Royal Engineers

ROYAL ENGINEERS, Columbia Detachment, were sent to BC in 1858, under the command of Col Richard C. MOODY, to initiate a program of public works and to provide a military force to keep peace in the GOLD-mining districts. The first contingent arrived July 12 as part of the British Boundary Commission laying out the border with the US along the 49th parallel between the Pacific and the ROCKY MTS. The main force of the Columbia Detachment arrived in Apr 1859, bringing the number of engineers to 225, plus women and children. The number included a brass band, led by William Haynes, BC's first bandmaster. The men built barracks at Sapperton and began clearing a townsite for the new capital of NEW WESTMINSTER. Over the next 4 years their projects included improving the DOUGLAS TRAIL, building trails from New Westminster to BURRARD INLET, the future site of VANCOUVER, and surveying and constructing parts of the CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. But the force was expensive to maintain; with American territorial ambitions held in check by the Civil War, the Colonial Office recalled the engineers. Most of the men took up the government's offer of 150 acres (60 ha) of free land and remained in BC as settlers; the rest sailed for England on 11 Nov 1863.