A Field Officer of Royal Engineers and a Private Sapper, 1812

Aquatint by J C Stadler after Charles Hamilton Smith, 1812.

During the Napoleonic period the Corps of Royal Engineers was a small specialised body of officers. They were assisted in their engineering tasks by other ranks from the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners. Both organisations came under the command of the Master-General of the Ordnance.

From Charles Hamilton Smith's 'Costumes of the Army of the British Empire, according to the last regulations 1812', published by Colnaghi and Company, 1812-1815.