Part 130

=Station, Military.= A place calculated for the rendezvous of troops, or for the distribution of them; also, a spot well calculated for offensive or defensive measures. The name of _stationes_, or stations, was given by the Romans to the guard which was kept in the daytime at the gates of the camp, and at the intrenchments. The _statio agraria_ was an advanced post to prevent surprise, insure the safety of prisoners, etc. The chief use was to keep the military sway secure from hostile incursions, whence we find them at the concurrence of roads. The word is also extensively applied to the old military stations of the Romans, when encampments of towns existed. The _statira castra_ were encampments for a short time; the _æstiva castra_ were the same, but might be occupied only for one night. The _hyberna castra_, or winter camps, were elaborately fortified, even with stone walls, houses within, etc., so that many towns grew out of them.

=Status in Quo=, or =Status Quo= (_Lat._). A treaty between belligerents, which leaves each party _in statu quo ante bellum_,--that is, in the state in which it was before the war.

=Stays.= See ORDNANCE, CARRIAGES FOR.

=Steam-gun.= A machine or contrivance by which balls or other projectiles may be driven by the force of steam.

=Steed.= A horse either for state or war.

=Steel.= See ORDNANCE, METALS FOR.

=Steel Punches.= See INSPECTION OF PROJECTILES.

=Steenkerke=, or =Steenkerque=. A village of Belgium, province of Hainaut, 15 miles north-northeast of Mons. The allies, commanded by William III. of England, were here defeated by the French, July 24, 1692.

=Step.= Progression by one removal of the foot. It likewise signifies pace. _To step_, to move forward or backward by a single change of the place of the foot. _To step out_, is to lengthen the step, without altering the cadence. _To step short_, is to diminish or slacken the pace, according to the tactics. These phrases are frequently used in military movements when it is found necessary to gain ground in front, or to give the rear of a column, etc., time to acquire its proper distance. _To step off_, is to take a prescribed step from a halted position, in common or quick time, in conformity to some given word of command or signal. _Balance-step_, is so called from the body being balanced upon one leg, in order to render it firm and steady in military movements, etc. Step is likewise figuratively used to signify promotion; as, the next step from a lieutenancy is a captaincy, from a captaincy a majority, etc.

=Stettin.= A fortified town of Prussia, capital of the province of Pomerania, on the left bank of the Oder, 78 miles northeast from Berlin. In 1121, Boleslas, duke of Poland, gained possession of it. The peace of Westphalia gave it to the Swedes. From them it passed to the Prussians, with whom, though not without some interruptions, it has since remained. In 1171 it was besieged by the Danes; in 1677 by the elector of Brandenburg; in 1713 by the Prussians; and from 1806 to 1813 it was occupied by the French.

=Steward, Hospital.= See HOSPITAL STEWARD.

=Stick, Gold.= See GOLD STICK.

=Stick, Silver.= See SILVER STICK.

=Stickler.= A sidesman to fencers, or second to a duelist.

=Sticklestadt= (Norway). Here Olaf II., aided by the Swedes, was defeated and slain in his endeavors to recover his kingdom from Canute, king of Denmark, July 29, 1030.

=Stiletto.= A small dagger with a round pointed blade.

=Stillwater.= A township of the United States, on the Hudson River and on Saratoga Lake. The township includes the incorporated village of Mechanicsville and the post-village of Bemis’s Heights, notable for the two battles of September 19 and October 7, 1777 (sometimes called the battles of Stillwater), which led to the surrender of Burgoyne.

=Stink-pot.= Is a shell, often of earthenware, charged with combustibles, which, on bursting, emit a foul smell and a suffocating smoke. It is useful in sieges for driving the garrison from their defenses; also in boarding a ship, for effecting a diversion while the assailants gain the deck. The stink-pot is a favorite weapon of the Chinese. Under the more elegant title of _asphyxiated shell_, the French and other modern nations have experimented considerably on this mode of harassing an enemy.

=Stipendium.= The amount of pay for soldiers, a term in general use among the Romans.

=Stirling.= An ancient town of Scotland, the chief town of Stirlingshire, 31 miles northwest from Edinburgh. During the Danish invasion in 1009, it was the headquarters of the Scottish army. In the vicinity was fought the battle of Stirling in 1297. The town was taken by Edward I., after a siege of three months, in 1304. It was held by the English for ten years, until it was retaken by Robert Bruce after the battle of Bannockburn. In 1651, after the battle of Dunbar, the castle was taken by Gen. Monk; and it withstood a siege by the Highlanders in 1745.

=Stirrup.= A kind of ring, or bent piece of metal, leather, etc., horizontal in one part for receiving the foot of the rider, and attached to a strap which is fastened to the saddle,--used to assist persons in mounting a horse, and to enable them to sit steadily in riding, as well as to relieve them by supporting a part of the weight of the body.

=Stirrup-cover= (Sp. _tapadéra_). A hood made of leather attached to a stirrup to protect the foot of a mounted soldier.

=Stoccade.= To fortify with sharpened posts. See STOCKADE.

=Stoccado.= A push or thrust with a rapier.

=Stock.= The whole of the wooden part of a musket or pistol. Also, the neck-gear of a soldier, generally of black leather, answering the double purpose of keeping the cold out and the soldier’s head up.

=Stock.= See ORDNANCE, CARRIAGES FOR, CAISSON.

=Stockach.= A town of Germany, in the southeast of Baden, 15 miles northwest of Constance. Near here the Austrians under the Archduke Charles defeated the French, March 25, 1799.

=Stockade.= A work in which a palisade; of strong and closely-planted timbers constitutes the principal defense. The stockades or picket-works usually employed against Indians are composed of rough trunks of young trees cut into lengths of 12 or 14 feet, and averaging 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They should be firmly planted close together. A banquette or step will generally be required, and the loop-holes so arranged that they cannot be used from the outside. If necessary, such a work can be strengthened by ditch and abatis, and flanked by block-houses.

=Stockholm.= The capital of Sweden, situated at the junction of the Lake Malar with an inlet of the Baltic, 320 miles northeast from Copenhagen. Stockholm sustained several sieges. One of the most memorable of these took place in 1501 and 1502, when it was held for nearly six months by Queen Christina of Denmark against the Swedish insurgents, but was at last surrendered after the garrison had been reduced from about 1000 to 80 in number. A still more noble defense of the city was made in 1520, by Christina Gyllenstierna against Christian II. of Denmark. It was surrendered after a siege of four months; but the terms of the surrender were violated soon after by the conqueror ordering the execution of all the most distinguished Swedes in the town. This and similar acts of treachery and cruelty led to the final expulsion of the Danes by Gustavus Vasa. A peace was concluded here, between the king of Great Britain and the queen of Sweden, by which the former acquired the duchies of Bremen and Verden as elector of Brunswick, November 20, 1719. A treaty took place here, between Sweden and Russia, in favor of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, March 24, 1724; another between England and Sweden on March 3, 1813; and between England, France, and Sweden, November 21, 1855.

=Stockport.= A town of England, in Cheshire, on the borders of Lancashire, at the confluence of the Mersey and the Tame, 5 miles southeast of Manchester. The castle, which has now entirely disappeared, was held in 1173, by Geoffrey de Constantin against Henry II. During the civil war of the 17th century, Stockport was the scene of some fighting; it was taken from the Parliamentarians by Rupert in 1644, but retaken by Lesley in the following year. In 1745, the town was occupied by Prince Charles Edward. At this place the Manchester Blanketeers (which see) were dispersed, March 11, 1817.

=Stock-purse.= In the British service, is a certain saving which is made in a corps for regimental purposes.

=Stockton-on-Tees.= A town of England, in Durham, on the left bank of the Tees, 11 miles east-northeast of Darlington. It was plundered by the Scotch in 1325; taken for the Parliament in 1644, and totally destroyed by the Roundheads in 1652.

=Stœni.= A Ligurian people in the Maritime Alps, conquered by Q. Marcius Rex, 118 B.C., before he founded the colony of Narbo Martius.

=Stoke, East.= A parish of England, county of Notts, 4 miles southwest of Newark. Near here, on June 16, 1487, the adherents of Lambert Simnel, who personated Edward, earl of Warwick, and claimed the crown, were defeated by Henry VII. John de la Pole, the earl of Lincoln, and most of the leaders were slain; and Simnel, whose life was spared, was afterwards employed in the king’s household.

=Stone Arabia.= See _Palatine_.

=Stone Fougass=. See _Fougass, Stone_.

=Stone River, Battle of.= See MURFREESBORO’.

=Stone-bow.= A cross-bow formerly used or designed for throwing stones.

=Stone-mortar.= Was a mortar which was used to throw stones a short distance, from 150 to 250 yards; and also 6-pounder shells from 50 to 150 yards. The stones which were used in this mortar were put into a basket fitted to the bore, and placed on a wooden bottom which covers the mouth of the chamber.

=Stony Point.= A village in Orange Co., N. Y., on the west bank of the Hudson River, at the head of Haverstraw Bay, 42 miles north of New York. The capture of the fort at this place by Gen. Wayne, on July 16, 1779, is justly considered one of the most brilliant exploits performed during the Revolutionary war. The fortifications were destroyed and abandoned on July 18.

=Stoppage of Pay.= Where pay is stopped on account of arrears to the United States, the party whose pay is stopped may demand a suit, and the agent of the treasury is required to institute a suit within sixty days thereafter.

=Stoppages.= In the British service, are the deductions from a soldier’s pay, the better to provide him with necessaries, etc.; also stoppage for the subsistence of the sick.

=Store-keeper, Military.= An officer specially appointed for the care of military stores. The law discontinues this grade in the U. S. service by casualties.

=Stores, Military.= The arms, ammunition, clothing, provisions, etc., pertaining to an army, is so called. In the United States all public stores taken in the enemy’s camp, towns, forts, or magazines, shall be secured for the service of the United States; for the neglect of which the commanding officer is to be answerable.

=Storm.= A violent assault on a fortified place; a furious attempt of troops to enter and take a fortified place by scaling the walls, forcing the gates, and the like. Also, to assault; to attack and attempt to take by scaling the walls, forcing gates or breaches, and the like; as, to storm a fortified town.

=Storming-party.= A party assigned to the duty of first entering the breach in storming a fortress.

=Stourton=, or =Stour Head=. A village of England, in Wiltshire, about 23 miles west from Salisbury. The Britons were defeated here in 658 by the Saxons, and in 1010 and 1025 the Danes also encountered the Saxons near this place.

=Stragglers.= Are individuals who wander from the line of march; and it is the duty of the rear-guard to pick up all such stragglers.

=Strains.= See ORDNANCE, STRAINS UPON.

=Stralsund.= A fortified town and seaport of Prussia, province of Pomerania, on a narrow strait called Strela Sunda, which divides the mainland from the island of Rügen. It was founded in 1209 by Prince Jaromar of Rügen, became a member of the Hanse, and rapidly rose into importance. During the Thirty Years’ War, it was unsuccessfully besieged (1628) by Wallenstein; and after being, with some alternations of fortune, in the possession of Sweden for about 200 years, it finally passed to Prussia in 1815.

=Strappado.= A punishment formerly inflicted upon foreign soldiers by hoisting them up with their arms tied behind them, and then suddenly letting them down within a certain distance of the earth.

=Strapped Ammunition.= See ORDNANCE, AMMUNITION FOR.

=Straps.= Are decorations made of worsted, silk, gold, or silver, and worn upon the shoulders, without epaulette.

=Strasbourg=, or =Strassburg=. Formerly a fortified town of France, and capital of the department of Bas-Rhin, but in 1871 ceded to Germany, and capital of the province of Alsace, not far from the left bank of the Rhine, 312 miles east from Paris by railway. During the Middle Ages it was subject to the German emperors, and was the capital of Alsace, but along with that province it was ceded to Louis XIV. in 1681. Subsequently its defenses were greatly improved under the direction of Vauban. Strasbourg was invested by the Germans, principally from Baden, during the Franco-Prussian war, August 10, 1870. Gen. von Werder assumed the command of the besiegers, and the bombardment began August 14, and a vigorous sally was repulsed August 16. Gen. Uhrich, the commander, declared that he would not surrender except upon a heap of ashes. After a heroic resistance, and when a breach had been made and an assault was impending, notice was given September 27, and the place surrendered at 2 A.M., September 28; at 8 A.M. 17,150 men and 400 officers laid down their arms. The German loss was said to be 906 men, of whom 43 were officers. The Germans entered Strasbourg, September 30, the anniversary of its surrender to the French in 1681 by a surprise. Uhrich received the grand cross of the Legion of Honor, October, 1870. About 400 houses and the invaluable library were destroyed, the cathedral injured, and 8000 persons rendered homeless.

=Stratagem.= In war, is any scheme or plan for the deceiving and surprising an army, or any body of men.

=Stratarithmetry.= The art of drawing up an army, or any given number of men, in any geometrical figure, or of estimating or expressing the number of men in such a figure.

=Strategetics.= The science of military movements; generalship.

=Strategic=, or =Strategical=. Pertaining to strategy; effected by artifice.

=Strategic Point.= Any point or region in the theatre of warlike operations which affords to its possessor an advantage over his opponent.

=Strategical Fronts.= The portion of the theatre of war in front of any position occupied by an army as it advances, is termed the _front of operations_. That part which is directly in front of an army, or which can be reached in two or three days, forms simply a _front_. When the whole extent lying between the two hostile armies is considered, the term _strategical front_ is applied.

=Strategical Lines.= See LINES, STRATEGICAL.

=Strategical Points.= Every point of the theatre of war, the possession of which is of great importance to an army in its military operations, is a _strategical point_. These are points which an army acting on the offensive strives to gain and the army on the defensive strives to retain.

=Strategist.= One skilled in strategy, or the science of directing great military movements.

=Strategos= (invented by Lieut. C. A. L. Totten, 4th U. S. Artillery). The American “game of war,” which takes its name from the Greek word _strategos_, the title of an Athenian general officer, derived in turn from _stratos_, “an army,” and _ago_, “I lead;” the secondary meaning of this term being a board or council of ten Athenians chosen annually to conduct the war department at home. The game of _strategos_ is divided into six separate ones, or studies, of gradually increasing importance, and is far more comprehensive than the foreign war games, which have little in common with the subaltern and the student, and are so complicated as to excite interest only among the most profound and advanced scholars of military science. The six parts of _strategos_ are: (1) The “minor tactical game,” which embraces all the details of the tactics of each of the three arms. (2) “Grand tactics,” embracing the topographical and strategical game, for the general elucidation of the grand principles of this branch of military science. (3) The “historical game,” for the study of historical battles and campaigns. (4) “Text-book illustration.” (5) A “battle game,” based upon military principles and precepts, which is calculated to instruct as well as interest without fatiguing that large class of students whose patience would not stand the close application required in a more advanced game. (6) The “advanced game,” which affords to the professional military student every opportunity for pursuing studies commenced in more elementary fields to their legitimate termination. It is only in the “advanced game” that _strategos_ solves the same problem attempted by the Germans in _kriegspiel_, and other military nations in various alterations and improvements upon the great original. War games are by no means of such modern invention as may at first appear; chess is a very ancient “battle game,” and checkers one in which decisive concentration plays a most important part. During the last century two games, the _jeu de la guerre_ and the _jeu de la fortification_, appeared in France and were played with cards. These games differ, however, entirely from the modern ones. Kriegspiel, the father of modern war games, was the invention of a civilian, Herr von Reitwitz, the details of which his son, a Prussian artillery officer, carefully improved. It rapidly grew into military favor, and since 1824, when it was first mentioned by officers of note, has undergone many modifications except as to its underlying principles. Von Moltke himself some twenty years ago was the president of a society whose special object was to play this game, and the great skill of Prussian officers and their success in their late wars is in no small degree to be attributed to this game, familiarity with which has become a sort of necessary step in advancement in the Prussian army. The American game possesses all the valuable features of kriegspiel, and some noticeable improvements thereon as to method, men, tables, etc., while it possesses the peculiar advantages of having elementary games of special interest to all classes of military men. The cost of this game is about $50.

=Strategus= (_Strategos_). Any Athenian general officer was so called.

=Strategy.= Is defined by military writers to be the science of manœuvring an army out of fire of the enemy, as tactics is the art of managing it in battle or under fire. Strategy is the greater science, as including all those vast combinations which lead to the subsequent available displays of tactics.

A movement of the army is said to be _strategical_ when by its means there are concentrated at a given point troops superior in numbers to those of the enemy; or, at this point, there is gained a position by which the enemy’s communications with his base are cut or threatened while those of the army are secure; or, a position is gained by which the forces of the enemy are separated, or are prevented from acting in concert. Strategical operations are directed to attain one or more of these objects; and the line followed by an army in an operation of this kind is called a _strategical line_. The area of country or territory in any part of which the hostile forces can come into collision is termed the _theatre of war_.

There may be employed in a given theatre of war several armies or only one. If there are several armies, but each acting independently of the others, or if there is only one, the particular portion of the territory in which each act is termed the _theatre of operations_ for that army.

A theatre of operations of an army may be defined to be all the territory it may desire to invade, and all that it may have to defend. Where several armies are employed, acting in concert, the theatre of operations of each army depends upon the movements of the other armies, and the theatres of operations of each army in this case are usually designated as _zones of operations_; although this term is also applied to those three divisions of a theatre of operations lying directly in advance of the centre and flanks of a front of operations. Whatever is true for a theatre of operations of an army acting alone is equally true for the theatre of operations of several armies acting separately, and is also applicable to the whole theatre of war.

To make the above statements definite, suppose a single army acting in an independent theatre of operations. A general with such an army under his command proposing an advance towards the enemy will have three things to consider, viz.: (1) The place from which the army is to start; (2) The point to which the army is to go; (3) The roads or routes by which the army is to move in order to reach this point. The first, or place of starting, is termed the _base of operations_. The second, the point to be reached, is called the _objective-point_, or simply the _objective_. The third, the roads or routes used by the army in reaching the objective-point, is termed the _line of operations_. The portion of the theatre of operations occupied by the army as it advances is known as the _front of operations_.

=Stratton-Hill, Battle of.= In Cornwall, England, May 16, 1643, between the royal army under Sir Ralph Hopton, and the forces of the Parliament under the Earl of Stamford. The victory was gained over the Parliamentarians, who lost heavily in killed and wounded.

=Strelitz=, or properly =Streltzi= (“arquebuzziers”). The ancient Russian militia-guard, first raised by Ivan Vatsilevitch the Terrible, in the second half of the 16th century. At that time and for long afterwards, they were the only standing army in Russia, and at times amounted to between 40,000 and 50,000 men. They were located at Moscow in time of peace, in a quarter of the Capitol which was set apart for them, and being the bravest and most trustworthy troops in the army, were made objects of special favor and distinctions. But like all such petted corps, the Roman _Prætorians_, the Turkish Janissaries, and the Egyptian Mamelukes, their general turbulence, frequent revolts against the government (notably during the Demetrian insurrections), and incessant conspiracies, rendered them more formidable to the Russian government than to external enemies. The Strelitz having, at the instigation of the Grand Duchess Sophia and the chiefs of the Old Muscovite party, revolted against Peter the Great, that iron-handed ruler caused them to be decimated (1698) in the great square of Moscow, and the remainder to be banished to Astrakhan. The feeble remnant still manifesting their characteristic turbulence and disloyalty, Peter exterminated them almost completely in 1705. Few Russian families at present can claim kindred with the old Strelitz, but to this the family of Orloff forms a prominent exception, being descended from a Strelitz who was pardoned by Peter the Great while the axe was being raised over him.

=Strength.= This word may be variously understood in military matters. It means fortification; strongholds, etc. It likewise signifies armament; power; force. In all returns which are made of corps, _strength_ implies the number of men that are borne upon the establishment, in contradistinction to _effective force_, which means the number fit for service.

=Stretcher.= A litter or frame for carrying sick, wounded, or dead persons.