HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SAPPERS AND MINERS 1772-1856

Beautifully illustrated with colour engravings, this authoritative two-volume work gives a complete history of a branch of the Army so vital that it might be considered another arm of the service, on a par with the infantry, cavalry and artillery – the Royal Engineers. The author, himself a serving RE officer takes the reader through the history of his corps’ deployments from the wars with France and Spain in the late 18th century; the Peninsular War – including that great engineering feat, the lines of Torres Vedras, which halted the French advance on Lisbon – The second volume is dominated by the Crimean war, with many chapters on the great Russian siege works at Sebastopol and the RE’s countermeasures. All told, this is a must-have book for anyone interested in the art of military engineering in the 18th and 19th centuries.