he batteries of Lobau, the field-defences of
Hougomont, La Haye-Sainte, and Papelotte at Waterloo, and numerous other
cases equally striking. Just before the battle of Waterloo, Wellington
employed some eighteen thousand peasants and two thousand horses, under
the direction of British officers of engineers. In speaking of these
defences, Colonel Pasley says: "It may be easily conceived that to have
directed such a great body of workmen to proper advantage, by means of a
few officers of engineers, would have been impossible, but for the
system adopted of subdividing the various works among the
non-commissioned officers and privates of the engineer troops, each of
whom was made responsible for laying out the details of his own portion,
and for the direction of a party of from twenty to one hundred men, or
even more, according to circumstances."

But to return to the Peninsular war. These campaigns exhibit in strong
colors the advantages derived, on the one side, from a well-organized
engineer corps, and the losses, delays, and defects suffered on the
other, until the defects of the organization were remedied. Napoleon
entered Spain with a well-appointed army, and soon, through strategy and
well-directed force, gained possession of the important fortresses of
the Peninsula; seizing in this way the strategic routes and important
geographical points, he was enabled to retain possession of the country
for eight years, in spite of the numerous forces arrayed against him,
the absence of himself and his best generals in Germany, and the great
inefficiency of Joseph and of many of his generals. These fortifications
were old, and of strength inferior to modern works of defence, but it
required years and the expenditure of millions in blood and treasure to
expel from the country those who had possession of them.

For the first five years of this war the English struggled with a most
imperfect army organization.[37] When "the first serious siege," says
Napier, was undertaken by the British army, "to the discredit of the
English government, no army was ever so ill provided with the means of
prosecuting such an enterprise. The engineer officers were exceedingly
zealous; and many of them were well versed in the theory of their
business. But the ablest trembled when reflecting on their utter
destitution of all that belonged to real service. Without a corps of
sappers and miners, without a single private who knew how to carry on an
appr