Remembering our combat engineers

Written By Kari Campbell

Stereograph shows President Ulysses S. Grant and General John Logan seated at the flag-draped Old Amphitheater, Arlington Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia for Decoration Day ceremonies on May 30, 1873. Jarvis, J. F., photographer. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914[1]. The conflict resulted in at least 750,000 deaths – including death from disease and injury resulting from battle[2]. The entire country was traumatized and sought a way to commemorate those who lost their lives in the conflict.

After the war, John A. Logan, the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, proposed a holiday on May 30 called Decoration Day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” This holiday formalized the existing practice of placing flowers on the graves of soldiers killed in the Civil War.

In later years, the day came to be observed in honor of those who had died in all U.S. wars, and in 1967 its name officially changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day. It is observed with the laying of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, and by religious services, parades, and speeches nationwide.[3]

Heroes from the beginning

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Military Engineering Corps, a courageous and highly trained corps of soldiers who have been instrumental in winning strategic battles since the Revolutionary War.

June 16, 1775, the Continental Congress organized an army with a chief engineer and two assistants. Colonel Richard Gridley became General George Washington's first chief engineer; however, it was not until 1779 that Congress created a separate Corps of Engineers.[4]

Pontoon bridge across Rappahannock River below Fredericksburg, Va. Virginia United States Fredericksburg, [Photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed between 1880 and 1889] Retrieved from the Library of Congress,

During the American Revolution, France was a key ally providing expertise, money and military support.  French combat engineers, called sappers, helped train Americans in combat engineering. The term “sapper” is derived from the French word for “spade, or sappe” because combat engineers traditionally used spades to dig covered trenches that allowed infantry to approach the walls of a fort that was under siege.

The Commandant of the Continental Army Engineering Corps was French engineer Louis Duportail, who “participated in fortifications planning from Boston to Charleston and helped Gen. Washington evolve the primarily defensive military strategy that wore down the British Army. Duportail also directed the construction of siegeworks at Yorktown, site of the decisive American victory in the Revolutionary War”.[5]

Engineers in the Civil War

During the Civil War, Army engineers constructed pontoon and railroad bridges, built forts and batteries, demolished enemy supply lines and conducted siege warfare. In December 1862, Union Army engineers laid six pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River, under devastating fire from Confederate sharpshooters, in support of the Union attack on Fredericksburg, Virginia. Despite the courage of the engineers, the attack could not overcome the fortified and well-supplied Confederate positions.

Combat engineers were key in World War II

A Company 299th put up this pontoon bridge on the Roer River, 25 February 1945. Photo provided by Michael S. Bunting from the 299th Engineer Battalion website.

During World War II, Army, sappers placed floating and later fixed bridges across the rivers of Italy, France, and Germany, making it possible for the army to advance on key positions. Engineer and surveyor troops prepared and developed beaches for assault landings, both in Europe and the Pacific. On the beaches of Normandy, engineer troops operated under heavy enemy fire to clear lanes for landing craft by destroying the mine-bearing steel structures that the Germans had implanted in the intertidal zone. Then, they bulldozed roads up the narrow draws through the cliffs lining the beaches. During the Battle of the Bulge, quick engineer actions destroyed critical bridges in the path of advancing German forces, slowing and diverting them while Allied forces regrouped.[5]

Continuing combat support

During the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War, combat engineers were tasked with route clearance missions designed to counter rising threats of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). To increase the effectiveness of these units, Explosive Ordnance Disposal and mechanic teams were typically embedded with the combat engineer platoon. Due to rising IED threats, the U.S. Army sends some combat engineers to complete Explosive Ordnance Clearance Agent training.[6]

This Memorial Day, it’s important to remember all who served and sacrificed for our freedom, including combat engineers. For 250 years, these soldiers have helped ensure our forces achieve essential military objectives.

For more than 50 years, Berntsen has been supporting the US military, from creating the first survey markers with Arabic script to providing RFID-enabled markers and software for better management of materiel and other assets. We salute the military heroes who have kept our country secure.

Links of interest regarding combat engineers (sappers)

US Army:

US Army Corps of Engineers 250th year celebration – Information about the history of the Corps including video vingettes.

What is a US Corps of Engineer Sapper? This video describes what it takes to become an Army Sapper, graduate Sapper School, and earn the right to wear the tab.

Civil War Pontoon Bridges – Essay describing the types of pontoons used during the Civil War

Union and Confederate Engineer Operations in the Civil War - Essential Civil War Curriculum, article by Daniel F. O’Connell

British Army:

A Sapper’s Tale: This video describes the British view of the largest modern assault force on to Nazi-occupied Europe. The story is only a tiny slice of the bigger picture, but it follows Major (later Major General) Allan ‘Tony’ Younger DSO, OBE, as he goes from training to assaulting the beaches at Normandy. With extra information provided by Colonel (Retired) Don Bigger, Corps Historian.

Sappers Show Their Paces: Royal Engineers give a battle demonstration at Royal Engineers Exhibition at Tidworth in Wiltshire, UK in 1956.

Kari Campbell
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