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Biographical Notices of Officers of the Royal (Bengal) Engineers; Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/biograpliicalnotiOOtliaciala THE EOYAL (BENGAL) ENGINEERS # FIELD-MARSHAL LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA. From a Photograph by MaitU & Fox. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF OFFICEES OF THE ROYAL (BENGAL) ENGINEERS ARKANGED AND COMPILED BY COL. SIR EDWARD T. THACKERAY, K.C.B., V.C. LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1900 [All rights reserved] INTEODUCTION At the close of the nineteenth century it seems very desirable that a more complete record than as yet exists should be compiled of the distinguished services of the Officers of the Eoyal (Bengal) Engineers—services which have extended over a period of nearly a century and a half, from 1756 to 1900. Biographical and other notices and memoirs relating to the services of the Officers of the Corps have from time to time been published, but these are dispersed in various books, journals, and other publications. It is with this object that, after consultation with some well- known Officers of the Corps, I have ventured with considerable diffidence to compile and arrange in this volume the biographical notices of thirty-four distinguished officers, many of whom, as Lord Napier of Magdala, Sir Henry Durand, Sir John Cheaps, and others, attained to the highest positions as soldiers, administrators, or men of science, and whose services in India and other countries are fully known and appreciated. It was at first proposed to include in this volume the names of several distinguished officers now living, among whom might be mentioned Generals Sir Eichard Strachey, G.C.S.I., and Sir Alexander Taylor, G.C.B., and the Colonels-Commandant of the Corps ; but it was found that the book would have assumed too large proportions, and it seemed best to restrict this volume to notices of the services of deceased officers only. It is hoped however that it may be found possible to publish in another volume the records of the services of several deceased vi THE EOYAL (BENGAL) ENGINEEES officers not included in this volume, as well as of those of many now living. Among the former may be mentioned General Alexander Eraser, Colonel-Commandant of the Corps, Colonel Sir Oliver St. John, General K. Maclagan, Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham, General Sir George Chesney, Major- General Ealph Young, Major-General Sir James Browne, Lieu- tenant-Colonel J. C. Eoss, all of whom have died during the last decade of the century. It will be seen from the list of works consulted in the prepara- tion of this book, that many of the biographical notices have already been published in books and journals; and although the compilation has been a work of considerable labour, it has also been one that could not fail to emphasise, if possible more clearly than before, the admiration that must exist for a Corps which for a century and a half was distinguished in every branch of military and civil administration, and in building up the great fabric of our Indian Empire. It may not be inappropriate here to quote the words of Lord Canning, Viceroy of India, when presenting the Victoria Cross to Major James McLeod Innes in 1858. ' Lord Canning said : I must add that it is a peculiar pleasure to me to present this Cross to an Officer of the Bengal Engineers, for I say to you—not as a compUment but in the words of sober truth—that I do not believe that there has ever existed in any army a body of men who have rendered, individually and collectively, more constant and valuable service to their country than the Engineers of her Majesty's Indian Forces. Men, all of them, of proved ability and highly cultivated intellect, they have been unceasingly called upon in peace, as much as in war, to achieve great tasks for the protection and advancement of India, and they have never been found wanting. That, when summoned to meet an enemy in the field, they can carry their lives in their hands as lightly as any man, your own deeds and those of many of your brother-officers have abundantly proved. It is in itself a ;;' INTRODUCTION vii distinction to belong to such a Corps, and you, Major Innes, have the proud satisfaction to know that while you have derived honour from being enrolled among the Engineers of the Army of Bengal, you have done all that a gallant soldier can do to repay that honour, in augmenting by your own acts the lustre and reputation of your distinguished regiment.' In publishing the records of the services of officers of a Corps of which such words have been spoken, and which includes the names of men such as Lord 'Napier of Magdala, Sir Henry Durand, Sir William Baker, Sir George Chesney ; of the heroes, Lieutenants Duncan Home and Philip Salkeld ; and of men distinguished in science and literature, as Major Eennell, Sir Alexander Cunningham, Sir Henry Yule, Sir Andrew Waugh, and Captain Basevi, who sacrificed his hfe in the cause of science, no apology can be needed. In the preparation of the book I beg to accord my grateful thanks to the Officers of whose writings I have had permission to avail myself; and first of these is Colonel H. M. Vibart, Eoyal (Madras) Engineers, from whose work on ' Addiscombe, its Heroes and Men of Note,' and from Major-General Porter's ' History of the Corps of Eoyal Engineers,' I have extracted several of the biographical notices. A few of the notices have been taken from the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' including one by Colonel Vetch, E.E., on the services of Colonel Baird Smith. To Colonel Frederick Home, C.S.I., I am greatly indebted for the official and private letters relating to the blowing in of the Cashmere Gate at Delhi in 1857 by his brother Lieutenant Duncan Home and Lieutenant Philip Salkeld. The following ; ' works have also been consulted : Eoyal Engineers' Journal ' Memoirs of Sir John Bateman-Champain,' by Major-General Sir ' E. Murdoch Smith, E.E. ; Kaye's History of the Sepoy War; ' History of the Bengal Artillery,' by Major-General Stubbs the ' Life of Major George Broadfoot,' by Major W. Broadfoot — viii THE EOYAL (BENGAL) ENGINEEES •Life of Major Eennell, F.R.S.,' by Sir Charles Markham, K.C.B.; ' Life of Warren Hastings,' by Sir Alfred Lyall, and other sources. I have also obtained much valuable information from the Roll of OfiBcers of the Corps, edited by Captain Edwards, E.E., and brought up to date, at the Eoyal Engineers' Institute, Chatham. The following notification, lately issued by the Government of India on the retirement of Major-General Charles Strahan, shows that the reputation of the Corps, whose records commenced from 1756, has been worthily and honourably sus- tained to its close at the end of the nineteenth century. In notifying in the * Gazette ' the appointment of Colonel St. G. Gore to succeed Major-General Strahan, E.E., as the head of the Survey Department, the Government of India say : ' Major-General Strahan is the last officer of the Eoyal (late Bengal) Engineers in active service of the Government of India, and with his retirement the honourable and distinguished record of the Corps of Engineers of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, raised under the Honourable East India Company, and covering a period of over a century, is brought to a close. Major-General Strahan's service in the Survey of India has extended to thirty-six years, during the last four and a half of which he has controlled it as Surveyor-General. Under his charge the Survey of India has fully maintained its great professional reputation, alike in peace and in the field, and has continued to render eminent service to the State. The good wishes of the Governor-General go with its late chief in his retirement.' CONTENTS TAOB Introddction T FIRST PERIOD: 1756-1800 State of India during the latter half of the Eighteenth Century—Warren Hastings, Governor of Bengal—Captain Brohier, the First Officer of the Corps of Bengal Engineers—The Rohilla War, 1774—Mahratta Wars of 1776-77 and 1779-80—Malwa, 1780-81—Mysore, 1791-99—First augmentation of the Corps of Bengal Engineers. Biographical Notices of Major-General Sir Archibald Campbell, K.B., and Major James Rennell, F.R.S. 1 SECOND PERIOD: 1800-1850 The Mahratta War, 1803-4—The Nepal and Pindaree Wars—The First Burmese War, 1824-26— Siege of Bhurtpore, 1825-26—The War in Rajputana in 1834-35 and the Campaign in Afghanistan in 1838-42^ The Battle of Maharajpore, 1843—The War in Scinde, 1843-44—The Sutlej and Punjab Campaigns of 1845-46 and 1848-49—Augmentation of the Corps of Bengal Engineers. Biographical Notices of Lieutenant-General Richard Tickell, Major Carmichael Smyth, Colonel John Colvin, Lieutenant-Colonel Archi- bald Irvine, Captain Joseph Davey Cunningham, Lieutenant James Sutherland Broadfoot, and Lieutenant-Colonel George Thomson. 21 THIRD PERIOD: 1860-1860 The Second Burmese War, 1852-53—The Indian Mutiny, 1857-59—List of officers engaged—Changes in organisation of the Corps and Promotions. Biographical Notices of General Sir John Cheape, G.C.B., Major-General Sir Frederick Abbott, Lieutenant-Colonel John Anderson, Captain George W. Fulton, Captain Arthur William Garnett, Colonel Richard Baird Smith, C.B., Lieutenant Duncan Home, V.C, and Lieutenant Philip Salkeld. V«^ fi4 — X THE EOYAL (BENGAL) ENGINE EES FOURTH PERIOD: 1860-70 PAOK Amalgamation of the Indian Corps with the Royal Engineers in 1862 The Mahsud Wuziri Expedition, 1861-62 — Umbeyla Campaign, 1863—Bhootan War, 1864-65—Abyssinian Expedition, 1868-69— Hazara Expedition, 1868.
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