"An agitation which
for more than a quarter of a century had exposed the
inappropriateness of the old costume, at last succeeded in
effecting its abandonment. Involved in the change the royal
sappers and miners adopted an uniform under royal sanction,
which has the credit of being the neatest in the service.
"Late
in the summer the coatee with its double breast, short body,
garish trimmings, and narrow skirts gave place to a scarlet
single-breasted tunic with facings and edgings of dark blue
plush. Falling with a curve, the collar is bound all round
with yellow cord while the appointed cuffs are embellished
with an Austrian knot of yellow cord which, stretching over
the plush rises with a flowing involution more than seven
inches up the sleeve. Plain shirts measuring about 12 inches
long, lined with white
shalloon, are broken in their plainness by two upright pocket
slashes with plush edgings having three points and as many
buttons. Double cords take the place of the huge epaulettes of
former days, and a the buttons unaltered in shape and device,
are sewn tow inches asunder down the breast as low as the
waist, and two smaller ones add to the ornamentation of the
cuff. All ranks wear the same description of tunic.
"Corresponding with the grades the sergeants and staff-sergeants
have finer cloth and wear royal gold cord on those parts where
the rank and file display yellow worsted cord only. Rank is
shown by chevrons of gold lace worn above the elbow, but the
badges to denote the Staff-sergeants occur just above the
sleeve knot with the points upward. Lance-corporals have one
stripe on the right arm; other ranks have the marks on both
arms. Second corporals one on each arm; corporals two; sergeants
three and an embroidered crown; colour-serjeants an
equal number of chevrons surmounted by an open banner and
based by a couple of crossed swords; and the staff-sergeants four
badges of broader lace and an embroidered crown. The last, in
addition, have facings of garter blue silk velvet, shoulder
knots of treble twisted cord cord with blue eyes bearing
silver embroidered grenades; sleeve knots traced in and out
with Russia gold braid and the skits lined with white
kerseymere. The bugle-major's rank, in addition to the
chevrons and crown, is indicated by a musical devise with
banners, which must have puzzled the professors of embroidery
to make it sufficiently characteristic. elaborated with cross
trumpets, rams horns, tambourines, and other insignia, around
a lyre and grenade.
"The
buglers wear worsted embroidered cross trumpets on both arms,
and the good conduct men are distinguished by badges of narrow
gold lace on the right arm just above the knot.
"No
better colour for trowsers than dark Oxford mixture cloth
could be introduced. They have therefore been retained, as
also the red stripe down the outer seams. the working trowsers
are of the same colour, and similarly striped, but a few
shades coarser in texture.
"In
the midst of a variety of conflicting ideas as to what
constitutes the best head-dress, the uncomfortable chaco still
holds its unsightly place as a component of sapper uniform.
Top-heavy for the drivers in riding, the chaco forms no part
of their uniform, and so the forage-cap is made to do double
duty.
"The
fatigue jacket is of red cloth. Loose and suitable for working
it descends as low as the hips, but is militarized by blue
cloth pointed cuffs, single twisted shoulder-cords of yellow
worsted and a blue cloth rounded collar. As before, the buttons
are small and convex, bearing the garter device, and worn
about an inch apart, evincing les coxcombery than in the
defunct days of close buttons. All the non-commissioned
officers wear gold chevrons and gold single twisted
shoulder-cords.
"Scarlet jackets, after the fashion of the fatigue ones, are
worn by all ranks on drill parades and in walking. In addition
to their chevrons the sergeants and colour-sergeants wear
embroidered crowns, the latter rank being distinguished from
the former by a forth chevron. Besides the plain
single-breasted blue surtout, modernized with a rounded
collar, the staff-sergeants appear, on parade occasions, in
scarlet jackets with the badges of their rank, gold studs down
the front, and dark blue silk velvet cuffs and collar, both
trimmed with Russian gold braid, and finished with what the
tailors, in the poetry of their trade, term crowsfeet. there
are no buttons on the jacket, except two on each cuff and two
to sustain the double shoulder-cord. The fronts are closed by
hooks and eyes.
"The
cloth forage-cap --a delicate institution of peaceable times-- was set aside by the adoption of a small Kilmarnock bonnet
and chin-strap, well suited for the rough usages of war. Worn
with a dragoonish air in the day, it offers itself as a
substitute for a pillow at night without the fear of spoiling
its shape. It is of dark blue wool banded with a yellow stripe
manufactured in the web and decorated with a brass boss in the
centre of the crown. The buglers wear the distinction of a
pair of crossed trumpets on the front of the cap, wile the sergeants
and staff-sergeants have small dark-blue cloth caps with large
projecting peaks, trimmed with scarlet piping and gold lace
bands. The crown of the cap, a la cavalry, is formed of eight
pieces --a curious fancy 0-- radiating from the centre and
covered at the point of union with a gold netted convex boss. The band of the staff-sergeants is wider and richer than that
of the sergeants.
"That important article of dress, "the ammunition boot",
has been much improved in these late days. Before
railways were invented the lace-up boot was a favourite among
soldiers, particularly those who could boast of having
performed long marches in the Peninsula and France; but when
traveling by rail began to be the fashion of the service, it
was discovered that the laced-up boot was not only odious in
regimentals and uncomfortable, but not water-tight. So
by degrees the Blucher boot was introduced in the army, and
the sappers, the last troops, perhaps, to adopt it, received
the Bluchers this year for the first time. The troop of
drivers wear half Wellingtons.
"The carbine introduced in 1843 being discarded, the
Lancaster percussion-musket was given to the corps late in the
year. Bored elliptically without groove, and carrying an
elongated bullet, its range exceeds 1,000 yards; that of the
carbine, even in extravagant instances of flight, scarcely
ever struck a mark at 300 yards and was uncertain at 200.
After a few rounds had been fired it was inefficient, and
impromptu expedients had to be resorted to, when the bore
fouled with the powder, to ram the cartridge home. many a man
broke the ranks to find a brickbat or other rude assistance to
hammer the ramrod into the barrel. These primitive
severities are now at an end. The bayonet can be used in
the double capacity of a sword or bayonet. With a hilt
partly of black skin cross-pressed, and partly brass, with a
transverse brass bar guard, it is fixed to the musket by a
suture and spring. The blade, about two feet long, has a
rounded back and runs on with a spine to the point, from
whence a return stretches with a slight swell up its back, and
then loses itself in the spine about ten inches from the tip.
Thus the sword for a certain distance is two-edged and
when fixed, the length of the musket, prepared for a charge,
is shorter by one inch than the abandoned carbine and sword
bayonet.
"The accouterments
remain as formerly; but the appointments of the staff-sergeants,
now of white patent buff, consist of a waist-belt with
slings and gilt waist-belt bearing the royal arms, and a
pouch-belt, both plain and two inches broad. To the latter is
attached a black leather pouch carried by gilt rings and
mountings, having on the flap the device of the royal arms and
supporters with the corps motto. Swords hilted like those of
the quartermasters, but of a peculiar metal, sheathed in steel
scabbards and tasseled with gold acorns, complete the improvements
of this period.
"Of the dress of the quartermasters nothing has yet been
recorded in these pages. Their costume is similar to
that of subalterns of engineers, with the exception of the
appointments. The tunic harmonizes with that of the
staff-sergeants, except that the sleeves bear no device beyond
the Austrian knot, and the gold cord is larger.
"The
jacket is also similar to the staff-sergeants, deviating only
by the addition of gold braid down the fronts and round the
girth, finished at the centre of the waist and collar seam with crowsfeet.
"A
waistcoat is also worn of scarlet cloth, single breasted, with
gilt studs crowded down the front. Hooks and eyes serve the
place of buttons. Collar, pockets and edges are trimmed wit
gold braid and graced with crowsfeet at the centre of the
collar, and art each end and centre of the pockets.
"A surtout is permitted as a lounging appendage to the costume,
but it would require the professional assistance of a
Buckmaster to describe without fault the man-millinery of this
military frock. It is of dark-blue cloth, single breasted,
opening five inches down the breast to show the waistcoat, up
to which from the waist the fronts are closed by hooks
and eyes. Eight loops of braid nearly two inches broad,
with two rows of netted barrels or olives on each side --two on each loop-- descend from the shoulders in lessening
lines to the waist. The ends of the loops inwards have fly's
three inches long which fall down like tags, covering the
inner row of barrels. The front edges, rolling collar, and
pointed cuffs, hind arm and back seams are trimmed with braid
seven-eighths of an inch broad traced in and out and finished
on the cuffs and centre of collar with crowsfeet. from the
back seams flow to streamers eight inches long on each skirt
of the same width of braid ads that which covers the seams;
and the tracing on both edges terminates in two crowsfeet. All
the trimmings and traceries are of mohair braid.
"The trowsers are the same as the uniform of the corps, but with
gold lace stripes one inch and three-quarters wide for dress occasions. The cloak is of blue cloth, riding length, with sleeves. Lined
with scarlet shalloon, and amassed with a cape, make it
waterproof in a storm. An upright collar of scarlet cloth with
gilt fuming grenades, chains, hooks, and buttons make up the
sum of its ornaments.
"The cocked hat - the right leaf stands six inches and
three-quarters high, while the fan, its fellow leaf, tops it
by nearly an inch. The former bears a cockade of black
watered ribbon and a gold-laced loop two inches broad, which
is stayed by a regimental button. The corners or shoots
are nearly five inches long and two and half broad, bearing
tassels of small gold and crimson bullion affixed to gold
netted pads which lie snugly in the recesses formed by
the overlapping of the fan. The ribbon worn on the sides
of the left leaf is of plain black silk. Surmounting all
is the plume, five inches and a half long, made of cock-tail
feathers, which fall over the crown of the hat in the shape of
a mushroom.
"The
forage-cap is assimilated to that worn by the staff-serjeants;
the gold-laced band being broader and richer.
"Coming to the appointments, they consist of waist and pouch
belts of white patent leather, respectively one inch and a
half and two inches wide, the former having narrow slings,
gilt buckles, rings, and waist-belt with the corps device in
silver, and the latter a gilt engraved buckle and mountings to
correspond with the hilt of the sword. These ornaments are
worn on a fly of the belt just above the pouch, which is
small, of black patent leather, bearing the regimental badge
of the royal arms and supported with the corps motto, and
attached to the belt by rings issuing from gilt leaves. The
sword is thirty-two inches and a half long by one inch and a
half wide. Its grip. of black fish-skin, is ribbed with treble
gold wire, sustained by a gilt back, the lower half grated to
assist the grasp. the hilt is that of the basket kind, formed
of rolled gilt metal, scrolled, pierced, and engine-turned,
embellished with a gold acorn attached to a length of royal
gold cord, which after ramifying the perforations, evolves
in a tassel. To complete the details, let it be added, that
the scabbard which sheaths the blade --proof against any
amount of hard work and figures with military insignia-- is of
burnished steel."
- -
History of the Royal Sappers and Miners: from the formation
of the corps in March 1772 to the date when its designation
was changed to that of Royal Engineers in October 1856.
Pages 154 -160.