Part 138

This mode of rewarding individuals for great actions or long services, continued until men inlisted themselves for money, and the army was regularly paid, according to the several ranks of those who composed it. At this period, however, it became expedient to have recourse to the second method which was adopted by the Romans to compensate individuals for services rendered to the state. The royal treasury was either subjected to the annual claims of individuals, or to the payment of a specific sum, for having eminently distinguished themselves under arms. Notwithstanding this, honorary rewards continued to be given, and the knighthood conferred in the field by the kiss or salute of a general, which the French style _accolade_, was practised until the 16th century:

It was usual, even during that century, to reward a soldier, who did a brave action, by some mark of distinction, that was given on the spot by a crown made of grass or other verdure, which was placed upon his head by his comrades, or by a gold ring, which his commanding officer put upon his finger in the presence of the whole troop or company to which he belonged. It sometimes happened, as in the reign of Francis the first, that this mark of distinction was given by the general of the army.

Several brave men have been distinguished with titles of nobility and armorial bearings, which were conferred by princes, in consequence of some singular feat or exploit. There have been instances recorded in the French history of extraordinary actions having been rewarded upon the spot by kings who commanded in person. A soldier of merit was peculiarly honored by Louis the XIth, for bravery and good conduct in the field. That monarch took the collar of a military order off his own neck, and placed it round the neck of Launay Morvillier, as a reward for great prowess and intrepidity.

Besides the gramineous crown and gold ring, which were thus given as marks of honor and distinction, the private soldiers were frequently rewarded by small sums of money when they performed any particular feat or act of bravery. They were likewise promoted from the ranks, and made serjeants or corporals.

Honorary rewards and compensations for service were not confined to individual officers and soldiers. Whole corps were frequently distinguished in the same manner. When several corps acted together, and one amongst them gave signal proofs of gallantry and good conduct, that one frequently took precedence of the others in rank, or was selected by the sovereign to be his personal guard. Sometimes, indeed, the king placed himself at the head of such a corps on the day of battle, thereby testifying his approbation of their conduct, and giving a proof of his confidence in their bravery.

It is now usual, in most countries, to confer marks of distinction on those corps, that have formed part of any army that has signalized itself. Thus the kettle drums, under the appellation of _nacaires_, were given to some regiments, as proofs of their having behaved gallantly on trying occasions.

The military order of St. Louis, which was created by Louis the XIVth in 1693, and that of Maria Theresa. The modern French _legion of honor_, instituted by Bonaparte, adopts and organizes into a most influential and comprehensive military and political system, all the usages of pre-existing military orders; and fixes degrees of rank under various denominations, those thus decorated are preferred for other trusts and honors. There are many other orders in different countries, were only instituted for the purpose of rewarding military merit. The Greeks and Romans satisfied themselves with honorary rewards, or occasional compensations. The moderns, particularly the French and English, have placed military claims upon a more solid footing. The gratitude of the public keeps pace with the sacrifices of individuals, and permanent provisions are made for those who are wounded or rendered infirm in the service.

The Athenians supported those who had been wounded in battle, and the Romans recompensed those that had served during a given period. The French kings reserved to themselves the privilege of providing for individuals who had been maimed in action, by giving them certain monastic allowances and lodging, &c. in the different convents of royal institution. Philip Augustus, king of France, first formed the design of building a college for soldiers who had been rendered infirm, or were grown old in the service. Louis, surnamed the great, not only adopted the idea, but completed the plan in a grand and magnificent style. Charles the second, on his restoration to the crown of Great Britain, established Chelsea, and James the second added considerable improvements to this institution.

REZ, _Fr._ A preposition which signifies close to, adjoining, level with. _Rez le metal_ in a right line with the metal, a phrase used in pointing guns, to discriminate between the real and artificial point blank; it means on a level with the tops of the base-ring and swell of the muzzle. As _rez pied_, _rez-terre_. _Démolir les fortifications, rez-pied, rez-terre._ To level the fortifications with the ground.

REZ-_de-chaussée_, _Fr._ The ground floor. This term properly means the surface or floor of any building which is even with the ground on which it is raised. It would be incorrect to say _Rez-de chaussée d’une cave, ou du premier étage d’une maison_; the ground floor of a cellar, or of the first story of a house.

RHAGOON, _Ind._ The twelfth month which, in some respect, corresponds with February. It follows the month Magh, which agrees with January.

RHINELAND _rod_, is a measure of twelve feet, used by all the Dutch engineers.

RHOMBUS, (_Rhombe_, _Fr._) in _geometry_, an oblique angled parallelogram, or a quadralateral figure whose sides are equal and parallel, but the angles unequal; two of the opposite ones being obtuse, and the other two acute.

RIBAND, _Rubande_, _Ruban_, _Fr._ This word is sometimes written _Ribbon_. A narrow web of silk which is worn for ornament.

RIBAND _cockade_. The cockades which are given to recruits, and is commonly called _the colors_.

RIBAUDE, _Fr._ Irregular, noisy, ill-mannered. This term is likewise used as a substantive, viz.

_Un_ RIBAUD, _Fr._ A noisy, ill-mannered fellow. It is an old French word, which at present is seldom spoken in the polished circles of life. In former times, as late indeed as during the reign of Philip Augustus, king of France, it was current without carrying along with it any particular reproach or mark of infamy. The foot guards, who did duty at the palace, were generally called _ribauds_, from the looseness of their morals; which by degrees grew so very corrupt, that the term, (harmless perhaps at first) was insensibly applied to persons guilty of dishonorable acts. Hence pick-pockets, thieves, cheats, &c. were called _ribauds_. On which account the provost of the hotel or town house in Paris, was popularly stiled _roi des ribands_, or provost of _ribauds_. This phrase prevailed until the reign of Charles the VIth.

RIBAUD, _Fr._ _adj._ likewise means lewd, debauched, &c.

_Un homme_ RIBAUD, _Une femme_ RIBAUDE, _Fr._ A licentious man; a licentious woman.

RIBAUDEQUIN, _Fr._ A warlike machine or instrument, which the French anciently used. It was made in the form of a bow, containing twelve or fifteen feet in its curve, and was fixed upon the wall of a fortified town, for the purpose of casting out a prodigious javelin, which sometimes killed several men at once.

According to Monstrelet, a French writer, _ribaudequin_, or _ribauderin_, signified a sort of garment which was worn by the soldiers when they took the field.

RIBLEURS, _Fr._ Vagabonds, debauched fellows that run about the streets, or spend their nights in disorderly houses. Soldiers who give themselves up to pillage &c. in war time, are likewise called _ribleurs_, by way of reproach.

RIBLER, _Fr._ To ramble, &c. was formerly the verb, and _riblerie_, the act of rambling, &c. the substantive. Both terms are now obsolete, except among the lower orders.

RICOCHER, _Fr._ To ricochet, to batter or fire at a place with ricochet shots. The author of a very valuable work entitled, _Essai Général de Fortification, et d’Attaque et Defense des places_, observes in a note to page 89, vol. I, that in strict analogy, we should say _ricocheter_; but use, which is above all rules, has made _ricocher_ a technical term, whenever we speak of the ricochets of cannon shot.

_Une face_ RICOCHEE, _Fr._ The face of a fortification, which is fired at with ricochet shots.

RICOCHET, literally means a bound, a leap, such as a flat piece of stone or slate makes when it is thrown obliquely along the surface of a pool.

RICOCHET, (_ricochet_, _Fr._) in _gunnery_, is when guns, howitzers, or mortars, are loaded with small charges, and elevated from five to twelve degrees, so that when fired over the parapet, the shot or shell rolls along the opposite rampart. It is called _ricochet-firing_, and the batteries are likewise called _ricochet-batteries_. This method of firing out of mortars, was first tried in 1723, at the military school of Strasburgh, and with success. At the battle of Rosbach in 1757, the king of Prussia had several 6-inch mortars made with trunnions, and mounted on travelling carriages, which fired obliquely on the enemy’s lines, and amongst their horse, loaded with eight ounces of powder, and at an elevation of one degree fifteen minutes, which did great execution; for the shells rolling along the lines, with burning fuzes, made the stoutest of the enemy not wait for their bursting. See BATTERY.

RICOCHET firing is not confined to any particular charge or elevation; each must vary according to the distance and difference of level of the object to be fired at; and particularly of the spot on which it is intended the shot shall make the first bound. The smaller the angle is under which a shot is made to ricochet, the longer it will preserve its force and have effect, as it will sink so much the less in the ground on which it bounds; and whose tenacity will of course present so much less resistance to its progress. In the ricochet of a fortification of any kind, the angle of elevation should seldom be less than 10°, to throw the shot over a parapet a little higher than the level of the battery. If the works should be of an extraordinary height, the piece must be removed to such situation, and have such charge, that it can attain its object at this elevation, or at least under that of 13° or 14°, otherwise the shot will not ricochet, and the carriages will suffer very much. The first gun in a ricochet battery should be so placed as to sweep the whole length of the rampart of the enemy’s work, at 3 or 4 feet from the parapet, and the rest should form as small an angle with the parapet as possible. For this purpose the guns should be pointed about 4 fathoms from the face of the work towards the interior. In the ricochet of ordnance in the field, the objects to be fired at being principally infantry and cavalry, the guns should seldom be elevated above 3 degrees; as with greater angles the ball would be apt to bound too high, and defeat the object intended. For ricochet practice, see the different pieces of ordnance, as GUN, MORTAR, and HOWITZER.

_Battre en_ RICOCHET, _Fr._ To put a sufficient quantity of gunpowder in a piece of ordnance to carry the ball, with effect, into the works that are enfiladed. This sort of firing is generally practised along the whole extent of a face or flank. The celebrated marshal Vauban first invented the mode of firing _ricochet_-shots. He tried the experiment at the siege of Ath, in 1679.

_Battre un rempart à_ RICOCHET, _Fr._ To batter a rampart with ricochet shots.

RIDEAU is a rising ground, or eminence, commanding a plain, sometimes almost parallel to the works of a place: it is a great disadvantage to have rideaus near a fortification, which terminate on the counterscarp, especially when the enemy fire from afar: they not only command the place, but facilitate the enemy’s approaches.

RIDER, in _artillery carriages_, a piece of wood somewhat higher than broad, the length equal to that of the body of the axle-tree, upon which the side pieces rest, in a four-wheel carriage, such as the ammunition waggon, block carriage, and sling waggon.

_Rough_ RIDER. See ROUGH.

RIDING-_Master_. In the cavalry, an officer whose duty it is to instruct the officers and soldiers in the management of their horses.

_To_ RIFLE, to plunder; to rob.

RIFLE, the thread, ray, or line made in a rifled barrel.

RIFLED _gun_, RIFLED _piece_, RIFLED _barrel_, _Arquebuse rayée_, _Fr._ a fire arm which has lines or exiguous canals within its barrel that run in a vermicular direction, and are more or less numerous, or more indented, according to the fancy of the artificer. With respect to the word itself, it does not appear to bear any other analogy to our common acceptation of the verb, than what may be vulgarly applied to the common practices of riflemen. It is, on the contrary, more immediately connected in sense and signification with an old obsolete word _to ray_; to streak: which comes from the French _rayer_. The rifled barrel possesses many advantages over the common one; which advantages are attributed to the threads or rays with which it is indented. These threads are sometimes cut in such a manner, that the line which commences on the right side at the breech, terminates on the left at the muzzle; by which means the ball acquires a rotary movement, revolving once and a half round its own axis before it quits the piece, and then boring through the air with a spiral motion. It is well known, that cannon balls and shot out of common barrels are impelled in a line formed by the centre of the ball, and a compound of the projectile force of the explosion acted upon by the air and by gravitation in its course; the ball has a tendency to rise upward to a certain extent after leaving the muzzle of the gun; its particular motion is as if the ball had a transverse axis, and rolled forward in that axis, in the manner that the wheels of a carriage roll; and at the same time continue their progression forward. See _Amer. Mil. Lib._

The rifled barrels of America, during the revolution, contained from 10 to 16 rays or threads; some had as few as four. Some persons have imagined, that those of 16 rays were the best, from a supposition that by the air collapsing in the several grooves, the ball obtained more velocity. Mr. Robins, however, seems to differ in opinion, particularly with respect to the depth of the grooves. He observes, page 339 and 340, in his Tracts on Gunnery, that whatever tends to diminish the friction of these pieces, tends at the same time to render them more complete; and consequently it is a deduction from hence, that the less the rifles are indented, the better they are; provided they are just sufficient to keep the bullet from turning round the piece. It likewise follows, that the bullet ought to be no larger than to be just pressed by the rifles, for the easier the bullet moves in the piece, supposing it not to shift its position, the more violent and accurate will its flight be. It is necessary, that the sweep of the rifles should be in each part exactly parallel to each other. See _Robins on Gunnery_, page 328.

Paradés, a gunsmith at Aix-le-Chapelle, who was reputed to be very ingenious in the construction of rifled barrels, used to compress his barrels in the centre.

RIFLEMEN, experienced marksmen, armed with _rifles_. They formed the most formidable force of the United States in the revolution, being posted along the American ranks, and behind hedges, &c. for the purpose of picking off the British officers. They have proved equally fatal in the hands of the French during their revolution. Considerable improvements are daily made; and light infantry battalions, like the chasseurs of the French, should form a considerable portion of every army, and all infantry and cavalry should be taught to act as riflemen, as well as artillerists.

_Mounted_ RIFLEMEN, are no other than good riflemen, accustomed to horsemanship, mounted.

RIGHT, that which is ordered; that which justly belongs to one.

RIGHTS, certain unalienable claims and privileges, which every individual, civil as well as military, possesses in regulated community. See WRONGS.

RIGOL. See CIRCLE.

RING. A circle, an orbicular line.

RING _of an Anchor_. That part of the anchor to which the cable is fastened.

RINGS, in _artillery_, are of various uses; such as the lashing-rings in travelling-carriages, to lash the sponge, rammer, and ladle, as well as the tarpauling that covers the guns; the rings fastened to the breeching-bolts in ship-carriages; and the shaft-rings to fasten the harness of the shaft-horse by means of a pin.

RINGS _of a Gun_. Circles of metal, of which there are five, viz.

_Base-ring_, _reinforce-ring_, _trunnion-ring_, _cornice-ring_, and _muzzle-ring_. See _Am. Mil. Lib._

RINGLEADER. The head of any particular body of men acting in a riotous or mutinous manner.

_To_ RING. To make a sharp reverberating noise.

RING _Ramrod!_ A word of command which is sometimes used at private inspections, to try the bottom of the barrel of a musquet.

RINGROD, _Fr._ A strong iron bar which is used in forges. It likewise means a thick pole with an iron ferrel.

RINGRAVE, _Fr._ Pantaloon breeches.

RIOT and _Tumult_. Sedition, civil insurrection, disturbance, &c. A breach of the peace committed by an assembled multitude.

RIOTERS. Disturbers of the public peace; persons acting in open violation of good order; raising or creating sedition, &c.

RIPOSTE, _Fr._ A parry and thrust. It likewise signifies in a figurative sense, a keen reply, a close retort.

RIPOSTER, _or_ RISPOSTER, _Fr._ In fencing, to parry and thrust,

RISBAN, _Fr._ In fortification, a flat piece of ground upon which a fort is constructed for the defence and security of a port or harbor. It likewise means the fort itself. The famous _Risban_, of Dunkirk, was built entirely of brick and stone; having within its walls excellent barracks, a large cistern well supplied with water, magazines for stores, provisions, and ammunition. A ready communication was kept up with the town by means of the jetée, which corresponded with the wooden bridge that joined the entrance into the fort. The rampart was capable of receiving forty-six pieces of ordnance, which were disposed in three different alignements or tiers, owing to the triangular figure of the fort; so that a fire could be kept up on all sides.

_To_ RISE. To break into commotions; to make insurrections.

_To_ RISE. In a military sense, to make hostile attack: as the military rose against their government.

_To_ RISE. To obtain promotion.

_To_ RISE _from the ranks_. To obtain promotion by degrees after having been in the ranks as a private soldier; a circumstance which has happened to some of the best generals in the world.

RISE. Increase of price; as the rise of commissions in the army upon the prospect of peace.

RISSALA, _or_ RASSAULA, _Ind._ An independent corps of cavalry.

RISSALDAR, _Ind._ The commander of an independent corps of cavalry.

RIVAL, one who is in pursuit of the same thing which another pursues. A competitor.

RIVAL _Powers_. Nations are so called when their relative situation and resources in men and money, &c. enable them to oppose each other.

RIVERAINS, _Fr._ Persons who inhabit the banks of rivers. By a regulation which was in force during the French monarchy, all persons, so situated, were obliged to leave a space 20 feet broad at least, between their houses or huts, and the bank, for the convenience of navigation. A set of men, called _baliseurs_, were paid to see this regulation strictly complied with.

RIVER, (_Riviére_, _Fr._) a land current of water bigger than a brook.

_Fordable_ RIVER. A river which may be passed without the assistance of any floating machines. In order to sound the ford, and to ascertain the state of it, men on horseback are first ordered to cross. By that means you will be able to know whether any obstacles have been thrown in the way by the enemy; for nothing is more easily effected. The passage of a ford may be rendered impracticable by throwing whole trees in, by tables or platforms covered with nails, and by stakes. The two latter impediments are the most dangerous. But stakes are not easily fixed, and are consequently seldom used. When fords are embarrassed by them, it requires some time and trouble to clear the river; and it is equally difficult to get rid of the inconvenience that arises when wells have been sunk. Whenever there is reason to apprehend such obstacles, it is always best to reach the ford at dusk. A good resource in such cases, is to collect a great number of empty casks or hogsheads, and lay over them either platforms of boards or faggots of underwood and boards over them, upon which either cavalry or artillery may pass. Intervals sufficient for the passage of the water must be left. The banks should be lined with riflemen to cover the passage; light guns and grape might be employed upon suitable ground.

When the prince of Condé in 1567, resolved to cross the river Seine, the royalists who were on the opposite side, endeavored to prevent his passage by throwing quantities of madriers or thick planks that were nailed together, iron hoops and water-cats into the ford. The Hugonots or Protestants, however, were not diverted from their purpose. Aubigné, a French writer, says, that on that occasion they placed 400 arquebusiers upon the bank to protect the men that raked the ford.

This was certainly a singular method which was used to clear a ford, nor could it be done without much difficulty, and no inconsiderable share of danger. The chevalier Folard has proposed a much safer, and a much easier way, by means of grappling hooks, tied to long ropes, which might be thrown into the ford. Yet even in this case, observes the writer, the object could not be accomplished if the river were broad, unless the persons employed in the undertaking, be under the cover of so heavy a discharge of ordnance and musquetry, that the enemy would not be able to interrupt them, even from an intrenched position on the opposite bank.

With respect to caltrops, the removal of them, when properly distributed at the bottom of a ford, must be attended with great difficulty; for they must render the passage absolutely impracticable, unless they were to sink very deep into the mud and sand, and thus become useless. The men that first enter are in this case the only persons incommoded, but the rest may follow without much hazard.

It sometimes happens, that the bottom of a stream or rivulet is firm and gravelly; when this occurs, the greatest precautions must be taken to escape the effects of caltrops, which would be extremely hurtful to any persons that might attempt to cross. In order to obviate their mischievous consequences, and to render them in a manner useless, a good stock of hurdles must be provided. The soldiers will hand these to one another, force them into the water, and then cover them with stones.

When one or two fords in a river are so situated, that several battalions cannot cross them upon one front, it is then highly prudent to throw a bridge over, either above or below the ford; for a swell may intervene and render it otherwise impassable; and to which, you have the advantage of getting a greater number of troops over at once.