A few nights after the mishap stated above, the non-commissioned officer just named was selected to conduct a working party to the 21-gun battery. It was exceedingly dark, and the men moved on cautiously. The “valley of the shadow of death” had been crossed; the picket-house passed; indeed the greater part of the journey had been marched when the field-officer in charge expressed his doubts that the proper track had been taken. To remove the officer’s misgivings and to prove the correctness of his own conduct, the corporal offered to go alone to the battery, which, regarded as the wiser course, was at once approved of. Off started the guide, and having reassured himself by a visit to the work, that his direction was right, returned to the officer within a quarter of an hour. To regain the party was more difficult than he anticipated. He knew not the relative position of the point where the halt was called, and on coming back bore away to the right about 200 yards. He judged by the time he was absent that he must be near the workmen, and so hailing them by whistling signals, which were recognized and answered, he was extricated from a dilemma it would probably have taken the night to solve. Satisfied with the integrity of his guide, the field-officer now readily moved on the column as Collins led, and soon reached the battery. The work was afterwards known by the name of the “Gordon Battery.” By the 16th October the vigilance of the working parties had placed the lines in so forward a state that, on the following evening, orders were issued to the troops respecting the bombardment. No exertions were spared throughout the night to complete the works in every detail, and the sappers, being told off into storming parties of twenty men each under an officer of the corps, were attached to the several divisions of the army to lead the way in any enterprise in which their professional services might be demanded. For this purpose they were furnished with picks and shovels to form lodgments; crowbars, felling-axes, and sledge-hammers to remove impediments; bags of gunpowder for blowing in gates; and scaling ladders with which to storm walls and towers.