Revised in many places, with verbal inaccuracies corrected, aided moreover by journals and official memoranda placed at my disposal to modify or enlarge certain incidents and services, the work is as complete as it would seem to be possible at present to produce it. The concluding Chapters record the services of the corps in the Aland Islands, in Turkey, Bulgaria, Circassia, Wallachia, and the Crimea. The siege of Sebastopol and the destruction of the memorable docks have been given with the fulness which the industry and gallantry of the sappers merited; and in order that the many adventures and enterprises recorded in the final years of the history should not fail in interest and accuracy, Colonel Sandham, the Director of the Royal Engineer Establishment, with the permission of General Sir John Burgoyne, kindly lent me the assistance of the Engineers’ Diary of the Siege, as well as several collateral reports concerning its progress and the demolition of the docks. At the same time I think it right to say, that no attempt has been made in these pages to offer a history of the Crimean operations. So much only of the details has been worked into the narrative as was necessary to preserve unbroken the thread of sapper services in connexion with particular works and undertakings. It should also be borne in mind, that these volumes are devoted to the affairs of the Royal Sappers and Miners; and, consequently, that care has been taken to touch as lightly as practicable on the services of other regiments. Hence the officers of the Royal Engineers have only been named when it was desirable to identify them with parties of Sappers, whom on certain occasions they commanded. I feel a loyal pride in being able to state that the work has been honoured with the munificent patronage of Her Majesty the Queen, and of His Royal Highness the Prince Albert; than which nothing could be more acceptable to me, either as an author or a subject. In closing I beg to express my deep obligations to General Sir John Burgoyne, Bart., G.C.B., the officers of the corps generally, my personal friends, and the public, for the patronage with which I have been favoured; and also to the Press, for the handsome manner in which it has noticed and commended my labours. _Brompton Barracks,_ _March 1857._ PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. ------------------ In 1836, soon after Lieutenant Robert Dashwood, R.E., was appointed Acting Adjutant of the Royal Sappers and Miners at Woolwich, he was directed by Brigade-Major, now Colonel Matson, to prepare a list of officers of the Royal Engineers who had commanded, from time to time, the different companies of the corps. I assisted him in the duty; but while he was in the midst of his work, he was prematurely cut off by death, and the task of completing the statement devolved on me. It now forms a referential record at the head-quarter office.