Part 128

PULK, a tribe, a particular body of men. This word is chiefly used in Russia; as a _Pulk_ of cossacks.

PULVERIN, _Fr._ priming powder.

PULVIS _fulminans_, the thundering powder, a mixture of three parts of saltpetre, two of tartar, and one of brimstone; all finely powdered. A small part, even a single dram of this being put into a shovel over a gentle fire, till it melts by degrees and changes color, will go off or explode as loud as a musquet. But it will not do any injury, because its force tends chiefly downward.

PULLEY, in _military mechanics_. See MECHANICS.

PULWAR, _Ind._ a light boat for dispatches.

PUMICE-_stone_, a spongy, light crumbling stone which is cast out of mount Ætna, and other burning mountains. It is used in graving, polishing, &c.

PUMMEL. See POMMEL.

PUMP, (_Pompe_, _Fr._) a well known engine used in the elevation of water.

PUNCH, (_Poincon_, _Fr._) an instrument for making holes. Every serjeant of a company, at least, and indeed every corporal of a squad, should be provided with a punch, as there is frequent occasion to fit on the cross belts, &c.

PUNCTO. The point in fencing.

PUNISHMENT, in the _army_, in general, signifies the execution of a sentence pronounced by a court martial upon any delinquent. There are various methods in different countries which have been adopted for the punishment of officers and soldiers, without ultimately depriving the public of their services. Those in the British are simple, and in general very summary, especially with regard to officers. In some foreign services it is usual to send an officer from his regiment to do duty in a garrison town, during which period he loses all the advantages of promotion. Hence _être envoyé en garnison_, to be sent into garrison, implies a species of military chastisement. Perhaps the method which is adopted in the British navy, of putting an officer at the bottom of the list of his own rank, might be beneficial in the army. The barbarous and self-defeating punishment or whipping remains a disgrace to the British code, and we lament to say to the American also.

PUNITIONS _corporelles_, _Fr._ corporeal punishment. In the old French service, military punishments or chastisements, which were not of a capital nature, were of two kinds. The picket was for the cavalry, and the gauntelope, or passing through the rods, for the infantry. The rods, or baguettes, which properly means small sticks, or switches, were generally osier or willow twigs. Previous to the execution of the sentence, a corporal with two privates of the company, to which the culprit belonged, were sent to get the rods. These they brought in a bundle to the guard-house, or to any place of security which was near the spot where the punishment was to be inflicted. The criminal, under an escort of two serjeants and four grenadiers, with fixed bayonets, went for the bundle, and as he passed through the interval of the line which was faced inwards, each soldier drew out one twig. The grenadiers at the head of the line took off their slings, which they used instead of rods. When the culprit reached the end of the line, he undressed himself naked to the waist. The right and left openings of the double line faced inwards were closed by the grenadiers that had escorted the prisoner, viz. two with one serjeant at the head of the right, and two with ditto at the head of the left. It sometimes happened, that a serjeant or corporal marched backwards in ordinary time; keeping the point of his pike directed at the chest of the man who received the lashes. The culprit was, however, generally allowed to make the most of his legs. Whilst he was receiving his punishment, the drummers of the regiment, who were equally divided and stationed behind the grenadiers that had formed the escort, beat the charge. If a French soldier was convicted of theft, or any flagrant dishonorable practice that injured the military character, he not only underwent this punishment, but he was conducted in the most ignominious manner, to the outward gate of a frontier town; there expelled the country, and cautioned, never to be found within its limits under pain of suffering death. The nicety of military honor and reputation, among French soldiers, is proverbial. They never survive a blow, even among themselves, nor would a private soldier exist under the disgrace of having been struck by an officer.

When a girl of the town, or a notorious prostitute, was taken up, and ordered to be punished in a camp or garrison, she went through the same process; the drums beating the _marionnetes_, a sort of rogue’s march, during the execution of the sentence.

In offering a Military Dictionary to the American public, the editor cannot withhold his protest against the barbarous method of whipping, as not only inconsistent with every maxim adapted to military institution, but incompatible with the republican institutions of America, as well as those of ancient Rome. The subjection to such odious punishment is a fatal blow to the American militia, and one of the greatest obstacles to its respectability and efficiency; since in service the punishments must necessarily be and ought to be uniformly the same. A man who has been once punished by whipping, as practised in the military service in England, must be totally lost to every sentiment of feeling reconcilable with military spirit, or that sense of honor which can never exist but where there is self-respect. There can be no confidence between officers that flog and men that are flogged, and thus the fundamental spirit of all military institution is undermined, that is confidence reciprocal and earnest through every grade. It is sometimes said that discipline cannot be enforced without it; all Europe conquered at this moment, by an army in which even blows are not permitted, is a melancholy lesson contrasted with the brutal discipline of the cane and other ignominious practices, in the armies of Prussia, Austria, Russia, and England. Those who cannot enforce discipline without treating their fellow men as brutes, should distrust their own faculties or fitness, and examine into their own false pride, their petulance, perhaps too often their unacquaintance with the first principle of military discipline, that is a knowlege of mankind, or of the human mind; the springs by which the human character is most easily and effectually led on to acts of voluntary heroism and intrepidity, are never produced by the lash; but always to be commanded by generosity, by a kindness that costs nothing, and which if it were to cost something, if done with discrimination, is always repaid ten thousand fold by the affection, the gratitude, the attachment, and the devotion of the soldier. It is said that there are men who are not to be overcome by generosity, nor subdued even by the lash; then such men should be held up as an example for better men; they should not be suffered to mess, nor to associate with men of better temper; the good men should be noticed and those neglected, and if these courses failed, the public service would be benefitted by their discharge, more than by their continuance.

PURCHASE. The sale and purchase of commissions is countenanced by government, and the prices of those commissions are regulated by authority, yet there are various ways through which young men of fortune and connexions get over the heads of veteran officers in the British army. In 1809, the detection of a system of purchase from the concubines of the British commander in chief excited astonishment.

Purchase and sale are terms unknown in the British navy.

PURSE, (with the grand signor,) a gift, or gratification of 500 crowns.

PURSE _of money_, (in the Levant) about 112_l._ sterling. It is so called, because all the grand signor’s money is kept in leather purses or bags of this value in the seraglio.

PURSEVANT, from the French _poursuivant_, a sort of serjeant at arms, who is ready to go upon any special occasion, or to carry any special message. His general office is to apprehend a person who has been guilty of an offence.

PURSUIT, the act of following with hostile intention.

PURVEYOR OF PUBLIC SUPPLIES, a civil officer whose duty it is to purchase what is required for public service, as military clothing, medicine, equipments; the troops of the United States have for a few years became worse clad than formerly, owing to the scandalous abuse of economy in the purveyor; and overlooked in the military department; a few years since no troops in the world were better provided for.

PURVEYOR, a person employed in the quarter-master or commissary general’s department in the British service. Likewise one belonging to a military hospital, whose duty it is to provide food and necessaries for the sick.

_To_ PUSH, to make a thrust.

_To_ PUSH _back_, to force an enemy to retreat.

_A_ PUSH, a force impressed. As a push of the bayonet. This word is peculiarly applicable to the use that ought to be made of this formidable weapon.

PUSILLANIMOUS, cowardly, wanting spirit.

_To_ PUT _a horse_, in horsemanship, signifies to break or manage him.

_To_ PUT _a horse upon his haunches_, to force him to bend them in galloping in the manege, or upon a stop.

PUTTING-STONE, a great stone, which formerly was laid at the gate of a laird in Scotland, and by which he tried the bodily strength of each man in his clan.

PYKE, _Ind._ a person employed as a guard at night.

PYRAMID, (_Pyramide_, _Fr._) This word is originally derived from the Greek, and takes its name from a resemblance to the spiral ascendancy of fire. It is the same as obelisk.

_Geometrical_ PYRAMID, a solid standing on a square basis, and terminating at the top in a point; or a body whose base is a polygon, and whose sides are plain triangles, their several tops meeting together in one point.

PYRAMID, (in architecture,) a solid, massy edifice, which from a square, triangular, or other base, arises in gradual dimension to a vertex or point.

PYRAMIDAL _numbers_, (in arithmetic,) the sums of polygonal numbers, collected after the same manner as the polygon numbers themselves are extracted from arithmetical progression.

PYRAMIDAL, PYRAMIDICAL, Appertaining to, like to a pyramid.

PYRAMIDOID, from the Greek, is what is sometimes called a parabolic spindle, and is a solid figure formed by the revolution of a parabola round its base, or greatest ordinate.

PYRAMIDS, of Egypt, are enormous piles of building, within three leagues of Grand Cairo, and are ranked among the seven wonders of the world.

The pyramids of Giza, the largest of which was originally built by Cheops, are supposed to have been erected about 14 years after the building of Solomon’s temple, about 2665 years ago. The pyramids are known by various names, viz.

PYRAMIDS _of Giza_, (five in number) which are those already mentioned, and near which the French established a camp in 1799.

PYRAMIDS _of Saccara_, (three in number.) These stand in the plain of Mummies, and are about 600 feet high.

_Dashour_ PYRAMIDS, (six in number,) stand in the same plain, and appear somewhat lower. The French general Friant, in 1799, pursued Murad Bey across this plain, leaving the pyramids on his left.

_The Southern, or Great_ PYRAMID. This pyramid has been called by Bruce, the traveller, the false pyramid. It stands in the plain of Mummies, and appears to be about 600 feet high.

PYRAMIDS, in ruins. Two pyramids of smaller size, which stand near the Fiume mountains, close to Joseph’s canal.

_Battle of the_ PYRAMIDS, so called from having taken place close to the large pyramids in the plain of Mummies, at Waardam, within a few miles of Grand Cairo. A previous engagement had been fought on the 15th of July, 1799, between the Mamalukes under Murad Bey, and the French army, commanded by Bonaparte in person. The second battle, called the battle of the pyramids, put the French in possession of lower Egypt. The following short extract from the Epitome of Military Events, may not be uninteresting.

“The French army, which during its last marches had suffered excessive fatigue, halted at Waardam, in order to recruit its strength, remount the artillery, and clean the musquets that were so subject to take rust from the moist vapors of the Nile. On the 21st of July, 1799, the second battle called the battle of the pyramids, was fought. General Desaix, with his advanced guard, at first made a corps of Mamalukes fall back; the order of battle of the other divisions was nearly the same as on the 13th, being drawn up by echellons of square columns, so as to flank themselves between each other; and the line of battle, which was itself flanked by two villages. Each division was concentrated into a compact body, and formed a square having its baggage in the centre, and the artillery in the intervals of the battalions. This formidable disposition presented a double fire in flank and in front, and opposed an invincible obstacle to the impetuous, but unconnected charges of Murad Bey’s cavalry. To return to the action of the 21st, general Desaix’s advanced guard, and Regnier’s division, formed the right wing of the army, and were at first charged with the greatest impetuosity, by one half of the Mamaluke cavalry; the other half having remained to support the intrenchments of the village of _Embabé_.

“Notwithstanding this determination to anticipate the attack of the French columns, the rash valor of the Mamalukes again failed against those compact bodies, bristling with bayonets, and keeping up, within half musquet shot a most galling fire. While these charges were taking place against his right, and the Mamalukes were retreating in disorder, Bonaparte directing the two divisions of his centre against the intrenchments, ordered the village of _Embabé_ to be turned by means of a ditch which masked this movement, and thus cut to pieces, or rather drove into the Nile, 1500 of the enemy’s cavalry.” In a map lately published by _Heathes_, the number is stated to have been 2000. The attack, which was extremely warm, was conducted by general Marmont. Forty pieces of cannon, the camp of the Mamalukes, their rich spoils, together with upwards of 400 camels, fell into the hands of the conquerors. See pages 119 and 120, of the Epitome of Military Events.

In the year 1801, a large army of Turks with a detachment of the British forces in Egypt, defeated the French close to the pyramids, and took possession of Grand Cairo. This battle eventually decided the fate of Egypt.

PYROBOLY, the art of gunnery, &c.

PYROBOLIST, (_Pyroboliste_, _Fr._) a maker of fire-balls, &c.

PYROETS, in horsemanship, are motions either of one tread or pist, or of two treads or pists.

PYROETS of one tread, or what the French call _de la tête à la queue_, from the head to the tail, are entire and very narrow turns made by a horse upon one tread, and almost at one time, so that his head is placed where his tail was, without putting out his haunches.

PYROETS of two pists, are turns of two treads upon a small compass of ground almost of the length of the horse.

PYROTECHNIE, _Fr._ See PYROTECHNY.

PYROTECHNY, in military matters, the doctrine of artificial fireworks, and firearms, teaching the structure and service, both of those used in war, for the attacking of fortifications, &c. as cannons, bombs, grenadoes, gunpowder, wildfire, &c. and those made for diversion, as serpents, St. Catherine’s wheel, rockets, &c.

PYROTECHNIC, of or appertaining to pyrotechny.

Q.

QUADRANGLE, QUADRANGULAR, a square figure having four right angles.

QUADRANT, in _gunnery_, an instrument made of brass or wood, divided into degrees, and each degree into 10 parts, to lay guns or mortars to any angle of elevation.

The common sort is that whose radii project the quadrant about 12 inches, and whose plummet suspends in its centre, by means of a fine piece of silk; so that, when the long end is introduced into the piece, the plummet shows its elevation.

The best sort has a spiral level fixed to a brass radius; so that, when the long end is introduced into the piece, this radius is turned about its centre till it is level: then its end shews the angle of elevation, or the inclination from the horizon; whereas the first shows that angle from the vertical. See LEVEL.

QUADRAT, or _to quadrat a gun_, is to see it duly placed on its carriage, and that the wheels be of an equal height.

QUADRATE, a square, having four equal and parallel sides.

QUADRATICK _Equations_, are such as retain, on the unknown side, the square of the root, or the number sought.

QUADRATRICE, _Fr._ See QUADRANT.

QUADRATURE, _Fr._ Quadrature.

QUADRILATERAL, (_Quadrilatére_, _Fr._) having four sides.

QUADRILLE, _Fr._ This word is pronounced _Cadrille_. Small parties of horse, richly caparisoned, &c. which used formerly to ride, &c. in tournaments and at public festivals. The Quadrilles were distinguished from one another by the shape or color of the coats which the riders wore. This word is derived from the Italian _Quadriglia_, or _Squadriglia_, being a diminutive of _Squadra_, a company of soldiers drawn up in a square.

QUADRIVIAL, having four roads or ways, meeting in a point.

QUAI, _Fr._ See QUAY.

QUAICHE, or CAICHE, _Fr._ A decked vessel, a ketch.

QUAKER-GUNS. See PASSE VOLANS.

QUALIFICATION. That which makes any person or thing fit for any thing.

_To_ QUALIFY. To fit for any thing. To give in the necessary qualifications for the exercising of a civil or military employment. In a general acceptation of the term, _to qualify_ does not mean to give proofs of mental ability.

QUANTIEME, _Fr._ a term used among the French to signify, not only the day of the month, as _quel quantiéme du mois avons nous?_ what is the day of the month? but likewise the numerical order in which an individual stands upon a muster-roll, &c. viz. _Le quantiéme êtes vous dans votre campagnie?_ How do you rank in your company? or of what standing are you?

QUANTITY, the amount; bulk; weight; that property of any thing which may be increased or diminished.

QUARANTINE, (_Quarantaine_, _Fr._) The time which persons, suspected of having any contagious disorder, are obliged to remain without mixing with the inhabitants of the seaport or town at which they arrive. It takes its name from _quarantaine_, the term of 40 days.

QUARRE, _Fr._ See SQUARE.

_Bataillon_ QUARRE _d’hommes_, _Fr._ A square battalion.

QUARREAUX, _Fr._ Darts or arrows which the bowmen anciently used, and which were so called from the iron at the end being square, with a sharp point.

QUARRELS, in a military sense, are disagreements between individuals of that serious nature, as to produce challenges, duels, &c. by the Articles of War, it is specified, that all officers, of what condition soever, have power to quell all quarrels, frays, and disorders, though the persons concerned should belong to another regiment, troop, or company, and either to order officers into arrest, or non-commissioned officers or soldiers to prison, until their proper superior officers shall be made acquainted therewith; and whosoever shall refuse to obey such officer (though of an inferior rank) or shall draw his sword upon him, shall be punished at the discretion of a general court martial.

QUARREL, QUARRY, an arrow with a square head.

QUART, _Fr._ Quarter.

QUART _de Cercle_, _Fr._ A quadrant such as bombardiers use when they take the angles, and give what inclination they think necessary to a mortar.

QUART _de Conversion_, _Fr._ Quarter-wheeling, or quarter-facing. The terms are used in military evolutions.

DEMI-QUART _de Conversion_, _Fr._ Half-quarter-wheel.

QUARTE, _Fr._ In fencing. See CARTE.

QUARTER, in _war_, signifies the sparing of men’s lives, and giving good treatment to a vanquished enemy. Hence, _to give quarter_, _to take quarter_, &c. _donner quartier_, _Fr._ _prendre quartier_, _Fr._

_To_ QUARTER UPON. To oblige persons to receive soldiers, &c. into their dwelling houses, and to provide for them.

QUARTERS. Military stations are so called; as head quarters, home quarters, regimental quarters, &c.

QUARTERS, at a _siege_, the encampment upon one of the most principal passages round a place besieged, to prevent relief and convoys.

_Head_ QUARTERS _of an army_, the place where the commander in chief has his quarters. The quarters of generals of horse are, if possible, in villages behind the right and left wings; and the generals of foot are often in the same place: but the commander in chief should be near the centre of the army.

QUARTERS _of refreshment_, the place or places where troops that have been much harrassed are put to recover themselves, during some part of the campaign.

QUARTER _of assembly_, the place where the troops meet to march from in a body, and is the same as the place of rendezvous.

_Intrenched_ QUARTERS, a place fortified with a ditch and parapet to secure a body of troops.

_Winter_ QUARTERS, sometimes means the space of time included between leaving the camp and taking the field; but more properly the places where the troops are quartered during the winter.

The first business, after the army is in _winter quarters_, is to form the chain of troops to cover the quarters well: which is done either behind a river, under cover of a range of strong posts, or under the protection of fortified towns. Hussars are very useful on this service.

It should be observed, as an invariable maxim, in _winter quarters_, that your regiments be disposed in brigades, to be always under the eye of a general officer; and, if possible, let the regiments be so distributed, as to be each under the command of its own chief.

_In_ QUARTERS. Within the limits prescribed.

_Out of_ QUARTERS. Beyond the limits prescribed. Officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers who sleep out of quarters, without leave, are liable to be tried by a general or regimental court martial, according to the rank they severally hold.

QUARTER-_master_, is an officer, whose principal business is to look after the quarters of the soldiers, their clothing, bread, ammunition, firing, &c. Every regiment of foot, and artillery, has a quarter-master, and every troop of horse one.

QUARTER-_master_-_general_, is a considerable officer in the British army, and should be a man of great judgment and experience, and well skilled in geography: his duty is to mark the marches, and encampments of an army: he should know the country perfectly well, with its rivers, plains, marshes, woods, mountains, defiles, passages, &c. even to the smallest brook. Prior to a march he receives the orders and route from the commanding general, and appoints a place for the quarter-masters of the army to meet him next morning, with whom he marches to the next camp, where after having viewed the ground, he marks out to the regimental quarter-masters the space allowed each regiment for their camp: he chuses the head quarters, and appoints the villages for the generals of the army’s quarters: he appoints a proper place for the encampment of the train of artillery: he conducts foraging parties, as likewise the troops to cover them against assaults, and has a share in regulating the winter quarters and cantonments.

QUARTER _staff_, an old military weapon, made of strong even wood, bigger and heavier than a pike: it is 6¹⁄₂ feet long between the ferrules that keep fast the two pikes of iron stuck into the ends of the staff.

QUARTER, in the _manége_, as to work from quarter to quarter, is to ride a horse three times in upon the first of the four lines of a square; then, changing your hand, to ride him three times upon the second; and so to the third and fourth; always changing hands, and observing the same order.