_Engineer troops_ are divided into three classes--1st, _sappers and pioneers_; 2d, _miners_; and 3d, _pontoniers_.
In the French army of 1799, there were four battalions of sappers, consisting of 120 officers and 7,092 men.

In 1804, Napoleon organized five battalions of these troops, consisting of 165 officers and 8,865 men.

Even this number was found insufficient in his campaigns in Germany and Spain, and he was obliged to organize an additional number of sappers from the Italian and French auxiliaries.

The pioneers were then partly attached to other branches of the service.

There is, at present, in the French army a considerable number of sappers or pioneers detached for the service of the infantry regiments, three companies of _sapeurs-conducteurs_, and forty-two companies of _sapeurs_.