the English corps of military artificers. On May 1st, 1795, he was commissioned to be second lieutenant in the invalid artillery, from which he retired in March, 1819, and died at Woolwich November 9, 1830. One of his daughters married the late Richard Byham, Esq., secretary to the honourable Board of Ordnance. A son—Richard Robinson Drew—attained the rank of Major in the royal artillery, and married Geriloma Barona, daughter of the late Marquis di Montebello. This lady died on the 4th September, 1854, and the Major survived her only four months. Both were interred in the family mausoleum at Messina. Though springing from a stock without any remarkable antecedents, good fortune seems to have attended the career of the offspring of the worthy sergeant-major; and much as his son may have added distinction to his race by his matrimonial alliance with a lady of high birth, it was still more honoured in the person of his granddaughter, who was wedded to the noble Prince di Castelcicala, the late Minister Plenipotentiary for Sicily.

Another of the sergeant-majors was Alexander Spence. He was born in 1726, and enlisted into the 20th Foot, January 16, 1756. After a service of 19 years in that regiment, and 14 as sergeant in the North Hants Militia, he joined the corps at the age of 61!! This is the period when men usually think of retiring from active employment and preparing for the end of life. Not so Spence. He was still a recruit, hale and hearty, and served his country for a further period of 21 years! If nature had taken her course, he might have lived to a great age, but disappointed in his expectation of receiving a sub-lieutenancy in the corps, he committed suicide January 11, 1809, at the age of 83.

82. While waiting for the issue of their regimental costume, the men, to appear smart and clean, pipe-clayed their frocks, vests, and pantaloons, and marched on Sundays to church as white as snow, and “stiff as buckram.” Unavoidably rubbing against each other during the service, the wash being thus set free, filled the sanctuary with clouds of white powder, which gave rise to the playful designation, by which they were known for some time, of “Hearts o’pipe-clay.”

83. A yellow silk knot was regimental; this the corporals were permitted to dispose of for a gold-fringed knot. In most of the companies the corporals wore knots on each shoulder. In the Woolwich company, one only was worn on the right shoulder.

84. ‘Public Advertiser.’ June 11th, 1789.

85. There exists two ballads with this title, one justly celebrated in the royal navy, written by Andrew Cherry, and embodied in Dibdin’s “Naval and National Songs,” and the other by a homely mariner, named, it is said, John Williams. Both songs may have taken their origin from the vessel spoken of above. Be this as it may, without doubt, one or the other was written to record the distress and struggles of the ship which conveyed the artificers to Gibraltar.

The incidents of the affair related in the first edition of this history were made to correspond with the seaman’s effusion, as there were reasons at the time for believing it referred to the vessel with the recruits on board; but, as on a closer review, there are doubts about its application, the details given in the former edition are omitted in this, leaving the question to be solved at a future day.

If the ballad of the seaman have reference to the ship in which the artificers sailed to the Rock, it differs in two known points from the facts of its voyage. The “Caroline” is the ship of the song, and she is said to have sailed from Spithead on the fourteenth day of April, whereas the party of recruits sailed apparently from Scotland, and positively landed, or, to use the official word, “joined,” at Gibraltar on the 16th April.

The seaman’s “Bay of Biscay, O!” is worked up in pure Grub-street doggrel; but bad as it is, it has been rendered worse, particularly in the last verse, by the tampering of some grossly vulgar hand. In the lapse of years the precise wording of that Catnach composition has probably been lost, and the version that exists, filled up by the imperfections of tradition, may have had its dates and places disturbed. In a printed form the ballad, seemingly, cannot be obtained.

If the differences just shown be considered fatal to the relationship between the sailor’s song and the vessel noticed in the narrative, then Cherry’s very popular ballad belongs to the history of the sappers and miners.

86. For full information concerning these experimental operations and manœuvres, see the ‘Public Advertiser’ for July 9th, August 7th, and August 10th, 1792.

87. To show how interested and considerate the Duke of Richmond was, in even trivial matters connected with the corps, it may be mentioned that on the 28th September, 1792, he ordered that six married private labourers, who had been at Bagshot Camp under his command, should each be paid half-a-guinea as a donation for the inconvenience and expense they were subjected to in being absent from their families.

88. Southey’s ‘Chron., Hist. West Indies,’ iii., p. 72.

89. ‘London Gazette Extraordinary,’ August 1, 1793.

90. During the formation of one of the bridges, Mrs. Fitzherbert (who had paid a visit to the Prince of Wales at Brighton) was riding by alone. Sergeant John Johnston, who was in charge of the party, recognizing the favourite, very politely touched his cap in compliment to her, and she immediately pulled up. After asking a variety of questions concerning the work, she praised the men for their exertions, and desired that each should receive an extra day’s pay. For this purpose she gave the sergeant sufficient money, and taking a note of his name, commended him for his civility and promised to remember him. Very shortly after he received the offer of an ensigncy in a regiment in the West Indies, and sailing thither in November, received his commission in the 29th Foot, 1st May, 1796. It was supposed that Mrs. Fitzherbert, true to her promise, had exerted her influence and obtained this appointment for him. George Ross, the other sergeant present with the party, was commissioned as Lieutenant in the Carnarvon Militia, in October, 1796.

91. Private Joshua Cook, of the Woolwich company, was sent to Toulon as orderly to Colonel D’Aubant, royal engineers, and served in that capacity in Toulon and Corsica until the Colonel returned with him to England.

92. Served seven years in the Royal Marines. Enlisted in the corps April 28, 1788, and was present in almost every action and capture which took place in the West Indies up to the year of his decease, which occurred at Barbadoes, July 14, 1810. Few non-commissioned officers had a more stirring career, or greater chances, by his prizes, employments, and successful speculations, of acquiring wealth. Much he gained and much he spent. He had his horses and his servants. Costly ornaments he wore with eastern profusion, and the hilt of his rapier, and the mountings of his scabbard, were of silver. Indeed it requires a couplet from Pope to do him anything like justice.

93. ‘London Gazette Extraordinary,’ April 17th and 22nd, 1794.

94. Privates William Burrell, John Clark, Abraham Mayhead, Robert Torrince, William Fleming, and Thomas Wagg. Four of the number soon died; and the two first, on being released, joined the remnant of the company at St. Domingo on the 18th April, 1796.

95. ‘London Gazette,’ 13751. 10-14 February, 1795.

96. Lieutenant John Duncan, royal artillery, who was employed as assistant engineer in the sieges of Toulon and Corsica, “often spoke,” writes Lieutenant-General Birch, of the royal engineers, under date 22nd August, 1848, “with the very utmost enthusiasm of the conduct of the royal military artificers in these operations, and would delight to dwell in describing their conduct as being fine, brave, and enduring.”

97. Privates Alexander Williamson, Archibald Douglas, Alexander Stewart, Andrew Lindsay, David Morton, George Horn, and John Bristo.

98. ‘London Gazette Extraordinary,’ July 4th, 1796.

99. ‘London Gazette,’ 23rd to 26th July, 1796; takes notice of the private wounded, but not of the sergeant taken prisoner.

100. Lieutenant, afterwards Lieutenant-General, Evatt, who served with the company in Sir Charles Grey’s campaign of 1794, writes thus of it: “The dreadful sickness then prevailing left few or none of the men after its conclusion, and it might with truth be said, they came out, did their duty, and died!”

101. One of these labourers, John Alexander, enlisted in the Chatham company 15th July, 1796, and was transferred 1st April, 1797. Forty years afterwards he was commissioned as quartermaster in the royal horse artillery, and after eleven years' service in that rank, retired on full-pay in 1847, and died in 1854.

102. In the ‘London Gazette,’ 3rd to 6th June, 1797, the killed only are noticed.

103. Sir Charles Pasley, in the prefatory notes to his work on ‘Elementary Fortification,’ vol. i., p. 4, writes of the inefficiency and misconduct of detachments sent on foreign service, and concludes his observations by saying, “I am told in the West Indies, it had actually been proposed to employ negroes as engineer soldiers.” If the above is the recommendation Sir Charles alludes to, he has either been misinformed of the reasons for that proposal, or he has mistaken them; for the detachment was composed of good non-commissioned officers and well-qualified artificers from the Woolwich and Chatham companies; and in the discharge of their several duties, gave every satisfaction to their officers. The proposal was dictated by humanity, as well as with a view to the prospective advantage of the public, and in no respect originated in the misbehaviour or inefficiency of the men.

104. A copy of the document is subjoined:—

Come forward at the unanimous request of the Company, to avow at this momentous crisis, our firm loyalty, attachment, and fidelity to our most gracious Sovereign and our Country, and solemnly declare our firm determination to maintain subordination and discipline to our officers, with whom we have every reason to be fully satisfied, and request they will accept these, our most grateful acknowledgments for their humane attention towards us, and beg they will let this our determination be made known to the Right Honourable General Lord George Henry Lennox, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in this district.

That, as we learn, there are men endeavouring to withdraw His Majesty’s soldiers from the duty they owe to their King and Country, we are determined should any such proceedings appear amongst us, to take the earliest opportunity of checking the same; and, as a mark of our attachment to our most gracious Sovereign and glorious Constitution, we do hereby offer a reward of

to any soldier-artificer, that will discover any person, or persons, offering them money, seditious handbills, or otherwise, with an intent to withdraw them from their duty, on conviction of the person, or persons, before a civil magistrate.

105. The extras were allowed the men to provide them with bread, a pair of breeches once in two years, and a rosette; and to pay the expense of making up their gaiters, and converting their uniform coats, after a certain period, into jackets.

106. The following is a copy of the letter of the Woolwich company, offering the contribution above alluded to:—

Sir,

At a time when the exigencies of the State appear to require the assistance of every good subject to alleviate the general burden our fellow-subjects bear, it is the unanimous wish of the non-commissioned officers, artificers, and labourers of the corps of Royal Military Artificers, &c., at this place, to manifest the gratitude they owe their King and country for the late increase of pay, as well as their attachment to His Majesty’s person and government, and their zeal for the service in which the country is engaged, by offering a contribution of three days' pay, to be applied as may be thought best to the defence of the State.

We request you will be pleased to lay this our wish before the Colonel Commandant of the corps for his approbation.

Signed on behalf of the artificers and labourers, &c., of the corps of Royal Military Artificers, &c., at Woolwich, and with their unanimous consent.

106a. Enlisted as a matross in July, 1761, in the royal artillery, and was pensioned from that regiment in October, 1783. On May 1, 1795, he enlisted into the Royal Military Artificers, at the age of 52! and died at Canterbury, August 10, 1799. Was known as the author of a small work called “The Artillerist’s Companion,” published by Egerton in 1786.

107. The greater part of the detachment had been specially employed in mining services at Dover.

108. “Lieutenant Brownrigg, R.E., in about four hours, made all his arrangements, and completely destroyed the sluices; his mines having, in every particular, the desired effect, and the object of the expedition thereby attained. * * * In Lieutenant Brownrigg, I found infinite ability and resource: his zeal and attention were eminently conspicuous.”—London Gazette, 17 to 21 July, 1798.

109. ‘London Gazette,’ 17 to 21 July, 1798.

110. This officer was “ordered to the West Indies with two companies of the royal military artificers: himself and two of the privates only escaped the baleful effects of the climate of St. Domingo.”—United Service Journal, i., 1832, p. 142.

111. These were privates Adam Cowan and John Westo. The former was at once appointed sergeant and conductor of stores to Commissary Meek of the Ordnance. After delivering over the stores of the department at Jamaica to a sergeant of Dutch emigrant artillery, he returned to England, and was discharged with a pension of 2s. 0½d. a-day in April, 1816.

112. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification.’ Notes to Preface, p. iv., vol. i.

113. Several individual proofs could be adduced but two must suffice. Private Evan Roberts, a talented mason, was detached to Malta during the blockade of Valetta, and rendered good service as a foreman under Captain Gordon, R.E. On the formation of the Maltese artificers, he was appointed sergeant in one of the companies to prevent his removal to another station: and Sergeant-major James Shirres, formerly of the Gibraltar companies, from his correct conduct and merit as an artificer, was appointed overseer of works in the royal engineer department at Plymouth, in December, 1804.

114. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification.’ Notes to Preface, p. iv. vol. i.

115. Brigadier-General Koehler, Major Holloway, and six other officers and gentlemen proceeded by the overland route to Constantinople. Three of the detachment accompanied them—privates Joseph Comfort, Jonathan Lewsey, and David Waddell. “Their journey in the outset,” says Dr. Wittman, in his ‘Travels in Turkey,’ &c., p. 6, “had been attended by uncommon severities, such, however, as might have been expected from a season more rigorous than any which had been experienced for many years. In passing over the continent, they had, at the entrance of the Elbe, been shipwrecked among the shoals of ice; and to relieve themselves from the perilous situation, had been under the necessity of passing over the ice to the extent of two miles, to gain the shore; by this effort they were providentially saved.” They now prosecuted their journey to Constantinople, where they arrived in March, 1799.

116. While here, sergeant Watson of the artificers, in preparing money for the payment of the mission in the presence of a Turkish marine, quitted the room for a moment, leaving the money on the table. “On his return,” writes Dr. Wittman, “the marine had disappeared with 120 piastres, about 9l. English. Having described the person of the delinquent to the Capitan Pacha, inquiries were at once commenced to detect the thief. On the second day after, the marine confessed his guilt to General Koehler, and begged his influence with the Capitan Pacha to save his life. The General did so, but several days elapsed before the affair was disposed of. During the interval, the General, anxious to prevent the culprit being strangled, expressed some doubts of the culprit’s identity; but in reply to this, the Pacha very handsomely declared his full conviction that the marine had taken the money, as he was certain an Englishman would not tell an untruth.”—Wittman’s Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, &c., p. 65.

117. The above particulars are chiefly taken from Dr. Wittman’s ‘Travels in Turkey,’ &c.

118. Sir John Jones, in his ‘Sieges,’ vol. ii., note 38, p. 389, 2nd edit.

119. Gleig’s ‘Military History,’ xxxvii., p. 287.

120. Some time before leaving the city, private Thomas Taylor, royal military artificers, was, without any provocation, assaulted by a Turk, who attempted to stab him with his yatikan. On a report of this outrage being made to the Capitan Pacha, to whose retinue the Turk belonged, he came to a resolution to have him decapitated. By the mediation and entreaties of Lord Elgin, a mitigation of the punishment ensued, and the Turk, after receiving fifty strokes of the bastinado on the soles of his feet, was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment in the college of Pera, to learn the Arabic language.—Dr. Wittman’s Turkey, p. 93.

121. Particulars for the most part obtained from Wittman’s ‘Travels in Turkey,’ &c.

122. The seven non-commissioned officers and men embarked at Gibraltar to join the expedition, returned to their companies at the fortress immediately after the failure at Cadiz.

123. Either private Jonathan Lewsey or private David Waddell, both of whom acted as servants to Major Holloway, R.E. The former was a powerful man, and remarkable from the circumstance of his having four thumbs! two on each hand in addition to the proper complement of fingers. On the breaking up of the mission at Grand Cairo, these privates returned to England with that officer by the overland route.

124. Sergeant Edward Watson, who enlisted into the artillery as a matross, January 28, 1775, and joined the corps at Woolwich, March 1, 1792, was the senior non-commissioned officer with the mission; and in consideration of his zeal, ability, and uniform exemplary conduct, as well in discharge of his military duties, as in the executive superintendence of the several works undertaken by Major Holloway, he was promoted, on his arrival in England, to be sergeant-major of the Woolwich company. On December 1, 1810, he was discharged. For similar reasons corporal David Pollock was advanced to the rank of sergeant, and appointed master-smith.

125. Wittman’s ‘Turkey,’ p. 395.

126. John Wallace. It is related of him that he was lost sight of for many months, and his appearance at Woolwich gave rise to as much surprise as his person to doubt. All traces of the original man had worn away, and from the oddness of his dress, and peculiarity of his manners, the task of recognition was rendered still more perplexing. Eventually, satisfactory proofs of his identity being obtained, he was again acknowledged and discharged on a pension of 1s. 6d. a-day, his service in the corps having exceeded thirty-three years.

127. In the ‘London Gazette,’ 26 to 30 July, 1803, this corporal is, by mistake, returned as sergeant.

128. ‘London Gazette Extraordinary,’ August 15, 1803.

129. Ibid.

130. ‘London Gazette,’ 19 to 23 June, 1804.

131. Ibid.

132. In the subsequent campaigns of the West Indies he behaved equally meritoriously; and in garrison and the workshops always conducted himself well. Besides being an excellent mason and foreman, no artificer in the service, perhaps, had a better practical idea of mining, in which he signalized himself at the destruction of Fort Desaix, Martinique. After sixteen years' arduous service in the West Indies, he was sent to Woolwich and discharged in July, 1814.

133. Sir James Fellowes ‘On the Fever of Andalusia.’

134. According to Sir James Fellowes, 229 men of the companies were admitted into hospital with the fever, of whom 106 recovered, and 123 died; but as Sir James has omitted the statistics for August in his tables, the apparent disparity between the two accounts is reduced to the trifling difference of 4 only, a mistake which, doubtless, occurred from some inaccuracy or accidental omission in the information furnished to Sir James from the Ordnance Hospital records.

135. This statement is borne out by Sir James Fellowes. See p. 450 of his work ‘On the Fever of Andalusia.’

136. What was most extraordinary connected with these daring fellows, was the fact, that throughout the epidemic, they enjoyed the most robust health; but, after its cessation, fearing that they were loaded with infection, and that a sudden transition to the garrison again would cause the fever to return, the authorities deemed it prudent to send the hearse-driver and gravediggers to camp at Beuna Vista, where, after about two months' quarantine, they were permitted to rejoin their companies.