moment to be swooped down upon by the enemy's cavalry, it was a service of possible danger. "At 7 p.m. on the 12th we commenced reeling out our line in a direction W. by N. from Kassassin, having connected it with the permanent line along the railway, so that messages could be transmitted back to Ismailia. We moved over the desert in single line at fullest interval, the cable wagon which was paying out being on the left of the line and the dismounted men, in two detachments, one on each flank of the line. Our steering was by the stars, and when we had got about a mile in front of our outposts, I thought it desirable to wait for the Infantry, who did not start till some time after us. Just at midnight Sir Garnet came up and sent a message through our line to Sir H. Macpherson. We then bivouacked till about 2 a.m., when we moved forward again, and just before daybreak, wishing to know our whereabouts, I sent a N.C. Officer to ascertain what the body of troops next on our right was. To my great satisfaction we found that it was the Head Quarter Staff, so that we had hit off our position to a T." "I was then ordered to halt, and shortly afterwards the enemy opened fire, sending a shell or two unpleasantly near us. Sir Garnet ordered me to retire out of artillery fire, and presently the action became general. During the action one or two messages of a routine nature came for Sir Garnet from England, which I delivered to him personally, and was told to move forward about 1000 yards to where the Marine Artillery were halted and there await further orders. No further orders were received, however, until Major Maurice, R.A., came to tell me to come on with all speed to Tel-el-Kebir Railway Station, distant about three miles from the point where we were. I left the main body to follow at the ordinary pace, and told Lieut. Foster to bring on the cable wagon and a cart with reserve cable at a good round trot. We found it was hopeless to have a man toiling after the wagon through the sand overhauling the cable as it payed out, so I made him jump up on the wagon and let the cable take its chance. It broke several times, but we found it quicker work to stop and mend it than to regulate our pace by the man on foot, and the proof of our conclusion being the right one is, that we did the three miles in half an hour, which could not have been done otherwise." "We bustled through the lines of Tel-el-Kebir, hardly stopping to look at the results of the action, and reached the railway station at 8 a.m. We established our field telegraph office in the saloon carriage which Arabi had travelled in the day before, and in making earth found immediately that we were through to Kassassin. We had ten miles of cable out, which means twelve drums, and consequently eleven joints in addition to the five or six joints due to the cable breaking in the last three miles, and I think it scores to the credit of the detachment who worked the cable that in spite of these numerous joints, and the hurry and excitement under which they were made (and some of them in darkness), every joint was so honestly finished off that there was no fault along the line from the time it was laid until it was taken up the same evening. As soon as we were ready Sir Garnet's Military Secretary VOL. II. K handed me messages for transmission to the Queen, the Secretary of State for War, and others announcing the victory. These were sent off at 8.30 a.m., and at 9.15 we received Her Majesty's reply. I believe this to have been the first occasion on which a British General has been able to telegraph the news of his victory from the actual field of battle, and I can only wish that the message had been sent back to where we were halted, instead of awaiting us at Tel-el-Kebir railway station, by which we should have gained quite an hour in time, as the General's message was dated at 7 a.m." "We worked with the Theiber sounder and telephone, and from the time the line was opened until 6 p.m., when we shifted on to the permanent line which Lieut. Hippisley had in the meantime been repairing, I think the instrument had not a moment's rest. As soon as the permanent way was in working order, we began reeling up our ten miles of cable preparatory to any further move." The after work of the Telegraph troop in Egypt and Bechuanaland having been performed subsequent to its amalgamation into the Telegraph Battalion, the description will be found in the next Chapter. The following is a list of the officers who have commanded the Troops since their first formation to the present time:Captain Siborne, 1855, 1 Troop only. Captain Duff, 1860, 1 Troop only. Captain Duff, 1863, Train of 2 Troops and Depôt. Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzroy Somerset, 1871, Train of 3 Troops and Depôt. Lieutenant-Colonel Sir H. Elphinstone, K.C.B., V.C., 1873, Train of 3 Troops and Depot. Lieutenant-Colonel Sir H. Elphinstone, K.C.B., V.C., 1877, Troops and Companies. Colonel A. R. Lempriere, January 1st, 1882, Troops and Companies. Lieutenant-Colonel H. H. Jones, December 1st, 1882, Troops and Companies. Lieutenant-Colonel R. Athorpe, 1886, Troops and Companies. The latest development of this branch of the Engineer service has been what it is proposed to term the Mounted Detachment. In the Egyptian war of 1885 an experiment was tried of adding to the Corps of Mounted Infantry a detachment of Mounted Engineers, who were intended to move with them and to supplement their action by providing a thoroughly mobile Engineer service. This body was taken from No. 11 Field Company, and consisted of 1 Officer (Lieutenant Sandbach) and 27 men. The Sappers carried with them a light assortment of tools and a proportion of guncotton, tube wells, and sand bags. They were mounted on Arab horses. They reached Suakin on April 8th, 1885, and joined the head-quarters of the Mounted Infantry forming the third division of H Company, the other two divisions consisting of men of the Coldstream Guards. The experience gained in this short campaign was valuable; the men shared in all the duties of the Mounted Infantry in addition to performing such other work as their special training enabled them to accomplish, viz., well-sinking, demolitions, &c. The troops being recalled in the middle of May, the Mounted Detachment was broken up and rejoined the 11th Company. This experiment was considered so successful and so capable of further development that it has been decided to create a permanent Mounted Detachment as a nucleus of a larger force to be raised in time of war. It is intended that these men shall be mobile enough to move with Cavalry, and at the same time carry a sufficient supply of Engineer stores to enable them to perform any work that may be necessary. As at present approved, the Detachment is to consist of three sections including 4 officers and 100 mounted men, with 12 dismounted men, who are to ride on the carts which accompany the force. Each section is to have 1 Tyler's double cart, 2 forage carts, and 2 pack horses. Chests of artificers' tools, gun-cutton, sand bags, canvas hose, intrenching tools, and other necessary Engineer stores are conveyed on the carts and pack horses, and the whole is to move as rapidly as cavalry, and to be able always to keep up with them. In fact they will provide for the Engineers the same mobility that the Horse Artillery does for the sister service. Doubtless this is only the first instalment of a scheme capable of great enlargement. In future campaigns, works, both of construction and demolition, will be carried out with far more rapidity than has hitherto been possible. CHAPTER III. THE COMPANIES OF THE ROYAL ENGINEERS. Formation of Soldier Artificer Company at Gibraltar in 1772-Establishment of Military Artificers at Home in 1787-A Company sent to Flanders in 1793-Foreign Service Companies-Stations in 1800-Maltese Military Artificers-Creation of Sub-Lieutenants - Large Augmentation and Division into Battalions in 1811-Establishment of the Chatham School-Change of Title to Royal Sappers and Miners in 1813-Dress changed from Blue to Scarlet Captain Rice Jones made Brigade-Major-Reduction of the Maltese Artificers-Extensive Reductions after the PeaceEstablishment of Survey Companies in 1825-Large Augmentations for the Crimean War-Change of Title to Royal Engineers-Employment in the Indian and China Wars-Depôt Companies-Postal Telegraph Companies-Submarine Miners-Railway Companies-Field Companies— Present Classification-Sketch of Telegraphic Work-Railway WorkMilitia and Volunteer Engineers-Indian Sappers and Miners--The Burma Corps-The Eastern Battalion-The Jamaica Company. THE origin of the Companies of Royal Engineers is to be traced to the Corps of Military Artificers, created at Gibraltar by Royal Warrant dated March 6th, 1772. Prior to that year the extensive works required to place the fortress in a due state of defence had been carried out, partly by artificers and labourers furnished from the regiments stationed in the garrison, and partly by civil workmen sent expressly from England or hired on the spot. These latter had usually proved very inefficient and difficult to deal with, being under no sort of discipline, whilst the supply of skilled soldiers was scanty, intermittent, generally not of good quality, and liable to much fluctuation owing to the frequent calls of ordinary garrison duty. Under these circumstances Lieutenant-Colonel Green, the Commanding Engineer at the station, suggested to the Governor, General Eliott (who had himself been an Engineer Officer in his earlier days), that it would greatly facilitate the rapid execution of the works, if a corps were raised under military discipline, to furnish a constant and trustworthy supply of skilled labour, and at the same time secure a valuable addition to the military strength of the fortress in time of need. The Governor warmly supported the plan, and the scheme was submitted for the favourable consideration of the Secretary of State. The result was that the Royal Warrant already alluded to was issued, authorizing the formation of a Company of Artificers, to consist of (who were to be either stonecutters, masons, miners, lime- 1 Drummer, with pay at This body was to be commanded by officers of the Corps of Engineers, and was to receive the title of "The Soldier Artificers' Company.' The officers first attached to it, were-Lieutenant-Colonel William Green as Captain; Captain John Phipps, Captain-Lieutenant and Captain Theophilus Lefanu, and Lieutenant John Evelegh. Within a year the Company was augmented to the extent of 2 Non-commissioned Officers and 23 Privates, making a total of all ranks of 93, and this number was still further increased in 1776 to 116. The first military service of the new Corps was at the celebrated siege of Gibraltar, already described in this work. It will, therefore, be unnecessary to enter here into any further details on the subject. During this siege, as has been shown, the Military Artificers did their duty well, and so far established their reputation that in 1786 they were raised to a total of 275 Noncommissioned Officers and Privates, and divided into two Companies; the Commanding Engineer, now Sir William Green, Bart., retaining the supreme control, and the two next senior officers of Engineers becoming the Captains. The credit of having first suggested the advisability of establishing a similar corps in England, belongs unquestionably to Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Debbieg, of the Engineers. He, as far back as 1779, had written to Lord Amherst in the following terms: "I must take the liberty of mentioning how very advantageous to the service it would be if a corps of artificers was to be selected from the army. . . . The great attention of the ancients to this particular was wonderful, and the highest point of perfection in the Roman legion was, that when it made detachments, though ever so small, they carried with them a just proportion of the component parts of its excellent system-artificers of all denominations. Modern armies differ from those of the ancients scarcely in nothing but the arms they use, in all other points we cannot imitate them too exactly. It is a most essential part of the soldier's duty, I allow, to be as expert as |