Life in
the Time of Regency Engineer Officers
By Jayne
Davis
The
heroes, and sometimes the villains, in regency romances are often involved in
war, whether in the Royal Navy, the army, or as spies. Even if their wartime
activities do not appear directly in the story, their military experiences
shape their lives and their characters. In the army, the most glamourous were
the cavalry or the Guards regiments, and this was reflected in the higher costs
of purchasing commissions in those regiments than in regiments of foot.
There
were some army units in which commissions could not be bought—the engineers and
the artillery. In both cases, cadets underwent the same basic training,
including engineering (as you might expect!), chemistry and physics, and
languages. On completion of basic training they could choose which branch to
enter.
The
duties of an engineer officer were varied—I’ve described some of their
responsibilities below using examples of construction, destruction, and
transport, although each contains elements of the others. My examples are from
the Peninsular War, mainly because there has been so much written about it,
both as memoires and collected letters, and by later historians. The principles
and general duties would have been similar in other parts of the world.
Construction
Due to
the difficulties of campaigning in the winter, the Peninsular War involved a
great many advances and retreats. After the disastrous retreat to Corunna in
the winter of 1808-9, the British went back to Portugal to help to defend it
against the French, under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley. During that
summer’s campaign the army got as far as Talavera, less than 80 miles from
Madrid. They could not hold these positions, and Wellesley, now Viscount
Wellington, retreated westwards. In October of 1809, he ordered the
construction of a series of fortifications that became known as the Lines of
Torres Vedras. Wellington provided guidance as to the areas to be surveyed and
defended, but it was left to teams of engineers to carry out the surveying and
determine the size and nature of the various fortifications, and then to
supervise their construction.
The Lines of Torres Vedras were
built north of Lisbon.
One of the fortifications today.
The
fortifications achieved their purpose – the French armies could not penetrate
them, keeping Lisbon and the British troops safe until they could venture forth
again the following spring.
Destruction
The
conflicts in the Peninsular War included battles between opposing armies, such
as at Talavera or Salamanca, and sieges of key fortress towns. The most
notorious of the latter is the 3rd Siege of Badajoz, which many
readers will have heard of because of the appalling atrocities carried out by
the British troops after the fortress had been taken.
As with
all sieges, the basic plan was simple: fire artillery at the walls until part
had crumbled enough for men to climb the pile of rubble, then send in the
infantry. What I hadn’t realised before I read up about it a little more, was
that before the artillery could even start firing, trenches had to be dug to
protect the guns and the gunners.
The brown lines show the length
of the trenches dug during the 3rd Siege of Badajoz.
Engineer
officers were in charge of siting and constructing the trenches, and helping to
decide where the guns were to be placed, but the actual digging was carried
out—reluctantly—by normal troops.
When the
breaches in the walls were ‘practicable’, the engineers still had a role to
play; one that could be as dangerous as being an infantry officer in the
battalions attempting to scale the walls. The engineers knew their way through
the trenches and where the weakest points in the walls were, and often led the attacking
units. The engineering department also looked after scaling ladders used in
secondary attacks and, again, would lead the infantry to the best places to
attempt the walls.
Storming the walls at Badajoz.
The role
of engineer officers in sieges was more hazardous than in their other areas of
responsibility. I have a few books that are memoires, diaries or letters of
officers in the Peninsular War. In this fairly random collection (bought in
various second-hand bookshops), the two that concern engineers are both from
young officers who died doing their duty: Edmund Mulcaster, killed during the
artillery bombardment at Badajoz, and Lancelot Machell, killed while
supervising men removing obstructions in the way of the attacking parties at
the Siege of San Sebastian.
Following
a successful siege, the conquered town needed to be put back into a fit state
to repel any enemy attempts to re-take it, and one or more engineers would be
left with the new garrison to supervise repairs to the walls.
Transport
The other
activities that engineers were asked to undertake are possibly more interesting
from the point of view of storytelling. Today, we are used to having detailed
and accurate maps of anywhere we want to go. Not so then, and with thousands of
men to move, as well as food, guns and ammunition, knowing which road to take,
and whether it would be passable for wagons and the ox-teams pulling guns, was
vital. This was particularly difficult in the mountainous regions of Spain, and
later when Wellington’s army finally crossed the Pyrenees into France.
Many
engineers spent time riding ahead of the army scouting out suitable routes and
mapping them, assessing bridges or the defences of nearby towns, or finding
places where a temporary bridge could be put across a river. They could be sent
with small working parties to prepare river crossings or repair bridges.
During a
retreat, the engineers would also be responsible for mining bridges, ready to
blow them up before the following enemy army could cross. As Wellington’s
armies spent several years advancing and retreating across Spain, it is quite
likely that they were sometimes asked to rebuild bridges that their fellow
engineers had demolished.
A pontoon bridge from WWII.
Temporary bridges very similar to this were constructed by the engineers with
Wellington’s army.
All these
activities give plenty of scope for contact with the enemy, spying, and other
skulduggery and danger.
The
hero of my novel, The Mrs MacKinnons,
was an engineer officer with the East India Company army and, although not
described in detail in the book, his experiences there form the background to
his part of the story.
References:
Much of
the information for this article was taken from Wellington’s
Engineers—Military Engineering in the Peninsular War 1808-1814, by Mark S.
Thompson.
The
diaries referred to are:
The Peninsular War Letters of
Lancelot Machell, R.E. by Mark S. Thompson
The Peninsular War Diary of
Edmund Mulcaster, R.E. by Mark S. Thompson
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All
images are from Wikimedia Commons
Map of Torres Vedras:
Photo of fortification: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Linhas_de_Torres_I.jpg
Map of Badajoz: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Badajoz-battle.jpg
Storming the walls: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Siege_of_Badajoz,_by_Richard_Caton_Woodville_Jr.jpg
Jayne Davis
Jayne Davis writes historical
romances set in the late Georgian/Regency era, published as both ebooks and
paperbacks.
She was hooked on Jane Austen
and Georgette Heyer as a teenager, and longed to write similar novels herself.
Real life intervened, and she had several careers, including as a non-fiction
author under another name. That wasn't quite
the writing career she had in mind...
Finally, she got around to
polishing up stories written for her own amusement in long winter evenings, and
became the kind of author she’d dreamed of in her teens.
The Mrs MacKinnons
England, 1799
Major
Matthew Southam returns from India, hoping to put the trauma of war behind him
and forget his past. Instead, he finds a derelict estate and a family who wish
he'd died abroad.
Charlotte
MacKinnon married without love to avoid her father’s unpleasant choice of
husband. Now a widow with a young son, she lives in a small Cotswold village
with only the money she earns by her writing.
Matthew
is haunted by his past, and Charlotte is fearful of her father’s renewed
meddling in her future. After a disastrous first meeting, can they help each
other find happiness?
4.7* average on Amazon,
available on Kindle Unlimited
Such an interesting post, Jayne. Thank you for sharing.
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