In the present French army organization, there are eleven companies of pontoniers, forming a regiment of sixty-three officers.
_We have in our service no sappers, miners, or pontoniers_, and, in case of war, would be found without the means of executing any military works, or performing any military operation which would require engineer troops.
In the preliminary stages of army organization under Louis XIV., infantry troops were detailed as sappers, and instructed in these duties by the engineers.

This irregularity of service soon caused difficulties and losses, and the evils springing from it were so great, that Vauban urged the propriety of a separate organization.

In 1670 he officially recommended to the king to establish a regiment of twelve hundred sappers and _ouvriers_, and in a subsequent report on the value of these troops, used the following language: "They would be useful in peace as well as in war, and would be the means of saving much in all fortifications where they should be employed.

In fact, I have not the least doubt that they would save annually to the king much more than their pay.

I assert all I have said on this subject with as much confidence as if I had seen the result; and I can, with the same certainty, add, that this small troop will be the means of saving large numbers of good engineers and brave officers and soldiers, from the stern necessity to which we are reduced of exposing, almost always, the laborers and those who support them; which necessity would not arise had we at command a sufficient number of this kind of workmen well instructed.