36 MILITARY COMMISSION TO EUROPE. 



The company is divided into 4 platoons. Their arms, accoutrements, and mode of carrying 

 tools being precisely like tliose of the engineer troops. Plate I will give all the requisite infor- 

 mation. 



Plate II, fig. 2, shows the formation of a company and the distribution of the tools. In addi- 

 tion to the tools, &c., mentioned in the plate, 3,000 nails and various small tools are divided 

 among the men ; the maximum load of any one man is 45^ pounds, everything included. 



The Birago equipage is exclusively used, and has undergone no modification, except that the 

 sections of the boats are connected by bolts and keys in addition to the hooks on the sides. 



Expeiiments are now being made to substitute boiler iron boats for those of wood ; it was 

 stated that they were of about the same weight as the wooden ones, and that they would 

 probably be adopted. I observed a number of them at Klosterneuberg. All the bridge mate- 

 rials, and most of the pioneer tools, are made by the men of the corp, the principal arsenal of 

 construction being at Klosterneuberg, near Vienna. 



Each company has two bridge equipages ; an equipage consisting of the pontons, trestles, 

 &c., necessary to form a bridge 174' long ; 15 wagons transport this amount of material, and 

 they are so packed that the equipage may be divided into ^, \, and ^. 



The composition, details, and properties of the Birago bridge are so well known to all 

 interested in the subject, through Haillot's excellent description of it, and Birago's "Examina- 

 tion of the European Systems of Military Bridges," that it is altogether unnecessary to describe 

 it here. 



For the pioneers, as well as for the engineer troops, there are special tactics for the infantry 

 drill of the recruit, company, and battalion drills. 



All the details of the Austrian system of the field duties of the pioneers, such as field fortifi- 

 cations, labors in camp, repairing roads, making bridges, &c., will be found in an excellent 

 work entitled "Technical Pioneer Service in the Field, by Captain Wasserthal ;" or, in the 

 original, " Technischer Pionier-Dienst im Felde, von Konstantin Wasserthal, K. K. Pionier, 

 Hauptmann, etc. ; Wien, Verlag von Carl Gerold und Sohn — 1852." 



THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH ENGINEER TROOPS. 



Our own system of instruction being based ujaon the French and English, their organization 

 and system are so perfectly well known in our service that any description of them may be 

 dispensed with. It is believed that no essential changes have been introduced of late. 



In the course of the observations that will hereafter be made upon the operations near Sebas- 

 topol there will arise the necessity of alluding to the manner in which these systems were carried 

 into practice, as well as the temporary modifications rendered necessary by circumstances. 



In concluding this brief account of the engineer troops of different European services there 

 are a few points to which I would ask to call the attention of our own officers of engineers. 



In regard to the saps : there are several things which ought at least to be tried ; among them 

 may be mentioned the Russian system of reducing the number of men in a brigade to 6 ; the 

 Austrian method of executing the sap ; the Russian curved mallet for fastening the crowning 

 fascines ; the Prussian sap hooks and sap fork ; the system of leaviSg the two sap rollers at the 

 head of the double sap unconnected, and covering the interval by a third roller or by sand bags ; 

 the use of sand bags, instead of sap fagots, for covering the joints at the head of the sap, and the 

 Austrian manner of carrying tools. 



In reference to bridges : I would recommend that the Birago trestle, in principle, at least, be 

 definitively adopted as a part of our system. Its universal adoption on the continent of 



