137. ‘United Service Journal,’ i., 1845, p. 483.
138. This observation would appear to clash with the remarks of Sir Charles Pasley (note F, p. xvii. ‘Elementary Fortification’) upon the impropriety of enlisting militia-men; but after carefully tracing the history of many volunteers from that arm, the fact cannot be concealed that the transfers alluded to were decidedly beneficial to the corps. The best sapper, miner, and pontoneer, that ever served in the corps—perhaps the best in Europe—was a militia-man; and the name of Jenkin Jones, the faithful and zealous sergeant-major under Sir Charles Pasley at Chatham, now quartermaster at Woolwich, need only be mentioned, to verify the assertion and to corroborate the encomium. Quartermaster Hilton, the efficient sergeant-major to the corps in France under Sir James Carmichael Smyth, had also been in the militia.
139. ‘London Gazette Extraordinary,’ September 13, 1806.
140. With fifty women and forty children! More than, in these days, are permitted to accompany a battalion on foreign service.
141. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ note A, p. iv.
142. In the treaty of Amiens it was stipulated that one-half the soldiers in the garrison at Malta should be natives; and although the treaty had been violated by Napoleon, Great Britain still regarded its provisions, in this respect at least, as sacred and obligatory.
143. Styled, by local usage, “Assistant Engineer.”
144. Of the regimental allowances of the foreign adjutant nothing is known, nor can any record be discovered of the uniform worn by him.
145. In 1808 the companies were clothed in a uniform made of cotton, manufactured in the island, similar to the local corps. The facings were of black cloth. The sergeants and corporals were distinguished as before, and the sergeant-major still wore the home uniform. The substitution of cotton for cloth was ordered on account of its being cheaper and better adapted to the climate, besides forwarding the views of Government, in aiding the sale of the staple commodity of the island, deprived by the war of its usual vents.
146. Sir John Jones states, evidently by mistake, that the corps was composed of thirty-two companies.—Journals of Sieges, ii., note 38, p. 389, 2nd edit.
147. Styled Second Lieutenants in the warrant by mistake. The Sub-Lieutenants were junior to the Second Lieutenants of engineers, but held rank with Second Lieutenants of the line, according to dates of commission. This right was often questioned, but never, as long as the Sub-Lieutenants were attached to the corps, officially settled. In 1835 the position of a Sub-Lieutenant (H. B. Mackenzie), who had joined the line as paymaster being disputed, it was then settled that Sub-Lieutenants were junior to Ensigns.
148. Subsequently increased to 5s. 7d. a-day, and after seven years' service to 6s. 7d. a-day.
149. Holding comparative station with corporals of the line, according to date of promotion.
150. This may be regarded as a favourable view of the case. Sir John Jones states, “Each company was commanded for the moment by the senior Captain of engineers, who might happen to be placed on duty wherever the company might be; so that it was not unfrequent for a company to be commanded by five or six captains in as many months.”—Journal of Sieges, ii. note 38, p. 389, 2nd edit.
151. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ note a, p. iii.
152. Ibid., note F, p. xvii.
153. In the earlier years of his appointment he was much at Woolwich, and personally superintended the affairs of the corps; but for some years prior to the new organization, his duties in London seldom permitted him to visit the head-quarters.
154. Colonel Phipps was never present with the corps. As Quartermaster, he performed his duties in London. In consideration of his relinquishing the Quartermastership, and also for his good services, he was granted by His Majesty an allowance of 10s. a-day.—‘Accounts of Ordnance, House of Commons,’ 1816, p. 31.
155. ‘London Gazette,’ 20th to 24th January, 1807.
156. ‘United Service Journal,’ ii., 1843, p. 110. ‘Jones’s Sieges,’ ii., note 38, p. 389, 2nd edit.
157. In the absence, on foreign duty, of Captain J. T. Jones, from July, 1808, to January, 1809, Sub-Lieutenant John Eaves performed the duties of adjutant to the corps with credit and efficiency.
158. In Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ vol. ii., p. 269, 2nd edit., the number, including the sub-lieutenant, is shown as 261 only; at p. 415, the total of all ranks is stated to be 276; but both strengths differ from the actual force engaged.
159. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ vol. ii., p. 279, 2nd edit.
160. Was left property to the amount of 4000l. and purchased his discharge in 1810.
161. ‘London Gazette.’
162. Hargrave’s ‘Account of Walcheren and South Beveland,’ p. 16, edit. 1812.
163. Jones’s Lines of Lisbon, 1829, p. 78.
164. ‘Prof. Papers,’ iii., p. 94.
165. Jones’s ‘Sieges’ vol. i. p. 377, 2nd edit.
166. Ibid. p. 6.
167. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ vol. i., p. 10, 2nd edit.
168. ‘United Service Journal,’ ii., 1831, p. 329.
169. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ vol. i., p. 70, 2nd edit. ‘United Service Journal,’ ii., 1831, p. 331.
170. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ vol. i., p. 90, 2nd edit.
171. A third of whom were to be gardeners, hedgers, or canal-diggers, but only to be enlisted on special authority from head-quarters.
172. These appointments were never conferred. The whole business of the corps was carried on by an Adjutant, who held his office independently of the battalions.
173. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ note a, p. iv., vol. i.
174. There was a William Painter at Gibraltar, whose affluence was something extraordinary. He enlisted into the corps in July, 1798, and though a man of very useful intelligence, only attained the rank of second-corporal in 1807. He tried to procure his discharge to return to his estate in Cornwall, but such was the pressure for men, his desire was negatived. His humble position, however, did not prevent his living in ease and luxury. He kept his servants, horses, and, it is said, his carriage, and entertained and enjoyed very good society. Well could he do all this, for, coupling with his own receipts his wife’s settlement, he possessed an income of eleven hundreds pounds a-year! He died at the Rock, August 13, 1811, aged 45 years. By his Will he left 5000l. stock to his two sons—John, and William Grible; 300l. to Sub-Lieutenant Falconer and his family, and a few smaller legacies to relatives and an attached servant, besides considerable landed property, houses, and the usual legal addenda of “messuages, tenements, and hereditaments” at Gwennap in Cornwall to his elder son John, “and his heirs for ever.” The widow, under a jointure, was in receipt of 550l. a-year.
As if to show how likely fortune is to be overtaken by calamity, Sub-Lieutenant Falconer, five days after the death-bed remembrance of the corporal, was fired at from an open window by private Samuel Fraser. The ball luckily missed him, but whizzed sufficiently near to be alarming. The ruffian was sent to a condemned regiment in commutation for his sentence of one thousand lashes!
175. He invented an engine for nipping lead shot, used for years in the royal laboratory, but for which an impostor and spy, named De Haine, received a reward of 500l. While filling the office of inspector of ordnance stores, he made various improvements in the mechanical and intrenching tools. He also detected many extraordinary frauds in the deliveries made by contractors. In one attempted imposition only, he saved the Government 2000l. He designed and constructed a life-ladder, which was frequently used with success at fires, and an ingenious mortar-mill which occasioned a great saving of expense to the department. At Chatham he invented many useful tools, implements, and apparatus, and his services were repeatedly acknowledged in the order books of the establishment.
176. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ 2nd edit., ii., p. 390.
177. ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ 1845, v., p. 508.
178. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ 2nd edit., ii.. p. 392.
179. Among the recruits at this period was Sir John Sinclair, Bart., who, on the 12th August, 1812, enlisted in the name of John Smith. Through various misfortunes he was reduced from affluence to poverty. Noticed by Colonel Pilkington, R.E., for his uniform good conduct and attainments, he was promoted to the rank of second-corporal, and provided with a quarter at the main-guard in the royal arsenal. His lady sometimes visited him in all the pride of her station, but his own rank was as yet unsuspected. From a comrade—afterwards Sub-Lieutenant H. B. Mackenzie—he frequently borrowed plain clothes to elude arrest in the streets, and invariably proceeded to the Treasury by water to receive his allowance. He was at length dogged to Woolwich, and, on the 31st August, 1813, being taken, was thrown into the debtors' side of Newgate, from whence he was removed to the Fleet Prison, where, for a year and a half he was confined, and was then only released by an error in law. Thirteen months' sickness and distress followed his release, during which time he was supplied with means by an acquaintance of his earlier and happier days. All the while the whereabouts of John Smith was unknown, but, advised by his friend, he confessed himself a deserter, and in imploring pardon and indemnity for past errors, solicited to be received for life in the New South Wales Corps. The pardon was granted, and being relieved from further service in the sappers, he was again left at liberty to follow his own inclination.
180. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ 2nd edit., ii., pp. 390, 391.
181. Sir John Jones, by mistake, vol. ii. p. 390, makes the alteration of the name of the corps antecedent to the creation of the establishment at Chatham.
182. Soon after this change, an act of gross indiscipline occurred, which will afford a tolerable notion of some of the singular characters who held rank in the corps. A sergeant’s guard usually mounted in the sappers' barracks at Woolwich. One morning sergeant Millar was appointed to the new guard, and during the ceremony of “mounting,” was posted in front of it. Lieutenant Eaves, the officer on duty, gave the usual words of command. “Sergeant, to your guard, march!” Millar no sooner heard it, than he whirled his halberd in the air, and as every one stood amazed to see the upshot of this mad manœuvre, the pike turned point downwards and stuck in the earth. At this moment, to complete the extravaganza, Millar pitched on his hands, and with his legs towering erect in the air, paddled, with all the flexibility and steadiness of an acrobat, to his wondering guard!
183. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ i. p. 369, 3rd edit., and note added by Colonel Harry D. Jones.
184. ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ 1845, v., p. 476.
185. Sir John Jones, in his ‘Sieges,’ i. p. 130, 2nd edit., records, by mistake, the arrival of the company on the 15th instead of the 19th January.
186. ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ edit. 1845, v., p. 579.
187. Ibid, v., p. 650.
188. In the Dispatch to the Earl of Liverpool, dated Fuente Guinaldo, 10th June, 1812, the Earl of Wellington states, “I have likewise sent from this country to Gibraltar Lieutenant-Colonel Jones and four subaltern officers of engineers, and two companies of military artificers, including all the sappers there are with the army,” to join the corps d’armée under Lieutenant-General Lord William Bentinck, “to make an attack on the eastern coast of the Peninsula, with the troops from Sicily.”—Wellington Dispatches; 1845, v., p. 706, 707. The above company, 92 strong, was the only one despatched from Portugal, but one of the Maltese military artificers from Messina was added to the engineers' means for the siege, which made a combined sapper-force of 134 strong.
189. ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ 1845, v., p. 724.
190. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ notes by Colonel Harry D. Jones, i., p. 135, 377, 3rd edit.
191. ‘United Service Journal,’ 2, 1829, p. 284, 285.
192. In 1816 this officer was appointed Town-Major at Bermuda, and from the able manner in which he discharged its duties, was honoured with the confidence and approval of his patron, Sir James Cockburn.
193. ‘United Service Journal,’ iii., 1844, p. 77, 78.
194. Sir W. Napier, in his ‘Peninsular War,’ attributes, by mistake, this service to Lieutenant G. Pringle, R.E.
195. Manuscript, Royal Engineer Establishment. The model in the Model Room at Brompton, showing the details of one of the stockades, was made under the direction of Sub-Lieutenant Calder.
196. Sir Thomas Graham, in ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ vi., p. 650, edit. 1845. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 391, 2nd edit.; and Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ note D, p. ix., vol. 1.
197. Pasley’s ‘Operations of a Siege,’ ii., p. 246, note.
198. ‘Instructions for the Defence of Fortresses,’ translated by Major Reid, R.E., 1823, p. 20.
199. From his perfect knowledge of the duties of field engineering, he was known among his comrades by the title of “Sap Major.”
200. Corporal Charles Ford was one of the prisoners. He was of a respectable family, and had a brother a clergyman in the Church of England, presiding over the cure of the parish of Kilbeaconty in Ireland. In an article in the ‘United Service Journal,’ headed, “Captivity in San Sebastian,” Captain Harry Jones, R.E., who also had been taken prisoner, alludes to this non-commissioned officer. “In the course of the day,” he says, “I was asked whether I would like to speak to a corporal of sappers, who had been made a prisoner during the sortie. I was delighted at the prospect of seeing one of my old friends, but was greatly astonished, in the afternoon, by seeing a fine tall young man, a stranger, walking into the ward, dressed in a red jacket. He was the first sapper I had seen in the new uniform, as blue was the colour worn when I was taken prisoner. Upon inquiring when he joined the army from England, he replied, 'Yesterday morning. I was put on duty in the trenches last night, and was shortly afterwards brought into the town by the enemy.'”—‘United Service Journal,’ 1, 1841, p. 198.
201. Napier’s ‘Peninsular War,’ vi., p. 502, edit. 1840.
202. Manuscript, Royal Engineer Establishment. The details of the construction of this bridge have been considered sufficiently interesting to be preserved in a model at the royal engineer establishment at Chatham.
204. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ p. 109.
205. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 118, 2nd edit. As a reward for their services, most of the men that belonged to the flotilla received a guinea and a pair of shoes.
206. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 117, 2nd edit.
207. Colonel Harry D. Jones, royal engineers.
208. Napier’s ‘Peninsular War,’ vi., p. 542, edit. 1840.
209. Ibid., p. 543.
210. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 126, 2nd edit.
211. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ note C, p. viii., vol. 1.
212. Here is a practical exemplification of esprit de corps. Whilst engaged in the attempt to destroy the shipping in the basin of Antwerp, his Royal Highness Prince William frequently visited the Napoleon battery with several military officers. On one of those visits a mounted veteran in the suite of the Prince approached private John Brennan, and said, “Sapper, will you hold this horse for an old guardsman?” Brennan, who was very busy at the time with his shovel, turned his face towards the officer, and feeling that as a sapper he was two or three removes above a groom, replied, “Egad, sir, I’d sooner be shot layin' sand-bags.”
213. The gentle Brennan, about whom an anecdote is told in a previous page, very reluctantly quitted the ramparts. Finding, that to save himself, retreat was inevitable, he turned his back on the fortress, and with a scowl, such only as an Irishman could make, growled out, “Bad luck to the whole ov yees!” With this mild curse, so unusual in a hot-headed, free-spoken Milesian, he scampered down the ladder, escaped without wound or touch, and finally halted, still breathing the anathema, “Bad luck to the whole ov yees!” The incident is only remarkable for its freedom from those horrible epithets and curses so common in Irish execrations. Brennan was applauded for his bravery at the storming by Captain Robert Thomson, and his subsequent exertions and constancy in the restoration of the defences of Antwerp and Ypres, where he had large parties of Hanoverian troops and Dutch peasants under his superintendence, led to his promotion first to lance-corporal and then to corporal.
214. Lomas was discharged in 1816 by reduction, and being a young soldier, received no pension. Some thirty years afterwards, he applied for a pension, and his exploits being still remembered, he was granted 6d. a-day.
215. Private Henry Scrafield behaved with spirit in overpowering two armed sentinels in the Senate-house, and taking them prisoners. A more uncompromisingly independent man perhaps never lived. Once he complained, in a petition to George IV., of the conduct of an officer, but it ended without the concession of the redress which he unwarrantably sought from His Majesty. In February, 1831, he endeavoured to save the lives of five boys who had fallen into Mulgrave Reservoir, at Woolwich. An orange had been thrown on the ice by some reckless fellow, and the unfortunate youths, scrambling after it, fell into the water. Scrafield was soon on the spot, and at imminent personal risk, crossed the broken ice on ladders, and, with ropes and grapnels, succeeded in rescuing the poor boys, but not till all life had departed. The first youth was got up in ten minutes after the catastrophe. For his judgment and intrepidity on the occasion he was promoted to be second-corporal, and the Royal Humane Society granted him a pecuniary reward. Pensioned in November, 1833, he afterwards obtained a lucrative situation on a railway, and died at Bletchington, of cholera, in September, 1849.
216. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note D, p. x.
217. ‘London Gazette.’
218. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note B, page vi.
219. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note B, p. vi.
220. Ibid.
221. ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ viii., p. 18, edit. 1847.
222. Corroborated, by the official State on the 18th June, 1815. See ‘Gurwood,’ vol. viii., App. xiii., p. 392, edit. 1847.
223. Died at Tournay, 16th June, 1815.
224. ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ edit. 1847, (2 & 12 May,) pp. 55, 81.
225. To show how serious was the alarm, and how great the number of fugitives, the following extract from general orders, dated Nivelles, 20th June, 1815, will fully testify:—
“3. The Field Marshal has observed that several soldiers, and even officers, have quitted their ranks without leave, and have gone to Bruxelles, and even some to Antwerp, where, and in the country through which they have passed, they have spread a false alarm, in a manner highly unmilitary and derogatory to the character of soldiers.
“4. The Field Marshal requests the General Officers commanding divisions in the British army, and the General Officers commanding the corps of each nation of which the army is composed, to report to him in writing, what officers and men (the former by name) are now, or have been, absent without leave since the 16th instant.
“5. The Field Marshal desires that the 14th article of the 14th section of the Articles of War may be inserted in every orderly book of the British army, in order to remind officers and soldiers of the punishment affixed by law to the crime of creating false alarms.”—‘Gurwood,’ viii., p.156, edit. 1847.
Nearly 2000 men were returned “missing,” the greater number of whom were said to have gone to the rear with wounded officers and soldiers.—'Gurwood, viii., p.151, edit. 1847. But the probability is, that very few of this strength returned into the battle, but, worked upon by the alarm, helped to swell the force of the renegades. Under the circumstances, the retreat of the company of sappers is fairly exonerated, pressed as it was by masses of troops of all nations, who fled from the field in infamous haste and terror.
It is right to go a step further, and show what was the effect of the alarm at Brussels—24 miles away from the position; and thus notice the conduct of one who should be recognized in these pages. Some hours before the company arrived at Brussels, the panic was so complete, that the inhabitants flew in all directions from the horrors of an anticipated calamity, and not a few of the soldiers quartered in the place swelled the rout. Sergeant-major Hilton in charge of a detachment of sappers, prepared for the worst by packing the plans, charts, &c., of the engineer department, and also the military baggage of the commanding royal engineer. As all his own drivers had disappeared, he harnessed a couple of horses in readiness to move should necessity force him. A Belgic servant of Colonel Carmichael Smyth’s, who had been in the French service, ought to have assisted, but showing signs of treachery, an altercation ensued, in which, to save himself from the cut of a sabre, the sergeant-major wounded the shins of the Belgian with a stroke from a crowbar. Expecting no aid from this faithless foreigner, the sergeant-major looked about for more reliable intelligence respecting the rumoured reverse at Waterloo. While doing so the Commandant of Brussels accosted him, which led to his explaining the course he intended to pursue to preserve the plans, &c., from falling into the hands of the enemy. After remarking that there was no fear of the French reaching the city, the Commandant desired him to order the provost, with all the disposable men of his guard, to wait upon him immediately at the Rue Royale. Sergeant Hilton promptly complied; but the provost—this paragon of order and discipline—could not be found; and his irresolute men were only too desirous of following in the wake of the winged crowd. At last about nine of the guard accompanied the sergeant-major to the Rue Royale, where the Commandant ordered him to station the men across the road leading to Antwerp. “Stop every waggon,” he roared, furious at the insane sight that everywhere met his gaze, “and run any one through who attempts to pass in violation of your orders!” The terror of the citizens was at its highest, soldiers of every country were pouring into the capital; all was confusion and haste; the streets were lined with vehicles in endless variety, and each owner was striving to out-ride his neighbour in the frantic chase. It required to be firm at such a time, and the sergeant-major, quite as stern as the Commandant, drew his sword, and opposing himself and his small guard to the onward movement of the vans, stemmed with difficulty the flight. Quickly the horses were withdrawn from the shafts, to prevent the possibility of whipping them forward; and turning a waggon with its broadside to the stream, the outlet was thus partially closed. So great now was the pressure from behind that waggon drove on waggon, and smashing in the roadway, the passage was at length blocked up with an impenetrable barricade, which effectually checked the efflux of the fugitives to Antwerp, and calmed the agitation of the people.
226. The only soldier of the corps actually in the battle was lance-corporal Henry Donnelly, who was orderly to Captain and Brigade-Major, now Major-General Oldfield, K.H. He was present on the 17th and 18th, and Colonel Carmichael Smyth, who was seriously indisposed on the night of the 17th, was much indebted to him for his care and attention. His claim to a medal was warmly advocated by the Major, who testified to his presence in the field for two days, but Colonel Smyth never would allow that he was entitled to it. At the final rejection of his just right corporal Donnelly was so much affected, that shortly after he went into hospital, and died on the 25th July, 1817.
The claim of corporal Donnelly had been officially recognized at one time in the following order by the officer commanding his company:—
“Company orders. Argenteuil, August 6, 1815. In consequence of private Henry Donnelly being present at the battle of Waterloo, he is entitled to two years advance of service. He will therefore be mustered according to the regulations of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, dated 29th July, 1815.—(Signed) Ed. Covey, Lieutenant Royal Engineers.” And he was so mustered until July 1816, when Colonel Smyth ordered its discontinuance, making at the same time these remarks:—“The sapper in question rode out a horse of Major Oldfield’s on the 17th, and returned to Brussels on the morning of the 18th, without having seen an enemy or heard a shot fired. He was in Brussels during the actions of the 16th and 18th; and under these circumstances I should have been guilty of a dereliction of duty to have certified that he was entitled to a medal, and which he could hardly have worn on the parade of his company, in preference to the very good non-commissioned officers and men of that company, who have constantly done their duty much to my satisfaction and their own credit; and who could not but have felt aggrieved to have seen a mark of distinction bestowed upon private Donnelly without his having in any way deserved it.”
227. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note F, p. xii.
228. Ibid.
229. Ibid.
230. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note F, p. xii.
231. Ibid, i., note D, p. ix.
232. ‘Wellington Dispatches,’ viii., p. 176, edit. 1847.
233. Colonel Carmichael Smyth’s ‘Plans of attack upon Antwerp,’ &c., p. 9, and plan.
234. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note F, p. xii.
235. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note F, p. xii.
236. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii., p. 891, 2nd edit.
237. ‘London Gazette.’
238. Generally the sub-lieutenants were commissioned into the corps from the ranks of other regiments, as a patronage to the military friends of the Master-General. Many of them had distinguished themselves in the field, were good drills, and fine-looking soldiers; but though considered at first to promise well, they disappointed the expectations formed of their probable usefulness. Wanting the necessary ability and weight, they were neither respected in the army nor by the corps; and unable, therefore, to give the satisfaction which was reasonably hoped for, the first reduction ordered after the peace, embraced thethe abolition of the rank.—Pasley’s Mil. Pol., pp. 18, 19, Introduction. Their removal from the corps was, nevertheless, alluded to in terms of “extreme regret” by Colonel Carmichael Smyth in his orders of the 22nd April. In concluding his address at parting, he thus wrote, “With the conduct of the whole of the sub-lieutenants Colonel Carmichael Smyth has had every reason to be satisfied, but more particularly with those who, having been longest under his command, he has had more occasion of knowing. If, in the course of future service, he should have any opportunity of being useful to them, he assures them he will embrace it with pleasure.”
239. In addition to this total 180 men of the companies in France were borne on the strength as supernumeraries, until December, 1818.
240. The orders issued for the infliction of this discipline were as follows:—
“Head Quarters, Cambray, 25th June, 1818. In consequence of the circumstances connected with the murder of Alexander Milne, of Captain Peake’s company, which have appeared upon the proceedings of a court of enquiry, the Field Marshal has directed that the rolls of the royal sappers and miners may be called, until further orders, in their several cantonments every hour from 4 in the morning until 10 at night, all the officers being present; and that a daily report thereof may be made to head-quarters.”
“Head-Quarters, Cambray, 18th July, 1818. In consequence of orders from His Grace the Commander of the Forces, the rolls of the several companies of royal sappers and miners will be called every two hours from 4 in the morning until 10 at night, in place of every hour as directed in the C. E. orders of the 25th ultimo.”
241. The companies at Newfoundland and at Halifax, Nova Scotia, returned to England late in 1819. To the former company belonged sergeant Thomas Brown, who was discharged from the corps in November, 1819, after a service of twelve years. In 1821 the late Sir William Congreve appointed him modeller at the royal military repository, Woolwich, which situation he has held for thirty-six years with great credit. In that period he has made 125 models, chiefly of field artillery, pontoons, bridges, and miscellaneous military subjects. The greatest number are deposited for exhibition in the Rotunda, and the remainder in the rooms of instruction for the officers and non-commissioned officers. Many others also, which were defective or out of repair he has renewed or remade. His principal works, considered with regard to the skill and artistic excellence displayed in their construction, are the model of a fortified half octagon, showing the approaches and plan of attack, on a scale of 22½ feet to an inch, and a model of St. James’s Park as it was at the celebration of the peace in 1814.