So obvious were the benefits evolved from this experiment, that when the engagement of the navvies had ceased, the idea of perpetuating the existence of so useful a body in an altered character assumed a permanent form. Though ready, the navvies were rough and undisciplined, bearing no connection with the great military expedition of which they formed a part. This gave rise to the Army Works Corps, for the execution of all extra services not properly belonging to the battle-field, the trenches, or the operations of an army. It was arranged, it would seem, that their duties should embrace the construction of roads and drains, preparation of sites for encampment, erection of huts, &c. The pecuniary advantages offered to candidates were of such a high standard that an enthusiastic recruitment was the consequence. A few weeks were more than enough to embody the corps, which consisted principally of navigators, and about a fifth of mechanics of various crafts. Overseers were engaged to superintend the gangs, with designations suitable to their avocations, and a civil engineer commanded the whole, with the relative rank of colonel. Later the force formed an important branch of the army. Fostered and shielded by the ministry, it was equipped with gear and working accessories of the most perfect and costly kind; and before the close of the war, it had grown into an authorized body of 3,470 officers and men, requiring for its sustenance in strength and efficiency no less a sum for one year than 408,595_l._ In time, the formation of this working force was much commented on in the House of Commons. While it was regarded—with insufficient reason perhaps—as a reflection on the efficiency of the royal sappers and miners, there were not wanting advocates—and none more earnest than members of the ministry, particularly Mr. Monsell—to vindicate the character of the corps, and to compliment it, in terms full of appreciation and praise for its usefulness at the siege, and its capability, with augmented numbers, of performing any amount of work which the terrible exigencies of storm or war might render indispensable.[164] ----- Footnote 160: This corporal completed the tombstone placed over the remains of Colonel Hood and Captain Rowley; the latter was killed on the 16th. It consisted of a flat slab, which enclosed both graves; and a monumental cross at the head bore a well-cut inscription, which told of the melancholy fate of these noble officers. Footnote 161: ‘Quarterly Review,’ vol. xcv., p. 239. Footnote 162: