Part 49

_To find the length of Fuzes for any Range._

The 13 and 10 inch fuzes of the same length burn so nearly equal, that one common length answers both, as do the 8 inch, 5¹⁄₂ and 4²⁄₅. Therefore, to find the length of fuze for any range, multiply the time of flight by 22 for the 13 and 10 inch, and by 24 for the 8, 5¹⁄₂ and 4²⁄₅; which is the decimal part of an inch a fuze burns in a second. Fuzes are thought to keep better by being painted; and for field service, are often marked off by black lines into seconds and ¹⁄₂ seconds.

G.

GABION, in fortification, is a kind of basket, made of ozier-twigs, of a cylindrical form, having different dimensions, according to what purpose it is used for. Some gabions are 5 or 6 feet high, and 3 feet in diameter: these serve in sieges, to carry on the approaches under cover, when they come pretty near the fortification. Those used in field-works are 3 or 4 feet high, and 2¹⁄₂ or 3 feet diameter. There are also gabions, about 1 foot high, 12 inches diameter at top, and from 8 to 10 at bottom, which are placed along the top of the parapet, to cover the troops in firing over it, they are filled with earth.

In order to make them, some pickets, 3 or 4 feet long, are struck into the ground, in form of a circle, and of a proper diameter, wattled together with small branches, in the manner of wattled fences. Batteries are often made of gabions. See BATTERY.

GABIONS.--Small gabions of 3 feet high, and 2 feet diameter, are made with least trouble, and are easiest carried. The pickets for them must be 1¹⁄₂ or 2 inches thick, and 4 feet long. Large gabions are 6 feet high, and 3 feet in diameter; and require two men to carry them. The smallest gabions or baskets are formed of pickets, 1 inch in thickness, and 1 foot long: they are 12 inches in diameter at top, and 10 at bottom. The small gabions have 7 or 8 pickets, the large ones 9 or 10.

_To make them_--The pickets are first to be fixed in the ground in a circle, the size or the bottom of the intended gabion; then a few twigs are to be wove through the upper ends, to keep them from flying out; afterwards the work must be begun at the bottom and continued upwards; and the whole being well driven down with a mallet, the edges must be secured by twigs, wattled up and down. The twigs of willow, birch, hazle, alder, poplar, and beech are proper for this purpose. The top of the gabion must be made very even, because that becomes the bottom when finished. Four men are usually employed on each gabion, with a billhook, a mallet, a spade, and two axes. Two collect the wood, while the other two form the gabion. A 3 foot gabion ought to be made in half an hour.

_Stuft_-GABIONS, in fortification, are made in the same manner as the former: they are only filled with all sorts of branches and small wood, and are 4 or 6 feet long: they serve to roll before the workmen in the trenches to cover them in front against musquet-shot.

GABION _farci_, _Fr._ a stuft gabion.

GABIONADE, _Fr._ a term made use of when a retrenchment is suddenly thrown up and formed of gabions, for the purpose of covering the retreat of troops, who may be obliged to abandon a work, after having defended it to the last extremity. Every parapet that is made of gabions is generally called _gabionade_.

GABIONNER, _Fr._ to cover or secure with gabions.

GAFFLES, the steel lever with which the ancients bent their cross-bows.

GAGES, _Fr._ wages. Among the French this phrase signified the fruits or compensations which were derived by individuals from appointments given by the crown, whether of a military, civil, or judicial nature, or for service done at sea or by land.

GAIN is frequently used in a military sense, as _they gained the day_, &c.

_To_ GAIN _ground_. See GROUND.

GAINE _de flamme_, _Fr._ a sort of linen sheath or cover, into which the staff of a flag or pendant is put.

GAINE _de pavilion_, _Fr._ a cloth, or linen-band, which is sewed across the flag, and through which the different ribands are interlaced.

GAINES _de girouettes_, _Fr._ bands, or pieces of linen, with which the vanes are tied to the staff.

GAITERS, a sort of cover for the leg, usually made of cloth, and are either long as reaching to the knee, or short, as only reaching just above the ancle; the latter are termed half-gaiters.

GALERIES _Capitales_, _Fr._ are those galleries which lie under the capitals in works of fortification.

GALERIE _tranversale_, _Fr._ is a gallery in fortification which cuts the capital in a perpendicular direction.

GALERIE _meurtriére ou de premiere envelope_, _Fr._ a gallery which runs under the whole extent of the covert-way, and is frequently carried close to the counterscarp, in order to afford a circulation of air.

GALERIE _d’envelope_, _Fr._ a gallery which is constructed at the extremity of the glacis, and is commonly made parallel to the magistral or principal line of fortification. The _envelope_ is the chief gallery in a fortress or garrison-town, and serves as a path of communication or covered way to all the rest.

It is of the utmost consequence to the besieged to secure this gallery from every approach of the enemy; and if any impression should be made, to repair the injury without delay. From this gallery the garrison always direct their attacks, whenever it is necessary to keep the assailants out of the covert-way.

GALERIE _d’écoute_, _Fr._ a gallery in front of the envelope. _Ecouter_, which signifies to listen, sufficiently explains the purpose for which these galleries are erected.

_Petites_ GALERIES, _ou rameaux_, _Fr._ small galleries, branches, or _arraignées_, in fortification, which issue from the counter-mine, and at the extremities of which the furnace or chamber for the lodgment of gunpowder is constructed. There is not any established or fixed rule to direct the height to which small galleries, branches, or _arraignées_ ought to be carried; in general they should have the least possible elevation.

When galleries are built of mason-work their height is from five to six feet, their breadth from three to four, and sometimes only three.

GALERIES _de mines_, _Fr._ galleries in mining differ from counter-mines, in as much as that they are supported by coffers resting upon frames, which are covered with earth three feet in depth; that is, two feet and a half from one frame to another. These galleries are usually built three feet and a half high, and two and a half broad; and whenever there is a necessity to work in the rameau or arraignée, the galleries in that case are reduced to smaller proportions.

GALERIE _magistrale_, _Fr._ in mining signifies any covered avenue or gallery which is parallel to the magistral or principal line of the place, and exists under the whole or part of the front of the fortifications. This gallery is usually as thick as the enemy’s mason-work against which the counter-mine is directed. By means of this work, the besieged generally endeavour to interrupt every attempt which the besiegers may make in the passage of the fossé or ditch.

GALERIE _à passer un fossé_, a gallery constructed for the purpose of crossing a ditch. It is a small passage made of timber-work, having its beams or supporters driven into the bottom of the ditch, and being covered at top with boards that are again covered with earth, sufficiently strong to bear the miner, and to withstand the effect of artificial fire, or the weight of stones which the enemy might direct against them. This sort of gallery is sometimes called the traverse, or cross way.

These galleries have been out of use for some years. The miner gets at the body of the place which is attacked, either through a subterraneous gallery that is dug beneath the ditch, when the nature of the ground will permit the attempt, or under cover of the epaulement, which covers the passage of the ditch. When the ditch is full of water, and the miner has made considerable progress under it, he instantly makes the best of his way to the breach, either by swimming, or by supporting his body on a raft of timber; as soon as he has reached the spot, he works into the earth among the ruins of the wall, and completes the object of his enterprize.

GALERIES _de communication_, _Fr._ are subterraneous galleries, by means of which, the garrison of a besieged town or place may, without being perceived by the enemy, communicate from the body of the place, or from the counterscarp, with the different outworks.

GALERIES _souterraines des anciens_, _Fr._ Subterraneous galleries as originally invented by the ancients. The author of the Dictionnaire Militaire in his last edition of that work enters upon the explanation of these galleries by the following curious assertion.

“I must, he observes, in this place, assert with the chevalier Folard, that it would be absurd to deny the superiority which the ancients possessed over us in the essential knowlege and requisites of war, and that they pushed the different branches of that science to as high a pitch of perfection as it was possible to raise it.

“The only inventions which the moderns can boast of, are those of fire-arms, mines, and furnaces. But then, on the other hand, we stand indebted to them for our lines of circumvallation and of contravallation, our approaches or trenches which are effected from a camp to its different batteries, together with the construction of those batteries; our parallel entrenchments or places of arms, the descent into, or the filling up of the ditch, our covered saps in mining, and our open galleries; we owe to them, in fact, the original art of throwing up works and of creating obstacles, by which we are enabled to secure ourselves, or by various stratagems to annoy our enemies. The ancients were indeed superior to us, in the means of defence.

“The origin of subterraneous galleries or passages in mining, is totally unknown to us; a circumstance which proves their antiquity. We read in the History of Josephus, that the Jews frequently made use of them; so that neither the Greeks nor the Romans, who, in many instances arrogate to themselves the exclusive glory of invention, were the authors of this discovery.

“The method which was pursued by the ancients in their passages of mines, resembled the one that is invariably followed by the moderns. But the latter possess a considerable advantage over the former, in this sort of attack and defence, which advantage consists wholly in the invention of gunpowder.

“The ancients, it is well known, could only undermine in one way; namely under the terraces or cavaliers, or under the towers and battering-testudo-machines (_tortues bélieres_,) and in order to do any execution, they were obliged, in the first place, to construct a spacious high subterraneous chamber, to carry away and raise the earth, to support the remainder by powerful props, and afterwards to fill the several chambers with dry wood and other combustible materials, which were set fire to in order to reduce the towers and various machines that were placed above, into one common heap of ruins. But this attempt did not always succeed; for owing to the magnitude of the undertaking and the time it required, the enemy might either trace the miners, cut off their communication with the main body of the place, or get into the chambers before they could be finished, or be properly prepared for inflammation.

“The ancients constructed their galleries on a larger scale than we adopt. They were wider, but less elevated; whereas those that we use require less trouble; our chamber mines being more contracted, and having an advantage of access by means of the different branches. One or two small chambers are sufficient with us to blow up the whole face of a bastion. But the ancients only sapped in proportion to the extent of wall which they were determined to demolish. This was a tedious operation; for when the besieger had reached the foot of the wall, it became necessary to run a gallery along the whole extent of what he proposed to demolish. Subsequent to this, he had to operate upon the entire front, during which the besieged found time and opportunities to open subterraneous passages, and to discover those which the assailants were practising against them. In the latter, indeed they seldom failed.

“The Romans were extremely partial to subterraneous galleries. By means of these secret passages they took Fidenæ, and Veiæ; and Darius, king of Persia, by the same method took Chalcedon. That species of gallery which is run out under the soil of an encampment, and pushed forward into the very body of a town, has been known from time immemorial. The Gauls were likewise very expert in their management of subterraneous galleries. Cæsar mentions the use of them in five or six places of his Commentaries.”

GALERIE _de pourtour_, _Fr._ in architecture, a sort of gallery which is raised either in the inside, or on the outside, and surrounds the whole or part of a building.

GALEA, GALIOT, a low built vessel for the conveyance of troops and stores, having both sails and oars.

GALION, _Fr._ a name which was formerly given to French ships of war that had three or four decks. The term, however, is in disuse, except among the Spaniards, who call vessels _galions_, that sail to Santa Marguerita, to Terra Firma, Carthagena, Porto-Bello, &c.

GALIOTE _à bombes_, _Fr._ a bomb-ketch. A vessel built of very strong timber, with flat ribs and half decks. It is used for the carriage of mortars, that are placed upon a false deck which is made in the hold. Chevalier Renau first invented this species of naval battery, and submitted it to the French government. The Dey of Algiers having declared war against France, this ingenious man naturally imagined, that the most effectual method which could be adopted to strike terror into the barbarians, would be to bombard their capital, and this, he knew, could not be done, except from the decks of ships. His proposal was at first treated with extreme neglect, and was considered in full council, as the project of a visionary madman.

This disheartening circumstance, however, (which as Monsieur Belidor has very justly remarked, almost always attends original plans and inventions) did not check the warm mind of Chevalier Renau. His known abilities had secured some powerful partisans in his favor, and the French government at last consented, that he should construct two _galiotes à bombes_ at Dunkirk, and three at Havre de Grace. Having completed them, he sailed for Algiers; and after having braved the most tempestuous weather, got before the place with five vessels of that description. The town was bombarded during the whole of the night; and so great was the consternation of the inhabitants, that they rushed out of the gates, to avoid the dreadful effects of so unexpected an attack. The Algerines immediately sued for peace, and as M. de Fontenelle has shrewdly remarked, the Chevalier Renau returned to France with his _galiotes à bombes_, having obtained a complete triumph, not only over the Algerines, but over the petty cavillers against his invention.

Orders were instantly issued to construct others after the same model, and the king gave directions, that a new corps of artillery officers should be formed, for the specific purpose of doing duty on board the galiotes or bomb-ketches.

GALLERY, a passage of communication to that part of a mine where the powder is lodged. See GALERIE.

GALLET. _Fr._ See JALET.

GALLIVATS are large row-boats, used in India. They are built like the grab, but of smaller dimensions, the largest rarely exceeding 70 tons; they have two masts, of which the mizen is very slight; the mizen mast bears only one sail, which is triangular and very large, the peak of it, when hoisted, being much higher than the mast itself. In general the gallivats are covered with a spar deck, made for lightness of bamboos split, and these carry only patteraroes, which are fixed on swivels in the gunnel of the vessel; but those of the largest size have a fixed deck, on which they mount six or eight pieces of cannon, from two to four pounders; they have forty or fifty stout oars, and may be rowed four miles an hour.

GALLOPER, a piece of ordnance of small calibre.

GAMACHE, _Fr._ See GAITERS.

GAMBESON, _Fr._ a term which the French formerly applied to a coat of mail that was worn under the cuirass. It was likewise called _cotte gamboisée_. It was made of two strong cloths interwoven with pointed worsted.

GAMBLING. Every species of chance play, such as hazard, &c. should be strictly forbidden in the army. The non-commissioned officers and private soldiers are severely punished when found guilty of this mischievous practice; and in some services the officers are treated with equal severity.

GAMELLE, _Fr._ a wooden or earthen bowl used among the French soldiers for their messes. It generally contained the quantity of food which was allotted for three, five, or seven men belonging to the same room. The porridge-pots for the navy were made of wood, and held a certain allowance. During the monarchy of France, subaltern officers and volunteers were frequently punished for slight offences by being sent to the _gamelle_, and excluded their regular mess, and put upon short allowance, according to the nature of their transgression.

GANTELET, _Fr._ See GAUNTLET.

GANGES, a considerable river in India in Asia. It rises in the mountains which border on Little Thibet, in 82 degrees of east longitude, and 32 degrees 45 minutes of north latitude. According to the ingenious author of the History of Indostan, it disembogues itself into that country through a pass called the straights of Kupele, which are distant from Delhi, about 30 leagues, in the longitude of 96, and in the latitude of 30° 2′. These straights are believed by the Indians, who look very little abroad, to be the sources of the Ganges; and a rock 15 miles distant from them, bearing some resemblance to the head of a cow, has joined in the same part of the country two very important objects of their religion; the grand image of the animal which they almost venerate as a divinity, and the first appearance of that immense body of holy water, which is to wash away all their sins.

GANTLET, GAUNTLET, in ancient military history, a large kind of glove, made of iron, and the fingers covered with small plates: it was formerly worn by cavaliers, or single knights of war, when armed at all points, but is now in disuse.

GANTLET or _gantelope_, denotes a kind of military punishment, in which the criminal running between the ranks receives a lash from every man. See RUN THE GANTLET.

GAP. See BREACH.

GAR, the general term used by the Saxons, for a weapon of war.

GARCON-_Major_, _Fr._ an officer so called in the old French service. He was selected from among the lieutenants of a regiment to assist the aid-majors in the general detail of duty.

GARDE _d’une Place_, _Fr._ the garrison of a place. See GARRISON.

Garde _du l’armée_, _Fr._ the grand guard of an army. Guards in the old French service were usually divided into three sorts: _Guard of Honor_, _Fatigue Guard_, and _the General’s Guard_. That was called a _guard of honor_ in which the officers and men were most exposed to danger; for the quintessence of military honor is to be often in peril, and either to fall courageously in the discharge of duty, or to return from the field after having exhibited proofs of valor, prudence and perseverance. A _fatigue guard_ belonging to a garrison or to a camp. A _general’s guard_ was mounted before the door or gate of the house in which the commanding officer resided. For a more specific account of guards in general see GUARD.

GARDES _de corps_, _Fr._ the body guards. Under the old government of France they consisted of a certain number of gentlemen or cavaliers whose immediate duty was to attend the king’s person. They were divided into four companies, under as many captains, whose tour of duty came every quarter. They took rank above the Gens-d’armes and the king’s light cavalry.

The first and most ancient of the four companies was called the _Scotch company_.

In 1423 Charles VII. of France established this body of gentlemen or cavaliers, for the purpose of shewing the great confidence which he placed in the Scots; who were not a little indebted for this mark of distinction to the service which their countryman Lord Buchan, eldest son to the Duke of Albany, rendered the French in 1421 at the battle of Bangé en Anjou, where the English army was completely routed. In order to preserve the remembrance of their behaviour, and in token of their gratitude to the Scotch nation, the French king gave orders that whenever the roll-call took place in the Scotch company, each individual instead of answering Me voila! should say _I am here!_ or _here!_

GARDES-_feux_, _Fr._ wooden cases or boxes used to hold cartridges.

GARDES _fous_, _Fr._ the rails of a bridge.

GARDE _imperiale_, _Fr._ The only guard of honor which at present exists in France.

GARDES _Francoises_, _Fr._ the French Guards--In 1563 Charles IX. King of the French, raised a regiment for the immediate protection of the palace. The colonel or the gardes Francoises was on duty throughout the year, and was entitled to the _baton de commandement_ in common with the four captains of the body guards. Peculiar privileges were attached to every officer belonging to this body. No stranger, not even a native of Strasburg, Savoy, Alsace, or Piedmont, could hold a commission in the French guards. The age at which men were enlisted was above 18 and under 50 years. The height 5 French feet 4 inches and upwards. The serjeants were strictly forbidden to exercise any trade or business, and many of them got the _Croix de St. Louis_.

In the revolution of 1789 the French guards took a very active and leading part.

GARDES-_magazins_, _Fr._ In the old French service there were two sorts of magazine guards:--one for the military stores and the other for the artillery. The first was subject to the grand master, and the second was appointed by the secretary at war.

GARDE-_general d’artillerie_, _Fr._ An officer was so called under the old government of France, who had charge of all the ordnance and stores belonging to his majesty for the land service. He gave receipts for all ammunition, &c. and his bills were paid by the treasurer general of the artillery.

GARDES _provinciaux_, _Fr._ Provincial guards, were persons appointed to superintend, take charge of, and be responsible, for the artillery belonging to Paris, Metz, Chalons, Lyons, Amiens, Narbonne, and Calais.

GARDES _particuliers des magazins d’artillerie_, _Fr._ Officers appointed by the grand master of the ordnance for the specific purpose of attending to the ammunition, &c. Their pay was in proportion to the quantity of stores with which they were entrusted. They enjoyed some particular privileges, and were lodged at the expence of government.

GARDE _magazin d’un arsenal de marine_, _Fr._ An officer in France appointed to take charge and to keep a register of all warlike stores, &c. for the service of the navy.

GARDES _de la porte_, _Fr._ A company so called during the monarchy of France, and of so ancient a date, indeed, with respect to original institution, that it appears to have been coeval with it. Mention is made of the gardes de la porte in the oldest archives or records belonging to the king’s household, in which service they were employed, without being responsible to any particular treasurer as other companies were.