I am putting my nose in a subject in which I am not very knowledgeable the British Army. This article is only intended to come with questions to evaluate the British capabilities of the sappers or engineer arm. According to SOLDIERS OF THE NAPOLEONIC WARS by Bryan Posten (Almark) the standard average British Line battalion had some Pionners under the command of a corporal. I don't believe that they were much different that there French battalion counterparts. At least nothing on hand allow me to think differently. The subject of the other types of Engineer troops at the disposal of the British Army during the Napoleonic ware is more complicated. According to OMAN WELLINGTON'S ARMY pages 281 & 282, the corps called ROYAL MILITARY ARTIFICIERS was represented in the Peninsula in 1810 by only 34 and reached only 100 in 1811. For the siege of Bajadoz, the complicated trench-work had to be done by untrained volunteers borrowed from the line battalions, and instructed by the Engineer officers actually under the fire of the French guns. Their teachers were almost all as ignorant of practical siege operations since the British Army had done very little work of the sort for many years. The siege and the assault or Bajadoz was particularly costly and Wellington estimated that was due partly because the British Army lacked regular companies of sappers and miners and partly because of the inexperience of the officers of the Engineer corps. Ref. WELLINGTON'S ARMY page 285, Wellington complained to the Liverpool ministry. On April 23, less than 3 weeks after Bajados fell, a warrant was issued for the instruction of sappers in military field works. The name of corps of Military Artificiers was changed to Royal Sappers and Miners on August 4, 1812. Six companies were at first trained, but it was not till very late in the year that the first of the sappers companies joined Wellington. By the spring of 1813 he had 300 trained sappers trained for siege duties with him. They arrived to late for the siege of Burgos which was carried like the siege of Bajadoz by untrained volunteers...There were only five engineer officers present and just eight artificiers. ref. WELLINGTON'S ARMY page 286. It appears however that the companies of sappers and engineers certainly also made of volunteers were adequate for bridging operations. ref. A SOLDIER OF THE SEVENTY-FIRST etc. The above is rather sketchy and uncomplete. More data is needed and any help would be appreciated. I would like here to express my admiration for Wellington abilities to conduct siege works under such adverse conditions. It is a part of his achievements that is relatively unknown and deserve full credit. I would like also to point out that very little is known and published on the training of regimental and Engineer Corps sappers and related troopers. At the very least a great deal of the training was acquired by practical duties. Very little is related to us. To put all the sappers in the same bag is wrong. Obviously there is a difference between a regimental sapper, sometimes called pioneer, a volunteer sapper trained during the actual siege operation as related above and the sappers companies or the newly raised Royal Sappers and Miners Corps of 1813. What was the training of each of them? Is it logical to assume that during the sieges in which the volunteers sappers were involved that they never gave a hand to the siege gunners that were also in short supply. Please note that I have no evidence to support the above one way or the other. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 18 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1977 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com