T. W. J. Connolly

“ As the night crept on 900 of the line and 89 sappers marched into the trenches, who, scattered among the batteries, left no point unstrengthened, no embrasure unequal to its wonted work. Everywhere the platforms obtained fixity, and the gaps which had been made in the parapets for the passage of cumbersome guns were filled up before the darkness sped. Much shattered was the Gordon battery, and its fascines, broken at the bands, were strewn in waste about the gorges, while the sand-bags were ripped up and disembowelled by every telling shot and tearing splinter. ”

“ To carry on a sap, or drive the gallery of a mine, was alike an impossible attempt. The army had neither a single sapper, miner, or pontoneer, and a few drunken and worthless military artificers formed the only engineer troops.... The lessons of experience thus dearly bought have not been acquired in vain. The practical engineer school at Chatham, organised and long directed by Colonel Pasley, has produced a corps of sappers and miners equal to any in Europe. Their exercises on the Medway have likewise given them the qualities of excellent pontoneers. ”

“ Not only had the workmen to bear a direct fire, and to be disturbed and interrupted by light-balls, but to suffer from accidents arising from shot and shell rebounding from the hill-side, and rolling in all their fury into the sap beneath.
Six sappers in the 21-gun battery repaired each an embrasure, all of which were in a very shattered state. Fierce and gusty was the wind at midnight, collecting the dust and light sand in its vortex, and blowing it in the faces of the workmen. The trenches were swept as if a hurricane were passing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Two old acquaintances who had not met for years chanced in the early night, as the darkness was falling, to recognize each other in the quarries. Each grasped the other’s hand, and while engaged in an animated greeting, with the warm smile of welcome on their lips, a round-shot struck off both their heads! The friends were sergeants William Wilson of the corps and Morrison of the royal artillery. A genuine Scotchman was Wilson, with an accent as provincial as a Highlander. Thick-set, well knit, and athletic, he was formed for the hardships of labour. ”

“ The general employment of the sappers and miners in this great national work embraced the whole range of the scheme for its accomplishment, and many non-commissioned officers and men trained in this school became superior observers, surveyors, draughtsmen, levellers, contourers, and examiners. Among so many who distinguished themselves it would be almost invidious to name any; but there were a few so conspicuous for energy of character, efficiency of service, and attainments, that to omit them would be a dereliction no scruples could justify. ”

“ The round-hill trench—an astonishing achievement of persevering skill and courage, formed, for the most part, through rock at an extraordinary outlay of labour, under very adverse circumstances and interruptions from the galling play of musketry and artillery—was designated the fourth parallel, and though it was at no time armed with a battery, it was mailed at all points with selected light troops.
Every hour made obvious the necessity of hastening the termination of a struggle which had swallowed up an army in its checkered events. ”

“ To expect a loud report is certainly natural, but much less so the recoil of the smoke, as a strong current of air is always passing in the galleries, and rushing with some force through the embrasures. No matter how sultry the day, how still the air, or how fiercely the sun may beam upon the Rock, in these galleries a strong breeze is constantly felt; and the fresher the wind from the outside, whether from the north-east, and blowing directly into the embrasures, or sweeping round the Rock, the stronger is the current within the galleries to force back or disperse the smoke. ”

“ Still it bravely holds up in its ruggedness against a storm of fire. Another well-directed shell is delivered and its splinters knock everything to pieces. The feeble props at length are torn away, and all above, like an avalanche, slides upon the sole, which heaving with its own weakness gives way, and in part crumbles into the ditch. Necks, cheeks, and throat—all now have disappeared; and of the outline of that stern formation, nothing remains but a distorted mouth, with the broken wattle of gabions and the stakes of fascines sticking confusedly out along its extended jaw ”

“ First, the artificers as they were called, that is to say, the body of men trained to the exercise of mechanical arts, such as carpentry, bricklaying, bridgemaking, and so forth, which in all ages seem to have attended on a British army in the field, became the royal sappers and miners, whose services, on many trying occasions, proved eminently useful, and who still do their duty cheerfully and satisfactorily in every quarter of the globe. ”

“ Private James Weir was perhaps the most daring sapper in building stages for the observatories. Like the chamois he could climb heights almost inaccessible, and stand or sit at work on ledges, copings, pinnacles, vanes, and pieces of timber, where scarcely any human being would dare to venture without all the accessories and appliances which precaution could command for insuring safety and preventing alarm. ”

“ The sergeant-majors who received the first commissions had been in the artillery, and were distinguished for their good services and bravery. To their zeal and expertness as soldiers, they added an intimate knowledge of drill and discipline—requisites of essential importance in the organization of a new force, but which, from the vague and indefinite character of the corps, became, almost necessarily, too temporizing and elastic to be sufficiently beneficial or respected. ”

“ Expert men were invariably selected for those duties, whose wariness greatly mitigated their risks. Few appeared to be more skilful in these employments than their comrades, but on the night of the 21st, corporal John Ross, untiring, patient, and intrepid, pushed on like a master in the sap, and connected, under showers of grape, enough to disturb the equanimity of the sternest coolness, the fourth parallel with an old Russian rifle-pit in front. ”

“ Galled by a second reverse, the military artificers now mustered in full strength, together with their non-commissioned officers, and sallied into the street, brandishing brooms, pick-handles, clumps of wood, and various other unmilitary weapons. Some marines and a few other soldiers, sympathizing with the company, joined in the unhappy broil. By this time the civilians and sailors were also considerably strengthened, and every moment crowds were pouring in to swell the hostile mob. ”

“ The major part of the detachment were men of notoriously bad character, appointed to the service to afford them a chance of reclaiming themselves; but their arrival in Spain was soon marked by those habits of turbulence and dissipation which rendered them a burden at home. Without zeal, spirit, or subordination, they were found almost useless on the works, and to such a pitch was their misconduct carried, that Lieutenant Vicars contemplated dispensing with their services as sappers and miners. ”

“ Upon the merlon toils another sapper strengthening it with stones and earth handed to him by his assistants in the battery. Perspiration drops like rain over his beard, and, driven by his strong energy through every pore, moistens the rags which cover him from the night damp. Some bales of hides being brought, feeling makes up for the want of vision in so dark a night, and the cheeks are at length covered with hairy skins. Prudence has adapted their use as well to aid in preserving the embrasures, as to save them from flaming during the rapidity of our own fire. ”

“ The constant clashing of these heavy tools, which could even be heard at the camp, made the lines as alive with din and rattle as an arsenal, and brought on the miners a fire at time so furious, that to see them, amid casualty and death holding to their employments, was a scene not to be surpassed by any spectacle of endurance in the trenches. Excavations cut by the pickaxe or blown into trenches by blasting, completed, so far, a series of communications which, like so many ligatures, tied together the several works in front and rear. ”

“ The secret of success in a siege, next to good generalship, is expedition in the construction of essential works and attention to their efficiency. This was ever borne in mind; and though opposed by astounding obstacles, never a day passed but a sensible addition was made to the vast network of trenches. Parallels and approaches now covered the hills, and saps daringly progressed in front. Dingy pits filled with groups of prying and fatal marksmen studded the advances and flanks. ”

“ General Windham, whose valour and marvellous escapes on that day have astonished Europe, made his way into the place with some 80 or 100 men, but such was the virulence of the fire, such the carnage, a few only of the bold men who had had the temerity to mount the parapet could be induced, though the General himself walked amid the deadly storm, to rush from the traverse behind which they had shielded themselves. ”

“ Crouched as the men were under the boughs of the abattis and doubled up in shell-holes, they were somewhat saved from its fierceness, but every moment augmented the chances of their not returning. Cool and lion-hearted, the young engineer was everywhere among his parties commending their bravery and endurance; and sergeant Landrey, nobly assisting his officer, encouraged by his conspicuous example and his cheers the dislocated files of the forlorn hope. ”