Friedrich Engels

The Volunteer Engineer Troops

Written at the end of November 1860.

From the English.

[“The Volunteer Journal, for Lancashire and Cheshire” No. 12, 24 November 1860]

The Volunteer Army has for a considerable time now possessed a numerically strong infantry and artillery; it is also supplemented by a small cavalry troop, and now it is gradually proceeding to concern itself with the last branch of the military service, engineering. The subject of volunteer engineer troops is at present being very extensively discussed, and it deserves the attention it is receiving. The Corps of Royal Engineers is already too weak for the numerous tasks it has to perform at home and in the colonies. What will be its state in the event of a war and an expected invasion? The numerous fortifications now under construction, which are forming an immense entrenched camp around the naval dockyards, will require a considerable number of engineer officers and men as garrison; the army in the field, which at present, through the employment of volunteers, has grown to two or three times its strength, will – to ensure its full capacity for action in the face of the enemy – need a certain supplementation by engineer troops. If the Corps of Royal Engineers is not considerably enlarged, the tasks of this branch must either be carried out imperfectly or be performed by volunteers previously trained for them.

The number of engineer troops belonging to an army in the field is, moreover, not very large. Three or four companies for an army corps of two divisions (16 to 24 infantry battalions with a corresponding proportion of cavalry and artillery) would be entirely sufficient. In a field army of 40,000 men of the line, 20,000 militia and 100,000 volunteers, together 160,000 men or 200 battalions, that would make eight to ten corps and require about 30 companies of engineer soldiers. Assuming that ten companies would be supplied by the Royal Engineers, there would still remain twenty companies to be formed by the volunteers. Approximately the same number of additional volunteer engineer troops would suffice to assist the Royal troops in the defence of the fortified naval dockyards, so that some forty companies of volunteer engineer soldiers would be sufficient to complete the volunteer infantry and artillery at their present strength. If the number of volunteers were to increase so rapidly as to enable them to put more than 100,000 men into the field after deducting garrisons, one additional engineer soldier for every hundred additional riflemen would suffice; that makes 200 engineer soldiers (or three companies) for each army corps of 20,000 men.

For the present, therefore, 40 companies or about 3,000 men would constitute the maximum strength of the engineer troops that it would be advisable to raise. And it will require a great deal of energy to make them engineer soldiers not only in name but in reality. We already find that among the volunteer artillery a great deal of time is sacrificed to company and battalion drill – carbine in hand – although this occupation serves only for parade purposes and will never be of even one jot of use to them in active service with field guns or fortress artillery. And we fear that the same will happen with the engineer troops. Above all, one should bear in mind that every hour spent beyond company drill to teach the volunteers military bearing, readiness to carry out orders immediately, and the ability to march in proper order is an hour lost; one should consider that they have entirely different things to learn, and that their efficiency depends on these things, not on constant parading. They will have to familiarize themselves – soldiers and officers alike – with the rudiments of field and permanent fortification. They will have to undertake the construction of trenches, the erection of batteries, and the laying out and repairing of roads. If means can be procured, they must build military bridges and even lay mines. It is to be feared that some of these branches can be taught only theoretically, since fortresses are rare in England and pontoons likewise; one cannot expect every volunteer to go to Portsmouth or Chatham and study fortification or assist in laying a pontoon bridge. But there are other things that are within the power of every company to carry out. If there were a company of engineer soldiers here in Manchester, we could show them many alleys in as bad a condition as those a column would have to pass through in war, and the parties concerned would most likely be only too glad to allow them to practise road-making to their hearts’ content. It would not be very difficult for them to find a piece of ground on which they could construct some fieldworks, trace trenches and erect batteries, particularly since such a piece of ground would offer the volunteer artillery as well as the infantry the opportunity to practise those parts of their training that could not otherwise be carried out. They may even discover places that allow them occasionally to throw a small bridge of trestles across one of those rivers in our vicinity which, where the bottom is firm, offer great advantages for the construction of this kind of bridge. Such things and many more in the same direction should constitute their principal exercises. Company drill should be carried out quickly at the beginning and only resumed once the corps has made some progress in its real sphere of duty; in the second winter the evenings can then advantageously be used for drill. But if the engineer troops consider it necessary from the outset to measure themselves by the bearing of riflemen on parade and in battalion evolutions, to the detriment of their special training; if the attention of the officers is directed more to the duties of an infantry officer than to professional training – then the volunteer engineer soldiers may depend upon it that in a campaign they will be employed far more often as infantry than as engineers.

There will be little difficulty in finding very capable officers if they are selected from the only class suited to the task – the civil engineers. A theoretical study of a few months and an occasional trip to Chatham, Portsmouth or Aldershot will soon familiarize them with most branches of engineering, and the military training of their companies will aid them further. They will learn by teaching. Their own profession compels them to know all the fundamentals of engineering, and as they will have to be very intelligent and well-instructed men, the application of these fundamentals to military subjects will present them with few difficulties.

We have read in the “Army and Navy Gazette” a report of an immense military engineering organisation that is to embrace all railway lines in the country and from which great results are expected in the event of an invasion. The outlines of the plan are reproduced in the “Volunteer Journal” of last week. The form in which this plan is presented to the public is extremely unclear. Up to now we do not see the enormous advantages attributed to it; we rather believe that two different things have been confused. It is undoubtedly of great importance to examine both the strategic position of each individual railway line in the kingdom and the whole interconnected railway network. This is so important that we should consider it a serious offence if this had not been done long ago, and if there did not exist the very voluminous files now lying in the archives of the Horse Guards and the various district commanders, containing the results of these examinations. However, that is the duty of the staff and not of the engineers. In the formation of the engine drivers, stokers, plate-layers and railway labourers of each railway line into a corps of engineer soldiers we see no great advantage. These men already possess, so to speak, a military organisation, and are under stricter discipline than any volunteer corps in the country. What is expected of them in their capacity as volunteer engineer soldiers they are already perfectly able to do in their present profession. And since in war their presence at their present posts would be far more necessary than now, there is not the slightest value in training them in special branches of military engineering.

These remarks refer only to the part of the plan that has been published. Should it subsequently appear that it contains other main points, we must of course reserve our opinion.

Let us, however, be permitted to point to a further possible employment for the large number of engineers existing in this country. Most armies, besides the officers under whom the sappers and miners are placed, have a number of engineer officers who belong to no company and are entrusted with special tasks. Why should the civil engineers of England not be given the opportunity to prepare themselves for this service? The school for civil engineers could well be made available for this purpose. A few courses of lectures on military engineering and a short practical course with a company of engineers would suffice. An examination, absolutely necessary in this case and limited to strictly military subjects, could become the criterion for admission to the corps of volunteer engineer officers not attached to any company. The government would of course have to be able to reject unsuitable candidates. Such officers would be of great use; for in this case everything depends on the ability of the officers; and in an emergency a few volunteer riflemen or artillerymen under the command of these officers would carry out a task for engineers with more success than regular engineer officers with one or two detachments of line infantry assigned to them for the task.