A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer. Thomas Wilhelm
defended by the bastions at its extremes.
Bastions, Hollow, are those surrounded only with a rampart and parapet, having the space within unoccupied where the ground is so low that no retrenchment can be made in the centre in the event of the rampart being taken.
Bastion, Regular, is that which has true proportion of faces, flanks, and gorges.
Bastions, Solid, are those which have the void space within them filled entirely, and raised of an equal height with the rampart.
Bastioned Fort. A fort having bastions.
Baston. A staff or cudgel formerly used in tournaments. In heraldry, a staff or cudgel generally borne as a mark of bastardy, and properly containing one-eighth in breadth of the bend-sinister.
Bat de Mulet (Fr.). A pack-saddle used on service when mules are employed to carry stores. Aparejos in the United States service are used for a similar purpose. See Pack-saddles.
Batage (Fr.). The time employed in reducing gunpowder to its proper consistency. The French usually consumed 24 hours in pounding the materials to make good gunpowder. Supposing the mortar to contain 16 pounds of composition, it would require the application of the pestle 3500 times each hour. The labor required in this process is less in summer than in winter, because the water is softer.
Bataillon de la Salade (Fr.). A name formerly given in France to old corps which wore a peculiar kind of helmet called salade. See Salade.
Batardeau (Fr.). A wall built across a ditch or fortification, with a sluice-gate by which the height of the water in the ditch on both sides may be regulated. To prevent this wall being used as a passage across the ditch, it is built up to an angle at the top, and armed with iron spikes; and to render the attempt to cross still more difficult, a tower of masonry is built on it.
Batavia and Batavian Republic. See Holland.
Bateau (Fr.). A light boat.
Bateau-bridge. Is a floating bridge supported by bateaux or light boats. See Pontons.
Bateau d’Avant-garde (Fr.). A small light boat attached to the advance-guard of an army. It is 33 feet in length by 5 feet 6 inches in breadth.
Bate Isle. An island of Hindostan, belonging to the province of Guzerat, situated at the southwestern extremity of the Gulf of Cutch. It was formerly a rendezvous for pirates, who were the dread of all traders on the western coast of India. In 1803 a naval force, consisting of a British frigate and two Bombay cruisers, succeeded in destroying several of the pirate boats and vessels; but an attack upon the castle, though conducted under the fire of the ships, was repulsed with some loss. In 1807 a treaty was entered into with the chiefs of the island, whereby they consented to relinquish their piratical practices.
Bath, Knights of the. See Order of Knights of the Bath.
Bat-horse. A baggage horse which bears the bat or pack.
Bat-man. A servant in charge of the bat-horses. The term is now applied in the English service to a soldier who acts as servant to an officer.
Baton. A truncheon borne by generals in the French army, and afterwards by the marshals of other nations. Henry III. of France before he ascended the throne was made generalissimo of the army of his brother Charles IX., and received the baton as the mark of the high command, 1569.
Baton. A staff used by drum-majors of foot regiments.
Baton Rouge. A city of Louisiana. It was captured by the Federals August 5, 1862, after a fierce conflict.
Batourin. A town of Russia, 63 miles east of Tcheringov, on the Seim. It was the residing place of the hetman of the Ukraine Cossacks from 1699 to 1708; captured and sacked by the Russians in 1708.
Batta. An allowance made to military officers in the service of the East India Company in addition to their pay. See Half-batta.
Battalia. The order of battle; disposition or arrangement of troops, brigades, regiments, battalions, etc., as for action. Formerly the term applied to the main body of an army in array, as distinguished from the wings.
Battailant. Equipped for battle; warlike; a combatant. This word is now obsolete.
Battalion. A body of troops, so called from being originally a body of men arranged for battle; consisting in European armies of about 800 or 1000 men; in the U. S. service, an aggregation of from two to twelve companies.
Battard. An early cannon of small size.
Batten. The sloping of a wall which brings the perpendicular from the top inside the base.
Batter. A cannonade of heavy ordnance, from the first or second parallel of intrenchment, against any fortress or works. To batter in breach implies a heavy cannonade of many pieces directed to one part of the revetment from the third parallel.
Batterie en Rouage (Fr.). Is an enfilading battery, when directed against another battery.
Battering. In military affairs, implies the firing with heavy artillery on some fortification or strong post possessed by an enemy, in order to demolish the works.
Battering Charge. The charge of powder used in battering. The heaviest charge used in a gun.
Battering-pieces. Are large pieces of ordnance, used in battering a fortified town or post.
Battering-ram. In antiquity, a military engine used to batter and beat down the walls of places besieged. There were two different kinds of battering-rams, one rude and plain, the other compound. The former seems to have been no more than a great beam, which the soldiers bore on their arms and shoulders, and with one end of it, by main force, assailed the walls. The compound ram was a large beam with a head of iron, which was sometimes made to resemble the head of a ram. It was suspended by ropes to a beam supported by posts, and balanced so as to swing backwards and forwards, and was impelled by men against the wall. These rams were sometimes 120 feet in length.
Battering-train. A train of artillery used solely for besieging a strong place, inclusive of mortars and howitzers. See Siege-train.
Battery. A battery consists of two or more pieces of artillery in the field. The term battery also implies the implacement of ordnance destined to act offensively or defensively. It also refers to the company charged with a certain number of pieces of ordnance. The ordnance constitutes the battery; men serve it; horses drag it, and epaulments may shelter it.
Ambulant Battery, heavy guns mounted on traveling carriages, and moved as occasion may require, either to positions on the coast or in besieged places.
Barbette Batteries are those without embrasures, in which the guns are raised to fire over the parapet.
Battery d’Enfilade is one that sweeps the whole length of a line, or the face or flank of any work.
Battery de Reverse is one which plays upon the rear of the troops appointed to defend a place.
Battery en Echarpe is that which plays obliquely.
Breaching Battery. See Breach.
Covered, or Masked Battery is when the cannon and gunners are covered by a bank or breastwork, commonly made of brushwood, fagots, and earth.
Cross-batteries are two batteries which play athwart each other upon the same object, forming there an angle, and battering with more effect, because what one battery shakes the other beats down.
Facine and Gabion Batteries are batteries constructed of those machines where