This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Superscripted characters are preceded by ‘^’. Footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are referenced. The numbering of footnotes began again at ‘1’ for each chapter. In this version, footnotes have been re-sequenced across the text for uniqueness of reference. There are several instances of footnotes appearing as glosses on other footnotes, identified in all instances as ‘a’. These have been numbered ‘Na’, where ‘N’ is the number of the note. Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: SOLDIER ARTIFICER COMPANY Plate I. UNIFORM 1786 Printed by M & N Hanhart. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM THE FORMATION OF THE CORPS IN MARCH 1772, TO THE DATE WHEN ITS DESIGNATION WAS CHANGED TO THAT OF ROYAL ENGINEERS, IN OCTOBER 1856. BY T. W. J. CONNOLLY, QUARTERMASTER OF THE ROYAL ENGINEERS. “Of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents, by flood and field; Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach.”—_Shakspeare._ “There is a corps which is often about him, unseen and unsuspected, and which is labouring as hard for him in peace as others do in war.”—_The Times._ =With Seventeen Coloured Illustrations.= _SECOND EDITION, WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS._ IN TWO VOLUMES.—VOL. I. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS. 1857. LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. ------------------ The First Edition of the Work has long been out of print, and the Second would have been published earlier, only that an expected change in the designation of the corps delayed its appearance. That change having occurred, the volumes are republished, recording the services of the corps to the date it continued to bear its old title. Revised in many places, with verbal inaccuracies corrected, aided moreover by journals and official memoranda placed at my disposal to modify or enlarge certain incidents and services, the work is as complete as it would seem to be possible at present to produce it. The concluding Chapters record the services of the corps in the Aland Islands, in Turkey, Bulgaria, Circassia, Wallachia, and the Crimea. The siege of Sebastopol and the destruction of the memorable docks have been given with the fulness which the industry and gallantry of the sappers merited; and in order that the many adventures and enterprises recorded in the final years of the history should not fail in interest and accuracy, Colonel Sandham, the Director of the Royal Engineer Establishment, with the permission of General Sir John Burgoyne, kindly lent me the assistance of the Engineers’ Diary of the Siege, as well as several collateral reports concerning its progress and the demolition of the docks. At the same time I think it right to say, that no attempt has been made in these pages to offer a history of the Crimean operations. So much only of the details has been worked into the narrative as was necessary to preserve unbroken the thread of sapper services in connexion with particular works and undertakings. It should also be borne in mind, that these volumes are devoted to the affairs of the Royal Sappers and Miners; and, consequently, that care has been taken to touch as lightly as practicable on the services of other regiments. Hence the officers of the Royal Engineers have only been named when it was desirable to identify them with parties of...