Engineers a little taken aback about company soldier, as before (7)
I believe the answer is:
redcoat
'soldier as before' is the definition.
(historical term for a British soldier)
'engineers a little taken aback about company' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'engineers' could be 're' (abbreviation for Royal Engineers) and 're' is found within the answer.
'a' is within the answer.
'about' could be 'c' (abbreviation for 'circa') and 'c' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'dot' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for redcoat that I've seen before include "camp entertainer" , "British soldier (hist.)" , "British soldier in the American War of Independence" , "Former British soldier" , "Do react (anag) - old soldier" .)