A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer. Thomas Wilhelm
king narrowly escaped, and 50,000 were killed or taken prisoners. 2. At Sanchieburn, near here James II. was defeated and slain on June 11, 1488, by his rebellious nobles.
Banquette. Is the step of earth within the parapet, sufficiently high to enable the defenders, when standing upon it, to fire over the crest of the parapet with ease.
Banquette Slope. Is a slope of earth or timber, placed in rear of the banquette when the top cannot be reached by an ordinary step.
Bantam. In Java; here a British factory was established by Capt. Lancaster in 1603. The English and Danes were driven from their factories by the Dutch in 1683. Bantam surrendered to the British in 1811, but was restored to the Dutch at the peace in 1814.
Bantry Bay. In the south of Ireland, where a French fleet bringing succor to the adherents of James II. attacked the English under Admiral Herbert, May 1, 1689. A French squadron of 7 sail of the line and 2 frigates, armed en flute, and 17 transports anchored here for a few days, but without effect, December, 1796. Mutiny of the Bantry Bay squadron took place in December, 1801.
Banyuls-de-Aspres. A town in the department of the Eastern Pyrenees, France, which is memorable for the defense which its inhabitants made in 1793, when they compelled 7000 Spaniards, who had attacked them, to surrender.
Bapaume. A fortified town of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. A portion of the allied troops advanced to this place after compelling the French to abandon their fortified position, and to retreat behind the scarpe, in August, 1793.
Baptism of Blood. As the name implies, is the act of being baptized with blood, and was used specially with reference to soldiers who fought on their first battle-field. In the old French service, baptism of blood equalized all grades, and military services, not rank, were the recognized claims for promotion.
Baptism of Fire. A figurative term applied to soldiers who have passed through their first fire in battle.
Bar. A long piece of wood or iron. Bars have various denominations in the construction of artillery-carriages, as sweep- and cross-bars for tumbrils, fore, hind, and under cross-bars for powder-carts, shaft-bars for wagons, and dowel-bars, used in mortar-beds.
Bar. In heraldry, is one of those important figures or charges known as ordinaries. It is formed by two horizontal lines passing over the shield like the fess, but it differs from it in size—the fess occupying a third, the bar only a fifth part of the shield. The fess is also confined to the centre, while the bar may be borne in several parts of the shield.
Barb. The reflected points of the head of an arrow. The armor for horses was so called.
Barbacan, or Barbican. In fortification, a watch-tower for the purpose of descrying an enemy at a distance; advanced works of a place or citadel, properly the boulevards of the gates and walls; a fort at the entrance of a tower or bridge, with a double wall; or an aperture or loop-hole in the walls of a fortress through which to fire upon an enemy.
Barbary. A country in North Africa, considered to comprise Algeria, Morocco, Fez, Tunis, and Tripoli, with their dependencies (all of which see). Piratical states (nominally subject to Turkey) were founded on the coast by Barbarossa about 1518.
Barbets. Were peasants of Piedmont, who abandoned their dwellings when an enemy had taken possession of them. They formed into bodies and defended the Alps.
Barbette. An earthen terrace, raised within a parapet, so high as to enable guns to be fired over the latter, and therefore with a freer range than when worked at an embrasure.
Barbette Carriage. Is a carriage of the stationary class, on which a gun is mounted to fire over a parapet; and a barbette gun is any gun mounted on a barbette carriage.
Barbette Centre-pintle Carriage. See Ordnance, Carriages for, Sea-coast Carriages.
Barbette Front-pintle Carriage. See Ordnance, Carriages for, Sea-coast Carriages.
Barbole (Fr.). A heavy battle-axe, used in ancient times.
Barboursville, or Cabell Court-house. The capital of Cabell Co., W. Va. It was the scene of a brilliant action between the Confederate and Federal forces, in which the latter were victorious, July 18, 1861.
Barce, or Berche (Fr.). A small gun, shorter and thicker than a falconet, which was formerly used on board ship.
Barcelona. An ancient maritime city in Northeastern Spain, said to have been rebuilt by Hamilcar Barca, father of the great Hannibal, about 233 B.C. The city has suffered much by war. The siege by the French, in 1694, was relieved by the approach of the English fleet commanded by Admiral Russell; but the city was taken by the Earl of Peterborough in 1706; bombarded and taken by the Duke of Berwick and the French in 1714; taken by Napoleon in 1808, and retained till 1814. It revolted against the queen in 1841, and was bombarded and taken in December, 1842, by Espartero.
Bard. A fortress and village of Piedmont on the bank of the Dora Baltea, 23 miles south-southeast of Aosta. The fortress is situated on an impregnable rock, and arrested for some time Napoleon’s march in the valley of the Dora, at the outset of his campaign of 1800, almost compelling him to abandon it. The garrison consisted of 400 men, and was finally passed only by stratagem. It was subsequently razed by the French (1800), but has since been restored.
Bardewick. A town in Hanover, which was dismantled by Henry the Lion in 1189.
Bareilly. A province of Delhi, Northwest India, ceded to the East India Company by the ruler of Oude, 1801. A mutiny at Bareilly, the capital, was suppressed in April, 1816; on May 7, 1858, it was taken from the cruel Sepoy rebels.
Barezim. A small town in Poland, where the Russians were defeated by the Poles in 1675.
Barfleur. An ancient seaport town in the department of Manche, France, where William the Conqueror equipped the fleet by which he conquered England, 1066. Near it Prince William, duke of Normandy, son of Henry I., in his passage from Normandy, was shipwrecked November 25, 1120. Barfleur was destroyed by the English in the campaign in which they won the battle of Crécy, 1346. The French navy was destroyed near the cape by Admiral Russell after the victory of La Hogue in 1692.
Bari (Southern Italy). The Barium of Horace was in the 9th century a stronghold of the Saracens, and was captured by the emperor Louis II., a descendant of Charlemagne, in 871. In the 10th century it became subject to the Eastern empire, and remained so till it was taken by Robert Guiscard, the Norman, about 1060.
Baril Ardent (Fr.). Fire-barrel; a barrel filled with layers of tarred chips intermixed with powder and primed at each end with a shell-fuze; it had holes bored in it for the purpose of admitting air to the burning contents; formerly used for illuminating purposes.
Baril Foudroyant, or D’artifice (Fr.). Of the same nature as the baril ardent, with the addition of grenades placed between the layers of chips. Barils foudroyants were used at the defense of a breech, by rolling them upon the assailants.
Barkam. A fortress on the banks of the Danube. Near here John Sobieski, king of Poland, was defeated by Pasha Ka-Mehemed, October 7, 1683.
Barking-irons. Large dueling pistols.
Barnacles. In heraldry, resemble what are now called twitchers, or instruments used by farriers to curb unruly horses. They are frequently introduced into coats of arms as a charge.
Barnet.