The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-30 00:00:00

MM.0........• _
Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Lords of the Admiralty, from Portland in
the Enchantress, arrived yesterday afternoon at
Plymouth. Several ships of war, supposed to be
the Channel squadron, were at some distance from
the coast ; one was entering the Sound, the others
were expected to follow. The Royal Marines at
Stonchouse will be inspected to-morrow. The levee
is postponed until Monday, at 2 30 p.m., when it
will be held in Devonport dockyard.
The screw steam frigate Phcebe, 35, Capt. John
Bythesea, will leave Plymouth Sound shortly for

Halifax.
The screw steam corvette Rattlesnake, 19, at
Devonport, of 1,703 tons, with engines of 100 horse
power, will be commissioned in a few d tys for a
Second-Class Commodore, to relieve Commodore
Hornby on the West Coast of Africa.
The half-yearly change of quarters of the brigade
of Foot Guards will be made on Tuesday next,
when the Ist battalion of the Grenadier Guards re-
move from the Tower to Windsor, the 2d battalion
from Chelsea Barracks to St. George's Barracks,
and 3d battalion from Wellington Barracks (new
wing) to Wellington Barracks (old wing) and out
barrack. Coldstream Guards, Ist Battalion, from
St. George's Barracks to the Tower ; the 2d batal-
lion will remain in Dublin. The Scots Fusilier
Guards, Ist battalion, from Windsor to Chelsea
Barracks ; and 2d battalion from Wellington Bar-
racks (old wing) to Wellington Barracks (new wing.)
The depot of the 2d battalion of the 22d Regi-
ment, under the command of Capt. J. W. Trevor,
after being inspected by Major-Gen. F. Murray, left
Chatham garrison on Wednesday evening, and pro-
ceeded to Gravesend, where the officers and men
embarked on board the Earl of Percy steamer for
conveyance to Newcastle, there to await the arrival
of the service companies of the 2d battalion of the
22d Regiment from the Mauritius. The strength
of the depot is seven otfficers, six sergeants, 58 rank
and file, 10 soldiers' wives, and 19 children. Staff-
Assist.-Surg. J. C. Knipe proceeded in medical
charge of the troops.
At a late hour on Wednesday night a series of
highly interesting siege operations was commenced
on the field-works, Chatham, by the officers and
sappers and miners of the Royal Engineers, for the
purpose of ascertaining what field operations could
be undertaken by a large force of Royal Engineers,
when working at night, with the assistance of the
electric light, and in the face of a large hostile force.
The whole of the arrangements connected with the
proposed operations, as well as the nature of the
works intended to be undertaken, were kept con-
cealed from the force to be employed in the siege
works until Wednesday evening, when the order was
issued by the Director of the Royal Engineer Estab-
lishment (Col. J. L. A. Simmons, C. 8.) for the
working parties of sappers and miners to make pre-
parations for mining operations in the face of an
enemy in the field. Shortly after 8 o'clock the
entire force to be employed assembled on the vacant
.ground at the rear of Brompton Barracks, facing
the Crimean Memorial Arch, under command of
Lieut.-Col. W. 0. Lennox, C. 8., V.C., to whom
the duty of effecting the intended operations was
intrusted. The working implements having been
served out to each man, the Royal Engineers
marched away, under cover of the darkness, to the
scene of the proposed operations near the lower ex-
tremity of Chatham lines, where extensive field-
works had already been thrown up by the sappers
and miners, who have been occupied in military
engineering operations for several months past.
The plan of attack supposed the force in the field to
be resting with their base at Brompton, and the
efforts of the Engineers were directed to the forma-
tion of an indented sunken battery for three guns,
together with a single sap, and the driving of the
necessary galleries of communication, all of which
were to be undertaken iu a more than usually ex-
posed portion of the siege-works. On the arrival
of the force on the ground pickets were posted, and
the electric light having been thrown on the works,
a body of several hundred men commenced the con-
struction of the battery, similar working parties
being at the same time employed in the formation
of the singlJ sap, and pushing forward the
galleries. The management of the electric light
was undertaken by a party of Royal Engineers
under the personal superintendence of Capt. F. J.
Bolton, 12th Regiment, who is attached to the Royal
Engineer establishment on duties connected with
his system of day and night naval and military sig-
nalling. The experience of Wednesday night proved
most conclusively that in future military operations
in the field the electric light is destined to become
a mcst valuable auxiliary in enabling sapping and
mining operations to be carried on under the most
favourable circumstances during the night, the
powerful rays of light, which were directed on the
exact locality where the works were in progress,
enabling the operations to be carried out under cir-
cumstances as favourable as siege works undertaken
during the day. In about three hours from the time
of commencing the works the Royal Engineers had
succeeded in completing the battery in readiness for
placing three siege guns in position, the face of the
battery being sloped off and rivetted with the ordi-
nary sand bags, as well as with galvanised iron
gabions, the valuable invention of Quartermaster
Jones, Royal Engineers. The superiority of the
gabions constructed on Quartermaster Jones's plan
was fully established during the siege operations on
Wednesday night, a party of only eight men con-
structing 50 gabions in about an hour and a half,
while to make an equal number of the old wicker
gabions in the same time would have required a
working party of 300 men, the whole of whom must
of necessity have been taken away from the siege
works where their services would be required. Shortly
before 2 o'clock yesterday morning the force of
Royal Engineers had completed the whole of the
operations ordered to be carried out—the battery,
sap, galleries, and other works having all been
placed in readiness for the mounting of the guns,
with which fire woul I be opened at daylight, the
whole having been completed in the comparatively
brief space of between four and five hours from the
time of tracing the site for the battery. The order
was then given for the working parties to return to
th!ir quarters, which were reached about 2 a.m.
Yesterday another party of officers and sappers of
RoyalE ngineerswere engaged in erecting in proximity
to the newly constructed battery a new description of
flying bridge for the passage of artillery, troops, and
war stores, the only materials used in the construc-
tion of the bridge being ordinary scaffold poles
bound together on what may be described as the
double truss principle, by which system of con-
struction the lateral and vertical strains are distri-
buted over every part of the structure, and by
means of which enormous strength and rigidity are
obtained. A flooring of planks completes the
bridge, which is of sufficient strength to admit of
the passage of field-pieces, horses, ammunition-
waggons, and other field equipments. The bridge
constructed yesterday would, on ordinary services,
occupy the working party about five hours in its
erection. It is understood that some further night
siege operations will be carried out at Chatham in
the course of a few days.

Lieut.-Gen. W. Cowper Coles died at Woodcote
on Tuesday last, aged 77. The gallant General had
seen considerable service in the early part of his
professional career, and had servel in the 11th and
4')th Regiments of Foot and in the 4th and 12th
I)ravous. 11e entered the army in the autumn of
18'-)",, and served in South America with the 14th
in 18,)7, including the operations previous to and
storming. of Montevideo. Afterwards he served in
the l'ennvda from Augnst, 1608, to November,
1311, and ag,in from April, 1313, to the end of
that war in 1814. With the 40th Regitnent he was
pr,•sent at the battles of Roleia, Vimiera, and Tala-
vera; with the 4th Dragoons at Buasco, Albuera,
and Usagre ; and in the 12th Light Dragoons at the
passage of the Bidassoa, the Nive, and the Adour.
l'he General ha I received the silver war medal
with seven claps, and his commissions bore date as
follows : —Ensign, Oct. 31, 1805 ; lieut., Feb. 8,
1807 ; capt., Nov. 19, 1812; major, June 9, 1825 ;
lieut.-col., Dec. 10, 1830; col., Nov. 9, 1846;
major-gen, June 20, i 1854; and lieut.-gen.,
March 9, 1861.

The following appointments were. made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Geor,e L. nliller,
master, to the Bellerophon, and Owen Davey,
assist.-paymaster, to the Dauntless.