Part 100
=Pile.= In heraldry, one of the lesser ordinaries, having the form of a wedge, usually placed pale-wise, with the broadest end uppermost, resembling a pile used in laying the foundations of buildings in watery places, whence it has its name.
=Pile.= The head of an arrow was formerly so called.
=Pile Arms, To.= To place three guns together in such a manner that they may stand upright steadily. Also called _stack arms_.
=Pile-bridge.= A bridge of which the piers are built with piles. These may be either temporary wooden structures, in which wooden piles, driven into the ground, serve also as piers, or they may be permanent bridges, with iron cylinders forming the piles below the surface, and piers above.
=Piletus.= A kind of arrow formerly used, having a knob upon the shaft, near the head, to prevent it from penetrating the object aimed at too deeply.
=Piling Balls.= See PILE.
=Pillage.= The act of plundering. Also that which is taken from another by open force, particularly and chiefly from enemies in war; plunder; spoil.
=Pillage.= To strip of money or goods by open violence; to plunder; to spoil; as, troops pillage the camp or towns of an enemy.
=Pillnitz=, or =Pilnitz=. A palace and ordinary summer residence of the royal family of Saxony, in a beautiful situation 7 miles southeast of Dresden. Pillnitz acquires a historic interest from the meeting of princes held in the castle in August, 1791, when the Declaration of Pillnitz was framed, according to which Austria and Prussia agreed to declare the circumstances of the king of France (then a prisoner in the Tuileries, after his ineffective flight to Varennes) to be a matter of common interest to the sovereigns of Europe, and to express the hope that common cause would be made for his restoration. The convention of Pillnitz took place between the emperor Leopold and the king of Prussia, July 20, 1791. On August 27, 1791, the treaty of Pillnitz, or as some style it, the Partition Treaty, was finally agreed upon at Pavia by the courts in concert. It was to the effect “that the emperor should retake all that Louis XIV. had conquered in the Austrian Netherlands, and uniting these provinces to the Netherlands, give them to his serene highness the elector palatine, to be added to the palatinate; Bavaria to be added to Austrian possessions,” etc.
=Pillow, Fort.= See FORT PILLOW.
=Pilon= (_Fr._). A half-pike, 7 feet long exclusive of the iron, which was 18 inches. It consisted of a fir tube covered with parchment and varnished. Marshal Saxe proposed to draw up an army four deep, the two front ranks armed with muskets, and the two rear with pilons and muskets too.
=Pilum.= A missile weapon, used by the Roman soldiers, and in a charge darted upon the enemy. Each man of the legionary soldiers carried two of these pila.
=Pimas=, or =Névomes=. A tribe of aborigines, about 4000 in number, who are located on a reservation along the Gila River, in Pima and Maricopa Counties, Arizona. They are an active, athletic race, cultivate the soil and pursue a few crude industries, and are at hereditary enmity with the Apaches.
=Pin.= See ORDNANCE.
=Pincers, Gunner’s.= See GUNNER’S PINCERS.
=Pindarees.= In the East Indies, are plunderers and marauders, who accompany a Mahratta army. The name is properly that of persons who travel with grain and merchandise; but war affording so many opportunities and creating so many necessities, the merchants, as it is all over the world, become plunderers and the worst of enemies.
=Pinerolo=, or =Pignerol=. A town of Northern Italy, province of Turin. It is surrounded by a wall of no great strength, and though originally a part of Piedmont, was in possession of France from 1631 till the peace of Utrecht in 1713. It was once very strongly fortified; but its defenses were blown up by the French in 1713.
=Ping.= The whistle of a shot, especially the rifle-bullets in their flight.
=Pinion.= To bind the hands or arms of a person so as to prevent his having the free use of them.
=Pinkie= (near Edinburgh). Here the English under the Earl of Hertford, protector, totally defeated the Scots, September 10, 1547. About 10,000 of the Scots were slain, and about 1500 taken prisoners. The English loss was scarcely 200.
=Pintle=. In artillery, is the vertical bolt around which the chassis is traversed. In the centre-pintle carriage it is the centre of the chassis, but in the front-pintle carriage it is in the centre of the front transom. It is a stout cylinder of wrought iron inserted in a block of stone, if the battery be a fixed one; or it is secured to cross-pieces of timber bolted to a platform firmly imbedded in the ground, if it be of a temporary nature. In casemate batteries the pintle is placed immediately under the throat of the embrasure, and the chassis is connected with it by a stout strap of iron, called the tongue.
=Pintle-hole.= An oval-shaped aperture made in the trail transom of a field-carriage, wider above than below, to leave room for the pintle to play in.
=Pintle-hook.= See ORDNANCE, CARRIAGES FOR, NOMENCLATURE OF ARTILLERY CARRIAGE.
=Pintle-plate.= Is a flat iron through which the pintle passes, and is nailed to both sides of the bolster.
=Pintle-washer.= An iron ring through which the pintle passes, placed close to the bolster for the trail to move upon.
=Piombino.= A town of Italy, province of Pisa, opposite the island of Elba. Here is a large metallurgic establishment for the manufacture of Bessemer steel and military projectiles of great hardness and perfection.
=Pioneer Sergeant.= In the British service, the non-commissioned officer who commands the pioneers.
=Pioneers.= Are soldiers sometimes detailed from the different companies of a regiment and formed under a non-commissioned officer, furnished with saws, felling axes, spades, mattocks, pickaxes, and bill-hooks. Their services are very important, and no regiment is well fitted for service without pioneers completely equipped. In European armies there are a certain number of pioneers to each regiment.
=Pipe of Peace.= See CALUMET.
=Pipe-clay.= A composition which soldiers use for the purpose of keeping their buff cross-belts, etc., clean.
=Piquichins= (_Fr._). Irregular and ill-armed soldiers, of which mention is made in the history of the reign of Philip Augustus. They were attached to the infantry.
=Piquier= (_Fr._). A pikeman, or one who is armed with a pike.
=Pirmasens=, or =Pirmasenz=. A town of Rhenish Bavaria. Here Moreau and the French were defeated by the Duke of Brunswick and the Prussians, September 14, 1793.
=Pirogue.= American Indian canoe, dug out, formed out of the trunk of a tree; or two canoes united. A term also applied in the United States to a narrow ferry-boat carrying two masts and a leeboard.
=Pisa= (anc. _Pisæ_). One of the oldest and most beautiful cities of Italy, and, till lately, the capital of the now extinct grand duchy of Tuscany, on the banks of the river Arno. Pisæ was one of the twelve cities of Etruria; it is frequently mentioned in the Ligurian wars as the headquarters of the Roman legions. Early in the 11th century, Pisa had risen to the rank of a powerful republic. Its troops took part in all the great events of the Holy Land; and its fleet in turn gave aid to the pope in Southern Italy, to the emperor in Northern France, chastised the Moors, and exacted its own terms from the Eastern emperors. In their wars with the Saracens of Sardinia, the Pisans had conquered Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands, and for a time maintained their ground against their hereditary enemies, the Genoese; but having sided with the Ghibellines in the long wars which desolated the empire, Pisa suffered severely at the hands of the victorious Guelphic party. Indeed, the rivalry of the Guelphic cities of Florence, Lucca, and Siena nearly brought Pisa to the brink of ruin at the close of the 13th century; and after struggling for more than a hundred years against external foes and the internal dissensions between the democratic mob and the Ghibelline nobles, without losing their character for indomitable valor, the Pisans finally threw themselves under the protection of Galeazzo Visconti of Milan. It became subject to Florence after a long siege, 1405-6. In 1494, Pisa became independent under the protection of Charles VIII. of France. When the French left Italy, the old struggle was renewed; and after offering a desperate resistance, the Pisans, in 1509, were compelled by hunger to surrender the city to the Florentine army besieging the walls.
=Pisidia.= A district of Asia Minor, originally included within Pamphylia, or Phrygia, was constituted a separate province in the division of the Roman empire under Constantine the Great. It was bounded north and west by Phrygia and Lycia, and south by Pamphylia, and east by Cilicia and Isauria. The inhabitants were a lawless and freebooting people, spurning the advance of civilization, and daring any invader to follow them into their rugged fastnesses. Rome conquered them only to find that their spirit of independence was not broken. They would not brook the establishment of a single garrison or colony. It was only their towns that paid tribute. They carried their invincible dispositions down to modern times; and under the appellation of _Karamanians_ they still continue to be wild, rapacious, and suspicious of strangers.
=Pistol.= Is the smallest description of fire-arm, and is intended to be used with one hand only. Pistols were first used by the cavalry of England about 1544. They vary in size from the delicate saloon-pistol, often not 6 inches long, to the horse-pistol, which may measure 18 inches, and sometimes even 2 feet. They are carried in holsters at the saddle-bow, in the belt, or in the pocket. Every cavalry soldier should have pistols, for a fire-arm is often of great service for personal defense, and almost indispensable in giving an alarm or signal. Of late years pistols have been made with revolving cylinder breeches, in which are formed several chambers for receiving cartridges, and bringing them in succession into a line with the barrel ready for firing. See REVOLVERS.
=Pistol-carbine.= A horseman’s pistol with a detachable gun-stock.
=Pistolet.= A little pistol.
=Pistol-grip.= A shape given to the small of the stock in shot-guns and rifles, to give a better hold for the hand.
=Pistolier= (_Fr._). Soldier armed with a pistol; a good pistol shot.
=Pitan Nabobs.= Certain chiefs in India are so called, namely, of Cudapa, Carroul, and Savanare.
=Pitans=, or =Patans=. A tribe in the East Indies, who are supposed to be the descendants of the northern Indians, and who were early converted to Mohammedanism. They are very fierce, and have been reckoned among the best troops in India.
=Pitaux= (_Fr._). This word is sometimes written petaux, and was formerly used to distinguish those peasants that were pressed into the service, in contradistinction to soldiers who were regularly enlisted.
=Pitch.= To fix firmly; to plant; to set in array; as, to pitch a tent; to pitch a camp.
=Pitched Battle.= A battle in which the hostile forces have firm or fixed positions, in distinction from a skirmish.
=Pitched Fascines.= See PYROTECHNY.
=Pitch-field.= A pitched battle.
=Pittsburgh.= A city and port of entry of Alleghany Co., Pa. Pittsburgh was first settled in 1754, a stockade having been erected here which was occupied by the French as a trading-post, and given the name of Fort Duquesne. An English expedition against this fort under Gen. Braddock was defeated by the French and Indians, July 9, 1755. In 1758 another English expedition marched against this post, which was then regarded by the youthful Washington as the key of the West. An advanced detachment under Capt. Grant having encamped on what is still called Grant’s Hill, was attacked and defeated by a party of French and Indians from Fort Duquesne. But on the approach of Gen. Forbes, with a force of 6200 men, the disheartened garrison set fire to the fort and descended the Ohio River. The victorious troops, on entering, November 25, by general acclamation called the place Pittsburgh, in honor of William Pitt, then prime minister of England. The town of Pittsburgh was incorporated as a borough in 1804, and chartered as a city in 1816.
=Pivot.= That officer or soldier upon whom the company wheels.
The _pivot flank_ in a column is that which when wheeled up preserves the proper front of divisions of the line in their natural order. The opposite flank of the column is called the reverse flank.
=Pivot-gun.= A cannon which turns on a pivot in any direction.
=Pivot-man.= The same as pivot (which see).
=Pizzo.= A city of Italy, in the Neapolitan province of Calabria Ultra II., situated on the Gulf of Santa Euphemia, 6 miles northeast from Monteleone. It was at Pizzo that Murat, the ex-king of Naples, landed with a few followers, October 8, 1815, with the view of recovering his kingdom, He was immediately taken prisoner and shot in the castle of Pizzo on the 13th. In 1860 it was taken by Garibaldi.
=Placage= (_Fr._). In fortification, a kind of revetment, which is made of thick plastic earth laid along the talus of such parapets as have no mason-work, and which is covered with turf.
=Place.= In fortification, signifies, in general terms, a fortified town, a fortress; hence we say it is a strong place.
=Place Basse= (_Fr._). In fortification, the lower flanks according to certain systems are so called.
=Placed, To be.= This expression is frequently used in military matters, to signify the appointment or reduction of officers. Hence, _to be placed_ upon full or half-pay. It is more generally applicable to the latter.
=Placentia.= See PIACENZA.
=Places of Arms.= This term has various significations, although it uniformly means places which are calculated for the rendezvous of men in arms, etc. When an army takes the field, every stronghold or fortress which supports its operations by affording a safe retreat to its depots, heavy artillery, magazines, hospitals, etc., is called a _place of arms_. In offensive operations, those lines are called _places of arms_, or parallels, which unite the different means of attack, secure the regular approaches, etc., and contain bodies of troops who either do duty in the trenches, protect the workmen, or are destined to make an impression upon the enemy’s outworks. There are _demi-places of arms_ between the _places of arms_. These are more or less numerous in proportion to the resistance made by the besieged. See RE-ENTERING PLACES OF ARMS.
=Plain.= A field of battle.
=Plan.= A scheme devised; a method of action or procedure expressed or described in language; a project. A plan of campaign (says Napoleon) should anticipate all that an enemy may do, and combine within itself the means necessary to baffle it. Plans of campaign are modified by circumstances, the genius of the chief, the nature of the troops, and topography. There are good and bad plans of campaign, but sometimes the good fail from misfortune or mismanagement, while the bad succeed by caprices of fortune.
=Plan of a Work.= A plan shows the tracing; also the horizontal lengths and breadths of the works; the thickness of the ramparts and parapets; the width of the ditches, etc. It exhibits the extent, division, and distribution of the works; but the depth of the ditches and the height of the works are not represented in a plan.
=Plane of Comparison.= In the plan of a fortress, and of the surrounding country, are expressed the distances of the principal points from a horizontal plane, imagined to pass through the highest or lowest points of ground, in the survey. This imaginary plane is called a _plane of comparison_.
=Plane of Defilade.= Is a plane supposed to pass through the summit or crest of a work, and parallel to the plane of site.
=Plane of Fire.= See POINTING.
=Plane of Sight.= See POINTING.
=Plane of Site.= The general level of the ground or ground line, upon which the works are constructed, is called the _plane of site_, whether that plane be horizontal or oblique to the horizon.
=Plane Table.= A surveying instrument, consisting of a table or board and arrangements for leveling and traversing it. It is much used in military surveys and in gunnery in getting the ranges of projectiles by the method of intersections.
=Plant, To.= In a military sense, to place; to fix; as, to plant a standard. It likewise signifies to arrange different pieces of ordnance for the purpose of doing execution against an enemy or his works; hence, to plant a battery. Some authors apply this word to the act of directing a cannon properly.
=Plantagenet.= The surname of a dynasty of English kings who ruled from 1154 to 1485. Henry II. was the founder, and Richard III., who was killed at Bosworth, the last of the line. They were generally warlike and ambitious rulers, being engaged in contests at home (see ROSES, WARS OF THE) and in France. The name belonged to the house of Anjou, and is said to have been derived from the circumstance of the first count of this house having caused himself to be scourged with branches of broom (_planta genista_) as a penance for some crime. The name passed to the English line of kings through the extinction of the old Norman dynasty in the male line in the person of Henry II., and the marriage of Matilda, his daughter, to Geoffrey, count of Anjou, their son succeeding to the throne.
=Plassey.= A village of British India, in the district of Nuddea, presidency of Bengal, on the left bank of the Hooghly, 96 miles north of Calcutta. It is memorable as the scene of the victory that laid the foundation of the British-Indian empire. On June 23, 1757, Clive, with a force of 900 Europeans and 2100 Sepoys, crossed the river to attack 68,000 men under Sooraj-oo-Dowlah, soubahdar of Bengal. After much cannonading on both sides, Meer Jaffier, who was in the interest of the British, advised the soubahdar to retreat. Clive immediately advanced, routed the army, and took the camp of the soubahdar, who was dethroned to make way for the traitor Meer Jaffier.
=Plastron= (_Fr._). Stuffed pad or cushion, formerly worn at the shoulder to sustain the recoil of heavy muskets and other fire-arms, still used by fencers upon the right side; also a breastplate or half cuirass. In the old French service, the gens d’armes, the heavy cavalry, the light horse, etc., were obliged to wear them on all occasions, at reviews, etc.
=Platæa= (more commonly _Platææ_). An ancient city of Bœotia, on the northern slope of Mount Cithæron, on the frontiers of Attica. At an early period, the Platæans deserted the Bœotian confederacy, and placed themselves under the protection of Athens; and when the Persians invaded Attica in 490 B.C., they sent 1000 men to the assistance of the Athenians, and had the honor of fighting on their side at the battle of Marathon. Ten years afterwards (480 B.C.) their city was destroyed by the Persian army under Xerxes at the instigation of the Thebans. It was the site of the battle between Mardonius, commander of the army of Xerxes of Persia, and Pausanias, commanding the Lacedæmonians and Athenians, 479 B.C.; the same day as the battle of Mycale. Of 300,000 Persians, scarce 3000 escaped with their lives. The Grecian army, about 110,000, lost but few men. The Greeks obtained immense plunder, and were henceforth delivered from the fear of Persian invasions. In the third year of the Peloponnesian war (429), the Thebans persuaded the Spartans to attack Platæa, and after a siege of two years at length succeeded in obtaining possession of the place (427). Platæa was then razed to the ground, but was again rebuilt after the peace of Antalcidas (387 B.C.). It was destroyed the third time by its inveterate enemies, the Thebans, in 374 B.C. It was rebuilt by Philip II. of Macedon, after his victory at Chæronea, 338 B.C.
=Plate.= Metallic armor composed of broad pieces, and thus distinguished from mail.
=Plate.= To arm with plate or metal for defense. “Why plated in habiliments of war?”
=Plate-armor.= Armor of strong metal plates for protecting fortifications and the like; also mail consisting entirely of metallic plates, formerly worn to protect the person.
=Platform.= Is a strong flooring upon which a piece of ordnance, mounted on its carriage, is manœuvred when in battery. Its object is to facilitate the service of heavy guns and mortars, and to insure accuracy of fire. Fixed platforms are used for casemate and barbette batteries in fortifications, and are constructed with the works; siege-platforms for guns and howitzers; and siege-platforms for mortars; the other kinds are the rail-platform, the ricochet-platform, and the platforms for sea-coast mortars. Platforms should possess strength and portability, and the pieces composing them should be constructed of the same dimensions, viz.: 9 feet long, 5 inches wide, and 3¹⁄₂ inches thick. The weight of each piece in a platform is about 50 pounds; and in a siege-platform for guns and howitzers, there are 49 pieces, 1 being used as a _hurter_ on the front part of the platform to prevent the carriage from running too far forward, and 12 for sleepers. The weight of this platform complete is 2601¹⁄₂ pounds. This platform is laid with an elevation to the rear, of 1¹⁄₂ inches to the yard, or 4¹⁄₂ inches in the whole length. This elevation is given to diminish the recoil of the piece and to permit the water to run off. The length of this platform is 15 feet by 9 feet. The platform for a siege-mortar is composed of only 6 sleepers and 21 deck-planks. It is laid level, and the front and rear deck-planks are connected by eye-bolts to every sleeper. This platform is about 9 feet deep by 9 feet wide, and weighs 1220 pounds. The rail-platform for siege-mortars consists of 3 sleepers and 2 rails for the cheeks of the mortar-bed to slide on, instead of the deck-plank, and is very strong, and easily constructed and laid. For method of laying platforms for siege-gun or howitzer, and for mortars, see “Hand-book of Artillery,” by Roberts, pages 143-47.
=Platform Wagon.= A sort of wagon used for transporting heavy ordnance.
=Platoon.= Probably from the French _peloton_, a “ball of thread,” a “knot,” was a term formerly used in the English service to designate a body of men who fired together. In U. S. tactics, it is now a recognized subdivision of a company, being one-half.
=Plattsburg.= A township and capital of Clinton Co., N. Y., situated on both banks of the Saranac River, at its entrance into Lake Champlain. In the bay was fought the naval battle of Champlain, in which the British flotilla, under Commodore Downie, was defeated by the American commodore McDonough, September 11, 1814; while the land forces amounting to 14,000 men, under Sir George Prevost, were defeated by Gen. Macomb.
=Play.= Is occasionally applied to a military action; as, the guns played upon the enemy.
=Plea.= That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause; in a stricter sense, an allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer; in a still more limited sense, and in modern practice, the defendant’s answer to the plaintiff’s declaration and demand. That which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant’s _plea_.
=Plevna.= A town of Bulgaria, which became important in a military sense through the battles which took place around it during the Russo-Turkish war. The first battle took place July 15-16, 1877, resulting in the capture of Nikopolis. The second took place July 30, with considerable loss to both sides, but without any decisive results. The third took place September 11.
=Plombée= (_Fr._). An ancient war-club, whose head was loaded with lead.