War with Russia—Detachment attached to Baltic fleet—Second company to the Aland Islands—Landing—Brigadier—General Jones—Preliminary services—Operations—Fort Nottich attacked—Adventure at Fort Tzee and escape from it—Bomarsund captured—Destruction of the forts—Conduct of the company—Sickness; it returns to England—Detachment to Turkey—Augmentation to the corps—Seventh company withdrawn from Hurst Castle—Eleventh and seventh companies to Turkey—Odessa—Services of the first detachment in Turkey—Corporal Cray—Gallipoli; Boulair; Ibridgi—Commendation by Sir George Brown—Tenth and eighth companies to Scutari—Redoubt Kaleh—Works there—Circassia—Working-pay—Companies attached to divisions of the army—Buyuk Tchekmedjie—First detachment to Varna—Followed by the tenth company—Also by the eleventh—Complimentary order for services of the latter—Contrast between the French and English sappers—Works at Varna—Also at Devno—Encampments at Aladyn and Varna—Works at Gallipoli and Boulair—Eighth company to Varna—Gallantry of corporal Swann and private Anderson—Sappers join at Varna from the fleet—Coast of Circassia—Photographers—Detachment to Rustchuk—Trestle bridge at Slobedzie—Bridge of boats over the Danube—Return to Varna of a portion of the sappers from Rustchuk—Misconduct of the detachment; also of the seventh company—Spirited conduct of corporal Cray—Major Bent and party of sappers to Bucharest—Private Anderson and the Austrian Dragoons—Fourth company to Varna—The Somerset Fund—The Central Association.

To obtain a religious protectorate in Turkey, Russia menaced the independence of the Sultan, which led to a long diplomatic negotiation between the Western powers and the Czar; but as the Emperor Nicholas persisted in interfering with the rule of the Sultan, and attempted to enforce his pretensions by occupying with a belligerent army the Danubian principalities, Great Britain and France declared war against Russia. Measures were instantly taken to give effect to the declaration by despatching powerful expeditions to the East and the Baltic.

To the Baltic fleet were attached, on the 9th March, one sergeant and nineteen rank and file of the second company, under the command of Lieutenant Nugent of the engineers, which embarked at Portsmouth on board the ‘Duke of Wellington,’ flag-ship of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Napier, and accompanied it in its reconnaissance of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland as far up as Cronstadt. The object of sending the party with the fleet was, that it might take the lead of the seamen and marines in any escalading operations ashore; but the nature of the service was such that no occasion offered for resorting to the expedient. During the time that the cholera was rife in the fleet, several of the detachment were seized with the malady, and three died.

When it was resolved to make a descent upon the Aland Islands, a division of the French army was despatched from Calais to carry out the enterprise. The second company, of eighty strong, under Captain F. W. King, royal engineers, was added to the force, and sailing from Deptford in the ‘Julia’ transport on the 15th July, with every conceivable engineering requirement, arrived at Calais on the 17th, and took on board 225 officers, non-commissioned officers, and rank and file of the 51st infantry of the line. The sappers were the only troops that accompanied the French contingent.

Before daylight on the 8th August, the second company, 600 of the royal marines, and 2000 French troops landed at a small cove a few miles N.E. of Bomarsund, and taking a winding route by the village of Monkstetta, encamped about 1,200 yards from Fort Tzee, sheltered by a hill on which the breaching battery was afterwards constructed. The advance of the van was formed by the sappers from the flag-ship, carrying besides their carbines an assortment of bill-hooks, hand-saws, axes, and hatchets, and the column was closed in rear by the second company under Captain King.

The British operations were wholly carried out under the direction of Brigadier-General Jones, R.E., an officer of matured judgment and experience, gained by hard service in the Peninsular War, and by some forty years of after study and experiment. He was assisted by Captain H. St. George Ord, and four other officers of the corps.

Nearly five days were employed in collecting the tools and stores, cutting roads, effecting preliminary reconnaissances, preparing an hospital, and in providing domiciles for the temporary accommodation of the company, by making huts of the branches of fir trees; while a strong party, about 400 yards from the hill, worked with unflagging industry in making fascines and filling sand-bags, which, when finished, were carried by the seamen and marines to the depôt near the site of the intended battery.

Meanwhile two or three attempts had been made by some officers of the corps, attended by a few intrepid sappers, to trace the battery; but the enemy opened so heavy a fire upon the parties, that a suspension of their exertions necessarily followed. Determination and tact, however, got over the difficulty. No trace was used, but a simple alignment struck, from which, on the 13th August, under shade of the evening, sergeant John Jones and twenty-four rank and file, began to construct the battery, under the orders of Captain Ord. Without the chance of digging a shovel-full of earth to give solidity and strength to the cover, the battery was built on the bare rock entirely of fascines and sand-bags. The sappers reared it unassisted, except that the royal marines carried the material from the engineer’s park to the hill. Sergeant John Jones had the honour of laying the first sand-bag. In ten hours, the detachment, unrelieved, nearly completed the battery, which would soon have opened upon Fort Tzee; but the French having forestalled the arrangement by obtaining the surrender of its commandant, the battery was free for other employment, and its direction was consequently changed against Fort Nottich. Speedily the epaulement which flanked the battery was prolonged, the platforms promptly laid, and three 32-pounders having been placed in position, the embrasures were unmasked by some daring sappers, and the firing, which lasted about nine hours, ended at the fall of the day in the capture of the garrison. It was surrendered to Captain Ord, R.E., who had with him to receive the formal capitulation, a force of 100 of the royal marines and five rank and file of the sappers.

The added work was partly constructed in the day, under fire, as was also the laying of the platforms. Corporal Peter Leitch,^[135] a first-class carpenter with some handy men of the company, attended to this service. The working party was relieved every four hours day and night, until the battery was completed, and also during the siege, to throw fatigue and danger equally upon all. The guns fired by the seamen and marine artillery were first drawn by them to the battery on sledges of a novel construction, over steep and rugged ascents. When they reached the camp, however, their labours were considerably diminished, as a road to assist them had been cut by the sappers, up the hill to the breaching battery, under the orders of Captain King. Corporal George Luke acted as overseer in this duty. Two of the men were allotted to each of the guns to keep the embrasures in good order. This they usually attended to while the gun was loading, and not a few displayed a stoical coolness and intrepidity in repairing the damaged merlons, and clearing away the debris occasioned by the enemy’s cannonade. Though the fire upon the battery was warm at times, the casualties only embraced two killed, of whom one was the Hon. Lieutenant Cameron Wrottesley, R.E., and one wounded. None of the sappers were even touched; and this good fortune, as well for them as the seamen and marines, was attributed to the prudence of Brigadier-General Jones, who had men appointed to look out and warn the battery when the enemy’s guns were fired. These “look-out” men were sappers—alert spirits with quick eyes and stout hearts—who gave the alarm the instant a flash was seen at the fort. The better to enable them to give the intimation they took ground in advance of the battery in some chasms of the rock, where, although partially screened by the natural cover of their hiding places, it was a wonder that they escaped unhurt.unhurt. Privates James Moncur^[136] and Thomas Ross^[137] were most conspicuous in this hazardous duty.

When the French had captured Fort Tzee the Brigadier-General gave an order for sergeant John Jones to make a plan of it. He had a note to the officer commanding the garrison requesting the service to be permitted. Taking with him privates John S. Rowley and George Peters to assist, he started on the morning of the 15th, but contrary to expectation found the French had abandoned the work and taken shelter in an advanced trench. Presenting the request to the French Commandant, the sergeant awaited authority to proceed. The fort was on fire, having been shelled by the Russians the previous evening. The Commandant and several French officers advised Jones not to venture into the place, but with soldier-like firmness he persevered in urging the performance of the duty; and permission being granted, he and his assistants went on. Going through one of the embrasures, which was on fire, and the gun-carriage burning, they pushed into the tower. Loose powder, broken cartridges, and five shells were lying about; the flames had nearly spread to the principal magazine, the remainder of the building had more or less fire in every casemate, and the smoke in thick columns was streaming from the crackling apertures. With difficulty they gained the first floor, and then, finding the stairs, penetrated to the roof, not without being almost suffocated, and losing, for a time, private Rowley in the smoke. From floor to floor and embrasure to embrasure they moved, in hopes of stealing the barest chance of taking even a few measurements, but their efforts were unavailing; and so, compelled to quit the tower, they had scarcely reached their own camp, about 1,200 yards away, when the flames having communicated with the magazine, it exploded, and the fort blew up.

Without attempting to chronicle the different incidents of the campaign, in which the fleet and the French troops so gallantly participated, it will be sufficient to note that Bomarsund, the principal fort of the Aland Islands, capitulated without material opposition, and the Russians were marched out prisoners of war. The sappers and miners and royal marines formed in line, faced by a force of the French infantry; and through their divided ranks, the Russians moved pensively away to the point arranged for their departure.

No sooner were the forts in possession of the allies than measures were taken to disable the guns and dismantle the works. The sappers only were employed in carrying out the mining operations under the direction of their officers. In this duty they worked with so much energy, that their exertions were scarcely checked by the fatigues to which they were necessarily subjected. Forts Prasto, Nottich, and Bomarsund all fell in turn—blown up by mines skilfully laid and fired. The magazines also were exploded, the shot and shell removed, and stores of timber, prepared for use in the contemplated fortifications, were burnt. The work of destruction extended even to the garrison chapel; it was sacked and then destroyed, and all the unfinished forts and buildings, rising from foundations which marked the extent of a stupendous engineering design, were torn up by mines and thrown down. The stone landing-pier was likewise demolished, and not a slab of granite which promised to be of service in future works was left unbroken. But a few weeks, and what a change! This proud maritime position—this formidable outport of the yet impregnable Cronstadt, studded with forts and bristling with ordnance, was one widespread area of ruin and desolation!

Brigadier-General Jones and the officers of the corps were well pleased with the military bearing and exertions of the company, and commended the “cheerful and willing manner in which they performed the laborious duties” assigned to them. Besides the non-commissioned officers and men named above, there were others noted for their services. Privates John Williams,^[138] John Veitch,^[139] and Francis Enright, for their boldness, resolution, and zeal. Corporal George Luke,^[140] for his ability and usefulness as a miner in the demolition of Bomarsund. Sergeant John Jones,^[141] for his assistance as a draughtsman; and sergeant Richard P. Jones,^[142] for his general diligence and intelligence, as well in the general operations as in the special one of diving. The ‘Penelope’ having run ashore on an unknown rock off Bomarsund, was compelled to throw fifteen of her guns overboard to float and save her. Several naval divers attached to the fleet were afterwards employed to bring them up; but as some submarine difficulties prevented as speedy an accomplishment of the undertaking as was desired, the co-operation of sergeant Richard Jones was found to be an acquisition, inasmuch as he recovered five 8-inch guns and one 10-inch.

There was much sickness among the sappers during the brief campaign, and on one day no less than forty-seven men out of a company not a hundred strong, were on the sick-list with choleraic symptoms; but owing to the attention of the naval surgeons, only two died. Quitting the Baltic Sea in the ‘Cumberland,’ the company rejoined the corps at Woolwich on the 16th October, and before two months had intervened, was despatched in all haste to Turkey.

It is now time to turn to the East, to trace the movements and services of the corps in that interesting quarter. The van of the army sent thither under the command of Lord Raglan, was a small party of six rank and file of the sappers and miners under Captain Chapman of the engineers. They belonged to the fourth company, at Malta, whence they sailed in the ‘Banshee’ on the 25th January, and having arrived four days after in Beicos Bay, were the first British soldiers landed on the Ottoman shores.

To meet the calls for its services in the coming struggle, the corps, by order of Lord Raglan under date the 23rd February, was augmented from an establishment of 2,218 of all ranks to 2,658 officers and men, by enlarging the organization of each of the twenty-two companies with one sergeant, one corporal, one second-corporal, and seventeen privates. The corps was now fixed according to the following details:—

To concentrate the available force for active duty, the seventh company, employed in services of a secondary character only, was withdrawn from Hurst Castle, and removed to Woolwich. While at the castle the company had assisted in strengthening the place by constructing two batteries for ten and twelve guns respectively, and also three loopholed caponniers, built of brick and cement in the moat of the castle. Quartered as it was upon an exposed shore, in a spot that was isolated and dreary, the conduct of the company was anything but satisfactory, and in the short space of eighteen months, out of a strength that scarcely exceeded ninety non-commissioned officers and men, no fewer than twenty-three privates deserted.

On the 24th February the eleventh company, under Captain Hassard, embarked at Southampton for Turkey on board the ‘Himalaya’ steamer, in which was shipped a store of intrenching tools for field operations. At Malta they landed on the 8th March, and were temporarily quartered at Floriana. The seventh company—Captain Gibb’s—joined them on the 27th March, and brought with them a further supply of tools and implements. Two days later both companies embarked in the ‘Golden Fleece,’ and steamed off with the rifle brigade to Gallipoli, where they landed with Lieutenant-General Sir George Brown on the 8th April. About forty non-commissioned officers and men of the corps were left at Gallipoli, and the remainder, marching nearly nine miles, took up a position not far from the village of Boulair, from which the camp derived its name.

On the 17th April twelve rank and file of the eleventh company, detached to Constantinople, joined the ‘Fury’ steamer for service in the Black Sea, and were present at the bombardment of Odessa. The squadron was hotly engaged when the ‘Fury’ arrived, and after firing a few rounds, was signalled from the action by the Admiral. On the 23rd April she was again in the fight for two hours, but her presence in the action is not noticed in the official despatches.

Meanwhile the six men with Captain Chapman, R.E., who in the course of a few months had been in six different vessels, were, during the intervals, employed under their officers, surveying Fort St. Nicholas, on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles, and the country from thence as far as the gulf of Saros. A few weeks later they assisted in a similar service at Boulair and Gallipoli, and then sailing again up the Bosphorus to Beicos Bay, landed at Therapia, from whence seven days after they removed to Constantinople, pushing out a party of four men under Lieutenant De Vere to survey Buyuk Tchekmedjie, a district some twenty miles from the port.

When Sir John Burgoyne was in the country prior to the arrival of the troops, private James Cray was his orderly, and accompanied him to Varna and Shumla. Majors Dickson and Wellesley, with Lieutenants Burke and the Honourable George Wrottesley and lady, were of the party. From rough roads and inclement weather the journey was not without its trials; and at night the little expedition rested by the road-side in any nook or hovel where they could find shelter.

Subsequently private Cray was orderly to the heroic Lieutenant Burke, R.E. With him he passed a few days at Silistria, and then took horse to a small town on the banks of the Danube nine miles from Rustchuk. Major Wellesley had given him a sword, but this was not considered sufficient for his defence, and he was provided from the Turkish armoury with a Minié rifle and revolver. Thus armed, he joined the Ottoman forces in an action against the Russians, who under cover of a fusillade from a strong body of riflemen, were endeavouring to cross the river. Met by a fire it was impossible to stand against, they faced about and retreated in their boats to land. Cray was thus the first soldier of the British army engaged in the common cause, and for his conduct on the occasion was presented by Lieutenant Burke to Omar Pacha. His next ride was to Sistova. At the time the party entered the town an engagement was going on, and the Turks were again victorious. Journeying onwards they crossed to an island, where Lieutenant Burke and his orderly at imminent risk laid out new works, and traced batteries to complete the defences of the place. On that occasion private Cray exchanged between twenty and thirty shots with the enemy, who kept up a sharp fire upon the party from the opposite bank. In all his tours of inspection and survey, from the Danube, across the Balkan chain to Adrianople, and back again by another route to Constantinople, private Cray accompanied Lieutenant Burke, and for his usefulness and spirited conduct was made lance-corporal and afterwards attached as orderly to the Brigade-Major.

The detachment at Gallipoli erected piers at the port, for landing stores, guns, &c., and prepared hospitals for the sick. The companies at Boulair assisted to form the lines on the left of the position allotted to the British troops to execute. About 1,500 men of the infantry were daily distributed for some months to the trenches and roads, and performed their tasks with ardour and cheerfulness. One man detached to Ibridgi, about fifty miles distant on the north side of the gulf of Saros, superintended the Greeks in felling and collecting brushwood and timber, for the construction of magazines, platforms, log-huts, &c. A fluctuating party, numbering at one time nine men under a corporal, was afterwards detached on this duty.

When Sir George Brown, who commanded the division, took his departure for the frontier, he communicated in orders of the 6th May “his entire approbation of the general conduct, zeal, and industry of the royal sappers and miners on the works, both at Gallipoli and the camp at Boulair.”

Two other companies were quickly reorganised to reinforce the corps in the East. These were the tenth under Captain Bent, to form the pontoon train, and the eighth from Gibraltar, under Captain Bourchier. The former embarked at Woolwich in the ‘City of London’ steamer, on board of which was Lieutenant-General Sir De Lacy Evans and staff, and the staff of the Duke of Cambridge. Sir De Lacy Evans was well pleased with the conduct and services of the company on board, for they had much to attend to in strengthening the horse-boxes. Landing at Constantinople on the 24th April, the company was quartered in Scutari barracks, as was also the eighth on debarking from the ‘Albatross,’ on the 9th May. The pontoons sent out in the ‘Melbourne’ in charge of corporal William Dickson, an able and intelligent non-commissioned officer, reached Constantinople on the 13th May.

The sappers attached to Her Majesty’s ship ‘Fury’ being transshipped to the ‘Agamemnon,’ bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Lyons, served with the squadron in a obsolete’obsolete’ on the coasts of Circassia, Georgia, and Anatolia, and were present on the 19th May in the reduction of Redout Kaleh.

Next morning the party landed, and were employed for two days as overseers in the defensive occupation of the place, under the orders of Lieutenant H. Cox and H. B. Roberts, of the royal marine artillery. Parties from all the ships were ashore at the works. The Turks, utterly unacquainted with the mode of protecting themselves by intrenchments, were instructed by the sappers. A Russian barrack was speedily loopholed, a stone building in a commanding situation was converted by massive planks into a block-house as an outwork, and a parapet was formed, flanked by a deep marsh. Houses, too, that could not aid in the defence were thrown down, whilst others, well sited, were turned into points of security and resistance. The old fort on the land side was also strengthened with additional works. When these services were sufficiently advanced, the Turks with two sappers were left to complete the defences, and the Anglo-French working parties, with the remainder of the sappers, returned to their ships.

Renewing its cruise, the squadron anchored off Bardan. Landing Captain Brock, R.N., Captain Stanton, R.E., a doctor, and four sappers, they started, guided by an escort of Circassians commanded by Ismail Bey, over the mountains, to communicate with the prophet-warrior Schamyl.

Late in May, Lord Raglan ordered the sappers, when employed as artificers “in repairing tools, constructing wharves, and the like,” to receive working pay; the non-commissioned officers at the rate of 1s. a-day, and the privates 6d. to 1s. a-day each, according to conduct and ability. The non-commissioned officers appointed conductors of stores, photographers, electricians, &c., were granted 2s. a-day each.

To form a connexion between the sappers and miners and the army, the four companies with the expedition were attached to the divisions as follows:—

Four men employed for a few weeks with Captain Chapman, R.E., in the survey of Buyuk Tchekmedjie, were recalled to Constantinople late in May, as the intention of forming that district into an encampment had been abandoned, owing to the altered character of events.

While the carpenters of the companies at Scutari were fitting up horse-boxes for the cavalry on board the transports, a forward movement was commenced by a detachment of one sergeant—John F. Read—and twenty-seven rank and file of the tenth company, commanded by Lieutenants E. C. A. Gordon and Pratt, which landed at Varna from the ‘Caradoc’ on the 22nd of May. Precedence was given to this party for the purpose of erecting jetties to land the troops, horses, and ordnance, on the arrival of the army.

On the 26th of May, the remainder of the company under Captain Bent, disembarked at Varna with the pontoons, from the ‘Cyclops’ steamer. The removal of the company was an expeditious operation, for in less than ten hours from the time of receiving orders, the pontoons, stores, horses, and all the miscellaneous gear attending a war company of sappers, were stowed into one vessel, and then transshippedtransshipped into another when subsequent orders rendered such an arrangement imperative. In allusion to the company’s departure, the corps was spoken of in the ‘Times,’ as a “most indefatigable and invaluable body of men.”^[143]

Simultaneously with this movement, Captain Hassard’s company sailed from Gallipoli, when their exertions elicited the following complimentary order from the officer of Royal Engineers in command.

“Captain Gordon thanks the eleventh company for the zealous and willing manner with which they worked during the whole of last night, and till six o’clock this morning, embarking intrenching tools and stores, immediately after their march in from the camp at Boulahar. This exertion, so cheerfully performed, as to enable the company to proceed without loss of time on active service, will be brought to the notice of the Brigadier-General.” It was so and received his hearty acknowledgments.

The company disembarked at Varna on the 27th, and the scene at the quay was strikingly interesting and animated. About 250 French sappers had also landed from the ‘Cacique,’ and working as they did some twenty yards from the British sappers, a good opportunity was afforded for contrasting the temperament and military habits of the two nations. The French, gay, volatile, and impulsive, stirred about with elated spirits and elastic activity, that gave a cheerful, though an impetuous aspect to their exertions; whilst the English sappers, grave, impassible, and taciturn, wheeled off scaling ladders and stores so devoid of bustle and joyousness, and with so much attention to order and composure, that an air of stern and serious necessity was impressed on their labours. Nevertheless, the work was done with a business-like energy and earnestness that seemed more than adequate for any task or enterprise.^[144]

Varna for a few months was the principal frontier station and depot for engineer stores and pontoons, from whence parties were thrown out to Devno, Aladyn, Monister, Rustchuk, &c. At Varna the companies built a stone pier of some pretensions, and a wooden one at the south side of the bay, run out into deep water 140 feet from the beach. They also banked up the shore, deepened the little harbour, and improved the almost trackless roads beyond and within the vicinity of Aladyn, making them passable for heavy wheeled conveyances. Much of the work was carried on in bog and water, which, however, was ultimately discontinued, as it was found that some of the men who were so employed, died from cholera, traceable to their exertions and exposure.

About seventy men of the tenth company marched to Devno on the 29th May, who repaired the roads, removed the accumulations of years from deserted fountains, rendering them again useful for thirsty wayfarers, built ovens for baking bread, raised dams to collect water for the troops, and constructed a bridge across the lake. From a lonely burial-ground, filled with blocks of unhewn and unsculptured granite, marking nevertheless the sites of numerous graves, the sappers took the largest stones, and used them in erecting a bridge over one of the narrow channels which joined the lakes of Aladyn and Devno. The men worked very hard, at times up to their breasts in water. The correspondent of the ‘Times,’ in speaking of this work—June 29th—termed the sappers “a most utilitarian corps while Captain Gordon, in a letter to a brother officer, remarked with respect to its general services, “that the men work well and behave well. To be with them is a pleasure.”

A party of twelve men with sergeant Thomas Dumvill, under Lieutenant Creyke of the engineers, was employed for three days at Carra-Houssan; and having placed the several wells in order, and rendered the neglected fountains available for use, it returned to Devno. It was expected that the light division would march through the village of Shumla, but the intention was afterwards abandoned. The sappers therefore were the only British troops at this advanced frontier station.

At Aladyn, the sappers were encamped in a valley covered with the thickest foliage, and its many rural accessories of creepers, clematis, wild vines, &c., made the scene as picturesque as grateful.^[145] At Varna, the companies were tented as nearly as possible to their work, while a detachment was quartered for a time, close by the city walls, to be ready for any emergency:^[146] but when the cholera had to some extent decimated the camp, the sappers were removed, to improve their sanitary condition, to a healthier location on the south side of the bay.

The seventh company at Gallipoli and Boulair, in addition to their duties on the lines, constructed a number of log-huts, stores, and stables for the cantonment of a regiment, in the event of the army being compelled to fall back to the isthmus, as to another Torres Vedras, for succour and safety.

The eighth company from Scutari landed at Varna on the 19th of June from the ‘Golden Fleece’ steamer, and joined the frontier companies.

Lance-corporal William Swann and private Andrew Anderson accompanied Captain Bent and Lieutenant Burke to the beleagueredbeleaguered fortress of Silistria, starting on the 17th of June. Arriving too late to share in its defence, they shortly afterwards repaired to Rustchuk, where a hazardous attack upon the Russians holding the opposite bank of the Danube, was undertaken on the 7th of July by Hassan Haki Pacha, the commander of the Turkish force at that fortress. The attack was made on three points, Captain Bent leading one of the divisions. Lieutenant Burke also led a detached party of Turkish troops across the river in boats. The two sappers were attached to him, and it is of their conduct particularly, and not the general incidents of the battle, that the following record will give an account. Gaining the island, the party of Turks jumped on shore, and forming in line, gallantly pushed on, and were met by superior numbers. A fierce hand to hand struggle ensued, and Lieutenant Burke, with desperate valour, slew with his own strong arm six of his opponents, falling early on the strand covered with frightful wounds. The sappers stood by their officer, and fought “well and bravely.” In the midst of the conflict, private Anderson, a stalwart soldier, tried to save the heroic young man whose spirit inspired all with courage; but though the attempt unhappily failed, he dealt out slaughter among the Russians with incredible effect. It was not long before the little band of Turks, overpowered by numbers, retreated to the boats. Mindful of the sacred duty that devolved upon him, Anderson, with daring devotion, three times threw himself into the ranks of the enemy, and at last rescued the bleeding body of his officer. Though encumbered with his carbine and other arms, he endeavoured to bear it away on his back, but such was its weight—for the lieutenant was a powerful man, and of robust stature—and such the heaviness of the fire upon him, he was obliged to relinquish his purpose, leaving the body concealed in some long grass. Taking the dead man’s sword to save it from falling as a trophy into the hands of the enemy, he made good his retreat to the river. Scrambling down its sedgy bank, which varied from three to six feet in height, the party renewed the conflict, and improved their cover by a hasty entrenchment, in the formation of which the Turks used their hands and bayonets, and the sappers their swords. Corporal Swann was here soon disabled; and, wounded in the head by a blow from the butt end of a musket, he was falling, when, a second blow across the shoulder-blade, threw him into the water. There for four hours he lay insensible, and was providentially saved from drowning by a thick woollen shirt he wore.^[147] Anderson, now the only British soldier with the little batch, acted as became his manly character, and encouraging the Turks by his prowess and endurance, the brave detachment maintained the unequal contest with veteran firmness, and only recrossed the Danube when the necessity for their services had ceased. In that hard-contested battle, private Anderson killed no less than fourteen Russians, himself escaping miraculously without wound or hurt. Next morning, though it was uncertain whether the enemy was in ambush or not, he pushed over to the island again, and recovered the body of his officer, but what a sad spectacle did it present! It was headless; thirty wounds from bullet, sabre, and bayonet, riddled his remains, and his fingers had been chopped off to secure the rings he wore! The battle of Giurgevo ended in a victory for the Turks. Ten hours the fight lasted, and the loss on both sides was considerable. For their gallantry Swann was promoted to be second corporal,^[148] and private Anderson decorated, by Omar Pacha, with the order of the Medjidie. His highness himself placed the star on the brave man’s breast, and then, in friendship, warmly shook his hand. In the ‘London Gazette’ of January 12, 1855, appeared the following gratifying announcement. “The Queen has been pleased to grant unto private Andrew Anderson of the Sappers and Miners, her royal license and permission that he may accept and wear the order of the Medjidie, which the Sultan has been pleased to confer upon him, in approbation of his distinguished bravery and good conduct at the passage of the Danube on the 7th of July last, and subsequently in rescuing the body of his commanding officer, Lieutenant Burke, after he had fallen; and that he may enjoy all the rights and privileges thereunto annexed.”—“And also to command that Her Majesty’s said concession and especial mark of her royal favour be registered, together with the relative documents, in Her Majesty’s College of Arms.”

The four sappers landed from the ‘Agamemnon’ in May, were for six weeks in Circassia with Captain Brock, R.N. In returning to the ship, they, with six other men of the detachment on board of her, accompanied the fleet in its subsequent cruises along the coast, and in the Black Sea. No longer required for service afloat, the party landed at Baltschik, and marching to Varna, rejoined their companies on the 16th and 18th July.

Early in July, Lieutenant Lempriere left Varna for Circassia in the French steamer ‘Vauban’ with orders to place in a state of defence, some of the towns along the coast, which, having been wrested from the Russians were now being menaced by them. Sergeant Marshall and private Richards accompanied him. On the 11th the party landed at Churuksu, the Turkish head-quarters on that frontier, and soon completed a survey of the place and its vicinity. Obliged to remain there a few days, three or four officers of the ‘Vauban’ and Lieutenant Lempriere visited some of the Turkish outposts and detached forts. With the party were some French sailors and private Richards. When about to return, two of the sailors and the sapper were missing. Nothing could be heard of them, and it was concluded they had strayed into the hands of the Russians. Skirmishers were sent out to scour the country. Wood, wild, and mountain were threaded in quest of the wanderers, and all hope of tracking them had wellnigh been given up, when a quick eye observed them in the bush—apparently unconscious of the concern they had created or of the chances there were of the enemy capturing them—coolly stuffing themselves with blackberries! Stocked with a good supply of the fruit, they were guided back to the party, who, no longer uneasy about the safety of their attendants, shared with the wayfarers the contents of their wallets and enjoyed an agreeable dessert.

At Redoubt Kaleh a small body of Russian cavalry closely approached the Turkish works to reconnoitre the position, but a few rounds from the batteries quickly dispersed them. Information had reached the enemy of the arrival of some English troops, which, in all probability, was more than corroborated, by the glimpse they must have caught of one of the four red-coated sappers constituting, at that time, the entire British contingent on the coast of Circassia. Whether this was or was not enough to excite the fears of the Russians, certain it is, that a considerable body of them in anticipation of an attack, threw up some earthworks on the banks of the river about five miles away.

Cruising along the coast, now in the ‘Vauban,’ now in the ‘Wasp,’ Lieutenant Lempriere and his men landed for short intervals at Pitsunda, Soukum Kaleh, Redoubt Kaleh, Anacrea, Churuksu, Batoum, and lastly, all went up to Trebizonde. The two Kalehs were the fortresses at which the services of the sappers were chiefly given. At Redoubt Kaleh two men who had been left by Captain Stanton as overseers to the Turks joined Lieutenant Lempriere’s little force. In addition to instructing the Ottoman soldiers in the mode of forming fieldworks, the sappers superintended the restoration of some old batteries and revetments, the construction of various new defences, and assisted Lieutenant Lempriere in the surveys be found it necessary to make for professional purposes. While they were thus busy, the Crimean Expedition had been determined on, and as every sapper was wanted for the enterprise, the party was recalled and rejoined the corps just as the siege was about to open.

Corporal John Pendered and lance-corporal John Hammond arrived at Varna on the 24th July, and were attached as photographers, under Captain Hackett, 77th regiment, to the head-quarters of the army. Previously to leaving London they had been instructed in the art by Mr. Thompson, and had practically tested their efficiency at Chatham, where patches of broken ground, and military scenes and fortifications, gave them a variety of subjects to portray. Many of their photographic sketches, taken under circumstances of difficulty and disadvantage, were exhibited at Gore House during the summer months; but without having the chance of proving their usefulness and skill, these two young men, promising and enterprising, perished in a storm.

At the request of Omar Pacha a detachment of the corps, under Captain Gage, R.A. and Lieutenant Pratt, R.E., started from Aladyn for Rustchuk on the 8th July, to form a bridge over the Danube for the passage of the Ottoman troops. It consisted of sergeant John F. Read, one bugler, and thirty-two rank and file, accompanied by fifteen French pontoneers, and thirty-five English seamen from the fleet, under Lieutenant Glynn and Prince Leiningen, R.N., twenty of whom led the way, and fifteen covered the rear. With characteristic pride, the seamen gave importance to the honour accorded them by carrying unfurled, both in front and rear, a large union jack. All were on horseback. Next to the advance sailors were the sappers, unskilled in equitation, in every conceivable attitude, mounted on young horses. Each led a second horse loaded with intrenching tools, &c. Behind them followed about 150 horses ridden by native grooms and guides, bearing tools, baggage, and forage; and then came the party of French pontoneers. The expedition went from twenty to thirty miles in twelve hours, killing three horses in the first two days. Many of the animals, unaccustomed to the rattling of picks and shovels against their flanks, were difficult to manage, and in their fright and restiveness, frequently dashed away from the cavalcade. Considerable delay occurred in recovering and restraining them, and what with unavoidable halts at Schumla and Rasgradt, the party did not reach Rustchuk until the 13th July, though the distance travelled was only 120 miles. This novel equestrian journey was accomplished without any material mishap, except a few almost harmless falls, and the occasional diversion of a horse and his rider rolling together on the road. Hard riding, however, on ill-formed and broken tracks, made the men so sore and stiff, that when the time for rest arrived, they found it preferable to sleep standing!

On the 15th, the sappers were sent over to Giurgevo, and for a few days assisted to intrench the position of the Turks; when, on the 19th, at the desire of Omar Pacha, they moved up to Slobedsie, and under the superintendence of Captain Bent and Lieutenant Pratt constructed, in a very creditable manner, a trestle bridge over the Slobedsie Creek, which was 450 feet across, to a small island in the Danube. Notwithstanding that several of the men, as many as fifteen in one day, had been ill during the operation, the work was finished on the 25th.

Next day the sappers joined the French pontoneers and English sailors, in throwing a bridge of boats across the main stream, at a place some 890 yards wide. A few boats had been laid when the sappers commenced. The pontoneers worked from one shore, the sappers from the other; whilst the sailors rowed up the boats and assisted to secure them in position. The boats, fixed with a clear bay of twenty feet between, gave for each of the series about forty feet of bridge. The breadth for the roadway was eighteen feet six inches. Wood was scarce at the spot, and the timbers for the superstructure in great part were obtained from Sistova and Widdin. Intended for heavy service the bridge was made of massive baulks and stout oak planking, strongly bolted, cramped, and racked. Much “difficulty was experienced in securing some of the boats in the more rapid part of the stream, but by mooring them with four anchors each, and the aid of heavy ordnance sunk above the boats and securely fastened to them,” they stood against wind and surge, firm and unbroken.^[149] “It was completed on the 4th August, and on the 5th received some damage from the first Austrian steamer that passed during the war. This was soon repaired,”^[150] and to obviate a similar casualty, an opening was contrived to permit the navigation to continue, which, when not required, was closed up again by a moveable raft to make good the bridge. In appearance it was as artistic and elegant as useful. The longest boats occupied the centre, from which the smaller craft gradually fell away to the two shores. Like ancient galleys they were shaped with stems and prows curving gracefully upwards from the water.^[151] The bridge was no unworthy rival of the celebrated one formed by Xerxes, in his passage of the Hellespont at Abydos. “On the 10th, Omar Pacha opened it in person, and complimented the officers and men for the zeal and ability they had shown in its construction. Captain Bent was in command of the sappers.”^[152] For the ceremony two triumphal arches of evergreens were run up, one at each end of the bridge, and above them proudly waved the allied banners of England, France, and Turkey. To crown the service, both French and English met in unmixed cordiality and friendship, at a costly repast provided by Omar Pacha.

No longer required for service with the force of his highness, eighteen of the detachment returned, on horseback, to Varna, under Lieutenant Pratt, R.E., passing through Turtukai and Silistria, where joining the English seamen, they quitted it again on the 15th August. At night, after a march of twenty miles, the party halted at Kinarjik. On the next day a further march of thirty miles found them encamped at Karapelt; another thirty took them to Karayal, where a sapper who had died on the route was buried. A beautiful spot was selected for the encampment, and at sunset the deceased was interred in a hastily-excavated grave, beneath the sombre shade of a wild pear-tree.^[153] All the officers and men were present, and from the absence of all display, and the fatigued, rusty, and travel-stained aspect of the men, the ceremony was impressive and mournful. On the 18th August, travelling fifteen miles that morning, the sappers reached head-quarters, and rejoined the tenth company. Corporal Swann, who had been appointed by Lord Raglan provost-sergeant to the mule-drivers at Rustchuk with a salary of 4s. 6d. a-day, returned to Varna with the party.

Not without mortification it is necessary to introduce in this place a record relative to the misconduct of the Rustchuk detachment. Honoured as they were by being the only British soldiers selected for an advanced frontier duty, much was expected from their conduct and exertions; but their extreme irregularity and drunkenness, with few exceptions,^[154] offered a striking contrast to the behaviour of the party of sailors and the Turkish garrison. To mark therefore the displeasure of Brigadier-General Tylden, he subjected the detachment to a course of severe discipline, and stopped the promotion of some of the non-commissioned officers. Several men of the seventh company also, who had commenced a career of intemperance at Hurst Castle, behaved with equal discredit, and disgusted their officers. It is a pity in a corps possessing the advantages of education, skill, and mechanical attainments, that there should exist anything to tarnish the fame the well-intentioned are striving to brighten.

As a set-off against this censure, it is well there is occasion to give place to an instance of individual good conduct, as honourable as meritorious. Varna was set on fire by some Greek incendiaries, instigated by Russian agents, and was only extinguished after much of the city had been laid waste, and considerable munitions destroyed. Brigadier-General Tylden directed the operations for saving the town. The companies of sappers, being on the south side of the bay, were not present, but lance-corporal James Cray, whose services under Lieutenant Burke have been already noticed, acting as the Brigadier’s orderly, lent material aid by his intrepidity in arresting the flames. “When the danger was greatest,” says the official report, “and the spreading flames threatened to reach the large Turkish powder-magazine, corporal Cray laboured voluntarily and incessantly, by mounting scaling-ladders and closing the openings with blankets, thus not only largely contributing to the safety of the magazine, but setting an example to the sailors and others assisting, which was of the greatest service.” He was promoted to be second-corporal for his conduct.

Captain Bent, with fifteen non-commissioned officers and men left at Rustchuk under Omar Pacha, accompanied the Ottoman troops into the Wallachian principality, entering the capital on the 22nd August. Corporal Harding, a zealous and able sapper and pontoneer, died that day from cholera on the line of march, and was buried in the graveyard of a small country Greek church. His remains, covered with a union jack, were attended to their final resting-place by all the Englishmen in Bucharest, and the service was read by Mr. Meyer, a missionary clergyman. A private was attacked by the grave of his comrade, and returning to his tent, soon afterwards died. He was buried in the Lutheran churchyard. Several other choleraic seizures occurred in the detachment, which were ascribed to the intemperance of the men, and their imprudent use of fruits. No British soldiers, save this small party, served during the campaign in the Wallachian capital.

The occupation of Bucharest by the Austrians was followed by many ungracious acts which it was never anticipated a chivalric nation would impose on a defenceless people. These were chiefly felt in the forcible possession of the houses of the citizens without the courtesy of seeing whether they could be accommodated. No excuse could be offered for such ungallant proceedings, as the police had provided the Austrian troops with suitable billets. The same inconsiderate demeanour was paraded before the few British sappers quartered in the capital, who, to prevent the possibility of a pretext for collision, were all pent up with their Captain-Bent-in one domicile.^[155] In their activity to find comfortable stabling, some Austrians, commanded by a sergeant, ordered the horses belonging to Captain Bent to be taken out to make room for three lively steeds which the pirating party had brought with them. It was not to be borne that they should attempt to encroach upon premises already too limited for the reasonable wants of the Captain and his sappers; and private Andrew Anderson, who happened to be on the spot at the time, met their demands with courageous sternness. This unexpected resistance caused the sergeant valorously to motion with his sabre, and to threaten, among other desperate penalties, to hang the Englishman; but Anderson, indisposed to yield his trust—though the odds were against him—made so imposing a demonstration of physical determination, that the dragoons, taken somewhat aback at his boldness, quickly decamped, and abandoned the intention of quartering themselves or their horses in the British billets.

The fourth company from Malta, under Captain Craigie, reinforced the corps at Varna on the 14th August, and a detachment of the third company at Corfu was also sent thither, arriving at the head-quarters on the 25th August. They were ordered from their respective stations to the seat of war by Lord Raglan.^[156]