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

majority would not outrank his fellow Ordnance captains on the basis of his brevet rank, but he would outrank an army captain. The engineer officers serving in the field had greater opportunity to obtain brevet ranks and this caused great resentment amongst the home based officers. This was particularly true in 1812 where a small number of engineer officers gained two brevet promotions in the year for their efforts in the great sieges at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. There were also a number of occasions in the Peninsula when an engineer officer tried to claim seniority over his fellow engineers by use of his brevet rank. Everyone knew that this was not acceptable but it did not stop them trying. Apart from the kudos of being in command, engineer officers received substantial command pay.
    Brevet ranks also caused friction in one other area. The Board of Ordnance had slightly different ranks to the army. The main difference was the rank of Second Captain (junior to a captain) in the Ordnance. This rank was not entitled to brevet promotions. As the war progressed there were more and more occasions when Second Captains were overlooked when their fellow officers gained brevet rank. Following a plea to Wellington in 1813 the ruling was changed.
    A Brief History of the Royal Engineers from its Inception
    The Corps of Royal Engineers was formed in 1717 to provide trained specialists for the British military. Prior to this time, the Board of Ordnance kept a small number of officers to advise on engineering matters, but generally when the British Army went on campaign it hired foreign specialists to provide these services. When first formed, the Corps had twenty-eight officers. This number grew slowly until the start of the Napoleonic Wars when there was a large increase in numbers to keep up with the demand from across the world.

    With the exception of India, where the East India Company appointed its own engineers, the Royal Engineers served as far afield as the Indian Ocean, the West Indies, the Cape and North America. Unlike their peers in the army, an officer in the Ordnance had to undergo professional training and pass examinations before they were commissioned. The commissioned Ordnance officers would then choose or be assigned to the artillery or the engineers. The best students typically chose the engineers. Engineer and artillery cadets received the same training and this was not just about fortifications and guns. The syllabus included chemistry, physics, military engineering, languages, fencing and dancing. These last two were often seen as interchangeable: fencing was dancing with more serious consequences if you got the steps wrong.
    Unlike the army, commissions could not be purchased. Entry was by application to the Master-General and subsequent promotion was strictly by seniority. Ordnance officers were also not able to sell their commissions and this led to stagnation in the senior posts as there were limited opportunities to obtain a pension. The oldest officer in post (until he died) was eighty-four! Whilst the common view is that promotion by seniority was much slower than by purchase, an analysis of promotions in the Royal Engineers during this period does not support this view. What did change was that the rapid increase in the size of the Corps of Royal Engineers and the promotion opportunities caused by casualties meant that engineer officers gained promotion much faster than their predecessors.
    The Royal Military Artificers and Royal Sappers and Miners
    One of the anomalies of the Corps of Royal Engineers at this time was that it was an officer-only organisation. There were no rank and file. Manual labour and tradesmen were provided from the infantry regiments whilst on campaign and by local civilians for static establishments. The first steps to redress this omission were taken at the garrison in Gibraltar in 1770 when the senior Royal Engineer suggested that skilled tradesmen should be transferred from the