Corps History - Part 5
Global wars and a third Corps (1756-1815)

Seven Years War - 1756-63

In the Seven Years War (1756-63) British troops were mainly centred in North America and India. In North America the Engineers attached to the columns sent against the French were involved in cutting trails, building improvised fortifications and supervising siege works.

Colonel John Bastide and ten other Engineers supervised the successful eleven-week British siege of the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, in 1758.

Major (later Colonel) Patrick Mackellar (?-1778) acted as General James Wolfe's (1727-59) Chief Engineer during the capture of Quebec (1759). Another engineer Captain (and Sub Director) John Montresor volunteered to carry the despatches reporting the fall of Quebec to the Commander in Chief, General Jeffrey Amherst (1717-97). It proved to be an arduous and dangerous 26-day journey through hostile territory.

American War of Independence - 1775-83

Captain James Montresor and Lieutenant (later Sir) Thomas Page were both present at at the battle of Bunker Hill (1775). Montresor was Chief Engineer when General William Howe's (1729-1814) forces ejected General George Washington's (1723-99) forces from Long Island, Brooklyn and Manhattan Island.

Lieutenant (later Colonel) Twiss acted as Chief Engineer to the force commanded by General 'Gentleman Johnny' Burgoyne (1722-92), the father of Sir John Fox Burgoyne (1782-1871), who became the first sapper Field Marshal in 1868.

One of the rising stars of the engineers in America was Captain (later Colonel) James Moncrieff (?-1973), who in 1776 served as guide to the 4th Regiment (now King's Own Royal Border Regiment) during a river crossing on the march to Philadelphia.

French Revolutionary Wars - 1793-1802

Tragically Colonel Monicrieff was killed during the siege of Dunkirk (1793) while he acted as Chief Engineer to Prince Frederick, Duke of York’s (1763-1827) forces. It is believed that an Austrian who mistook his Blue ordnance jacket for one of the French and shot him in error.

Engineers played their part in the success of British arms in the West Indies during 1794 when the French islands of Martinique, St Lucia and Guadeloupe were captured. Colonel Elias Durnford was Commanding Royal Engineer to General Sir Charles Grey's force responsible for those successes.

The wars highlighted the difficulties of the military branch of the Board of Ordnance serving two masters in the field – the army commander and the Board of Ordnance. This problem was particularly apparent during the ill-fated Helder Expedition (1799) and as a consequence the Duke of York solved the anomaly by raising the 'Royal Staff Corps' the army’s own engineers corps, which reported directly within the Army chain of command.

Royal Staff Corps - 1799-1830

The Royal Staff Corps was raised in 1799 from tradesmen volunteers from the infantry regiments.

Their role was "to construct Field Works and to do other Military Duties of whatsoever nature, in the Quartermaster General's Department."

The Corps served with distinction during the Peninsular war (1809-14). They were responsible for constructing an ingenious removable bridge to cross the gap over a blown Roman bridge that had once spanned the river Tagus at Alcántara. They with the Royal Navy, Royal Engineers and Royal Sappers and Miners were also responsible for the construction of a bridge of boats across the river Adour in 1813.

A lasting monument to their work in England is the Royal Military Canal, which runs for 28 miles westwards from Shorncliffe in Kent to Rye, East Sussex. It was the idea of Colonel Brown, a former Royal Engineer and was built as a third line of defence against Napoleon. Started in 1804 it was completed in 1809 at a cost of £234,000.

They remained on the Army Establishment after the end of the Napoleonic Wars serving in Britain and the expanding Empire, until their functions were eventually absorbed into Royal Sappers and Miners in the 1830's.

Napoleonic Wars 1803-15

Peninsula Wars 1808-14

Royal Engineers and Royal Military Artificers accompanied General Sir John Moore's (1761-1809) campaign (1808) to Portugal and Spain, as well as, General John Pitt, Earl of Chatham's (1756-1835) disastrous Walcheren expedition (1809), but it was not until the Duke of Wellington's campaign in the Peninsula that the Engineers really came into their own although it was a shaky start. Major General Sir William Napier (1785-1860) later wrote:

"The engineer officers were zealous; and notwithstanding some defects in the constitution and customs of their corps, tending rather to make regimental than practical scientific officers, many of them were well versed in the theory of their business: yet the ablest trembled at their destitution of all things necessary to real service. Without a corps of sappers and miners, without a private soldier who knew how to carry on an operation under fire, they were compelled to attack fortresses defended by the most warlike, practised, and scientific troops of the age ... The sieges carried on by the British in Spain were a succession of butcheries, because the commonest materials and means necessary for their art were denied to the engineers"
            (extract from History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France).

Their first major challenge was to build a great defensive system north of Lisbon, which became known as the Lines of Torres Vedras (1809). Its construction fell upon Lieutenant Colonel (later Sir) Richard Fletcher (1768-1813), Commanding Royal Engineer. Over a period of ten months 182 redoubts were constructed mounting more than 600 guns, with a manning capacity of some 40,000. The structures stretched over 25 miles from the Lower Tagus to the sea.

Throughout the war Engineers were responsible for conducting the major sieges and leading many of the final assaults.

Three attempts were made to break the French defences at Badajoz before success was finally achieved on the third attempt in April 1812, where 24 Engineers and 115 Royal Military Artificers were employed on siege works. It was these actions and failures at the earlier sieges of Badajoz that prompted Wellington to request "a sufficient trained corps of sappers and miners" and for Napier to write: "It was strange and culpable that the British Government ... should have sent an engineer corps into the field so ill organised and equipped that all the officers' bravery and zeal could not render it efficient". Sir Charles Oman in his history of the war entitled Wellington's Army held the view that the failure of the Badajoz sieges was due to the shortage of sappers and miners and those responsible for that shortcoming were the professional advisers to the administration, who should have drawn attention to the need of such a corps. However, although it took time once the problem was appreciated by the Government a warrant was issued to retify the situation. But before that the engineers were enaged the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (January 1812) where they organised the digging of two miles of trench and the building of five batteries.

In August 1812 in reponse to Wellington's requests the Royal Military Artificers were re-organised and formed into the Royal Sappers and Miners, and at the siege of San Sebastián (August 1812) they were joined by the newly trained 'Pasley Cadets' from Chatham. Colonel Sir Richard Fletcher was killed during the siege. He was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Howard Elphinstone, who was reponsible for the celebrated bridge of boats across the River Adour in 1814, which made the siege of Bayonne possible.

After the cessation of operations a Royal Sappers and Miners company from Spain was despatched to North America, while the other companies returned to the United Kingdom.

A full account of the the engineers' activities during the Peninsular war is given at Engineers and the Peninsular War 1808-14

Battle of Waterloo - 1815

Colonel Sir John Carmichael-Smith was the Commanding Royal Engineer at the battle of Waterloo. He was requested to prepare a map of the area, which was mainly surveyed and drawn up by Major John Sperling, Royal Engineers. The map, now in the Royal Engineers Museum was carried by Quartermaster General Sir William de Lancey, who was wounded in the battle.

In all eleven Royal Engineer officers were present at the battle along with five companies of Royal Sappers and Miners.

In the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo (1815) Engineers officers and members of the Royal Sappers and Miners were employed strengthening the Dutch forts along what is now the Dutch-Belgium border. This work ceased in 1828 when the last of the allied occupying armies (British and Prussian) left French soil for their respective homelands.

History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol I. Porter W (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1951)

A Short History. The Royal Engineers. Compiled by Maj DP Aston RE (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1993)

Follow the Sapper. Napier G (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 2005)

Links to further reading:

Biography - Lt Col Sir Richard Fletcher (1768-13) Wellington's Commanding Royal Engineer

Biography - General Sir Charles Pasley (1780-1861)

Article - Military Bridging