Wellington’s Engineers: Military Engineering on the Peninsular War 1808-1814 Read Free

book can talk about the engineer officers as individuals. It means we can examine their hopes and aspirations, their arguments and their friendships, their roles and what they thought of them. George Landmann, who was officially attached to the Gibraltar garrison, managed to spend most of the war being in places where he was not supposed to be, sometimes with great value and sometimes not. Reading Rice Jones’ diary there seems to be a relationship between his health when he was ordered on services which looked interesting, and his illnesses when they looked less so. Howard Elphinstone arrived with a reputation of being difficult and did his best to live up to it. But aside from my cynicism, there were some deep friendships formed between engineers and senior officers in the army. This was often based on previous service together, John Squire and Sir John Moore and John Burgoyne and Sir Thomas Picton being examples.
    The main thing the engineer officer brought was flexibility – staff officer; liaison officer; builder of roads and bridges, destroyer of them too; siege master; builder of defences both static and field; surveyor; well-digger; and negotiator. Also, whilst it was not their primary role, engineers, like their fellow officers in the army, wanted to be on active service in preference to being ‘stuck’ working on fortifications or lines of communication. An engineer officer would never miss an opportunity to be present at a battle.
    The Ordnance and the Army
    As mentioned above, the provision of military services to the British government came from a number of different sources. The main source of soldiers came from the army, centred on the Commander-in-Chief at Horse Guards. The army provided infantry and cavalry, but had no control over where they were used, their funding or their movement. These responsibilities were firmly held by the government. Completion of the martial forces came from the Board of Ordnance who provided the artillery and engineers. The Board of Ordnance had immense responsibilities, being responsible for the upkeep of military establishments worldwide, e.g. the major facilities at Plymouth, Portsmouth and Chatham were all under their control. The Board of Ordnance was also responsible for the supply of guns and ammunition to the army and the navy, both at home and overseas. The other main difference between the Army and the Board of Ordnance was in their representation in government. The army had none, whilst the Master-General of the Ordnance was a member of the Cabinet and consequently had a greater opportunity to influence policy.
    The presence of two different military hierarchies led to a number of difficulties. The first and most obvious was that the general commanding the army did not have direct command over Ordnance officers. Operationally, this did not usually present problems as they expected to get their day-to-day instructions through the army hierarchy. It was more of a problem for the bigger decisions. A general could not influence the appointment of specific officers or the number of them on service. Such requests had to be made to the Board of Ordnance for their consideration. At the start of the war there was a level of concern at the Board of Ordnance, mainly around Wellington not officially recognising (through his Dispatches) the contribution of the Ordnance officers. Later on, as Wellington’s successes grew, there was a greater willingness to meet his needs.
    The second area that caused problems was the award of brevet ranks. Brevet rank was awarded to army officers for exceptional service, usually in the field. A frequent way to obtain a brevet promotion was to be mentioned in dispatches. A brevet rank entitled the officer to use the rank in terms of seniority, but without the associated pay. Ordnance officers were entitled to be awarded brevet ranks, but these were army ranks only and did not count in the Ordnance. So, a Royal Engineer captain awarded a brevet