Sappers and Miners

Are soldiers belonging to the engineer corps, and now called engineers, whose busine it is to make gabions, fascines, hurdles, etc., to trace lines and trenches, to drive the various kinds of saps, to descend into and pa the ditch, to destroy the enemy’s obstacles, to drain the trenches, to put up the various kinds of revetments, to post and superintend working parties, and to serve in the mines when required. They are also taught to adjust and sod the slopes, to erect palisades, fraises, etc., and to repair the defenses of a place, as also to erect bridges, and throw pontons over rivers, to plant torpedoes, and in fact to perform all the duties appertaining to engineer soldiers. In marching near an enemy, every column should have with its advance-guard a detachment of sappers, furnished with tools to open the way or repair the road. Bonaparte considered the proper proportion of engineer soldiers to an army to be 1 : 40; but now in France it is 1 : 33; in England 1 : 34; in Pru ia 1 : 36; and in the United States 1 : 60.