Five non-commissioned officers, 30 artificers, 50 labourers, and 1 drummer; total 86, collected from the different stations and formed into a company at Woolwich, under Captain Gother Mann, R.E., embarked at the royal arsenal on the 16th of March, to join the army in the Low Countries under the Duke of York, taking with them an abundant assortment of intrenching and tradesmen’s tools. Most of the men had been encamped, in 1792, at Bagshot Heath, and were in some measure acquainted with the art of field fortification and military mining. Colonel Moncrief, who had greatly distinguished himself during the American war, was appointed chief engineer to the expedition. Of the company’s landing, and its early services in Holland, nothing is known, but at the siege of Valenciennes it played an important part. All the non-commissioned officers, and most of the more skilful of the miners, acted as foremen, and from 300 to 400 men were frequently placed under the executive charge of one military artificer. Those of the company not considered fit for overseers, were distributed singly among the working parties to stimulate them by their example to equal zeal and exertion. In the more difficult services of the siege, or when occasion required, the labourers, miners, and artificers, of the company worked in twos or in greater numbers. The working party from the line was seldom less than 14,000 a day. In the final assault of the fortress, on the 25th of July, a portion of the company under Captain Sutherland, R.E., was attached to the left column appointed to attack the salient angle of the ravelin of the hornwork. Three globes of compression which had been pushed under the works to be stormed, were exploded at short intervals, after nine o’clock, with complete success. Breaches being thus formed for the columns to enter the works, they did so with great ardour and forced the enemy to fly into the fortress. While these external operations were in course of accomplishment, the miners bravely rushed from the ditch into the enemy’s subterranean galleries, took the workmen in them, and saved the mine from being sprung. To these underground manœuvres and the promptitude and gallantry of the detachment of artificers and line workmen in preventing the explosion of the enemy’s mines, the fall of Valenciennes was chiefly indebted. It capitulated on the 28th of July. Sir James Murray, in a despatch, dated 26th July, 1793, thus writes—“A detachment of the company of artificers, under Captain Sutherland, accompanied the column to the ravelin of the hornwork, and performed the duty allotted to them with great activity and resolution.” One labourer—private Robert Freeman—was killed.[89] ----- Footnote 89: ‘London Gazette Extraordinary,’ August 1, 1793. -----