CHAPTER XX.

ARMY ROAD AND BRIDGE BUILDERS.

The Engineer Corps—Their Duties—Corduroying—Trestle Bridges—Slashing—Making of Gabions, etc.—As Pontoniers—Xerxes as an Early Pontonier—His Bridge over the Hellespont Described—Our Earliest Pontoon—Bridges of Canvas Boats; of Wooden Boats—Pontoon Bridge Material Described—Balks, Bays, Chesses, Rack Lashings—Pontoon Train—Pontoon Bridge Building Described—Taking Up a Pontoon Bridge—The ’62 Bridge over the Chickahominy—Over the James—Pontoon Bridge Laying before Fredericksburg—The Stability of such Bridges—Incident—Life of an Engineer 377