Part 142

=Trincomalee.= A seaport town and magnificent harbor on the northeast coast of Ceylon. It is a place of great antiquity; it was here that the Malabar invaders of Ceylon built one of their most sacred shrines,--the “Temple of a Thousand Columns,” which was demolished by the Portuguese, who fortified the heights with the materials derived from its destruction, 1622. It was next held by the Dutch; but in 1672, during the rupture between Louis XIV. and the United Provinces, the French took Trincomalee, which was abandoned by the Dutch in a panic. In 1782, the French admiral Suffrein, in the absence of the British commander, took possession of the fort, and the English garrison retired to Madras. It was restored to the Dutch in the following year, and they retained it till the capture of Ceylon by the British in 1795. It was finally ceded to Great Britain, by the treaty of Amiens, in 1802.

=Trinidad.= An island belonging to Great Britain, and the most southerly of the West India Islands. It is separated from the mainland (Venezuela) by the Gulf of Paria. Trinidad was discovered by Columbus in 1498; and first colonized by the Spaniards, in 1588. In 1676, the French possessed it for a short time, but it was speedily restored to Spain; and in 1797, it was captured by the British, who have retained it ever since.

=Trinobantes.= A British tribe, which occupied Middlesex and Essex, and joined in opposing the invasion of Julius Cæsar, 54 B.C.; but they soon came to terms with the Romans.

=Trinomalee.= A town and fortress of India, in the Carnatic, where Col. Smith greatly distinguished himself against the united forces of Hyder Ali and Nizam Ali, subahdars of the Deccan, with an army of 43,000 horse and 28,000 foot; while the British commander had only 10,000 foot and 1000 horse. The result of this victory was that the Nizam detached himself from Hyder, and in February, 1768, concluded a treaty with the British.

=Triparted.= In heraldry, parted in three pieces; having three parts or pieces; as, a cross triparted.

=Tripartite.= Being of three parts, or three parties being concerned; hence, tripartite alliance, or treaty.

=Triple Alliance.= The name by which two different treaties are known in history, viz.: (1) A treaty concluded in 1668 at the Hague, between England, Holland, and Sweden, having for its object the protection of the Spanish Netherlands, and the checking of the conquests of Louis XIV. (2) An alliance concluded in 1717 between Britain, France, and Holland, against Spain, which included among its stipulations that the Pretender should quit France, and that the treaty of Utrecht should be carried into effect as regards the demolition of Dunkirk. The Protestant succession was guaranteed by this treaty in England, and that of the Duke of Orleans in France.

=Tripoli=, or =Tripolis= (in its modern Arabic form, _Tarabulus_). A seaport and one of the chief commercial towns of Syria, near the coast of the Mediterranean, on both sides of the river Kadisha. On the left side stands the castle built by Count Raymond of Toulouse, in the 12th century, when the city was taken by the Crusaders. It was conquered by the Egyptians in 1832; restored to the Porte, 1835, and it surrendered to the British in 1841.

=Tripoli.= A regency of the Ottoman empire, and the most easterly of the Barbary States, North Africa. The governor-general has the title, rank, and authority of a pasha of the Ottoman empire. The military force of the country consists of a body of Turkish soldiers, some 10,000 in number, whose business is to keep down insurrections, but who were formerly wont to vary it by creating them. In ancient times, Tripoli seems to have been tributary to the Cyrenæans, from whom, however, it was wrested by the Carthaginians. It next passed to the Romans. Like the rest of Northern Africa, it was conquered by the Arabs, and the feeble Christianity of the natives was supplanted by a vigorous and fanatical Mohammedanism. In 1552 (1551), the Turks got possession of it, and have ever since been the rulers of the country, though the authority of the sultan, up till 1835, had been virtually at zero for more than a century. In that year, however, an expedition was dispatched from Constantinople; the ruling dey, Karamanli, was overthrown and imprisoned; a new Turkish pasha, with viceregal powers, was appointed, and the state made an eyalet of the Ottoman empire. Several rebellions have since taken place (notably in 1842 and 1844), but they have always been suppressed.

=Tripolitza= (“three cities”). A town of Greece under the Turkish rule, 39 miles southwest from Corinth. In 1821 it was stormed by the Greek insurgents; and in 1828 razed to the ground by the troops of Ibrahim Pasha; it has since, however, been rebuilt.

=Tripping.= In heraldry, having the right fore foot lifted, the others remaining on the ground, as if he were trotting;--said of an animal, as a hart, buck, and the like, represented in an escutcheon.

=Triumph= (Lat. _triumphus_). Was the name given in ancient Rome to the public honor bestowed on a general who had been successful in war. It consisted in a solemn procession along the _Via Sacra_ up to the Capitol, where sacrifice was offered Jupiter. The victor sat in a chariot, drawn by four horses,--his captives marching before, his troops following behind. Certain conditions had to be fulfilled before a triumph could be enjoyed, and it was the business of the senate to see that these were enforced. Under the empire, generals serving abroad were considered to be the emperor’s lieutenants, and therefore, however successful in their wars, they had no claim to a triumph. They received instead _triumphal decorations_, and other rewards. The oration, or lesser triumph, differs from the greater chiefly in these respects; that the imperator entered the city on foot, clad in the simple _toga prætexta_ of a magistrate, that he bore no sceptre, was not preceded by the senate and a flourish of trumpets, nor followed by victorious troops, but only by the equites and the populace, and that the ceremonies were concluded by the sacrifice of a sheep instead of a bull. The _ovation_, it is scarcely necessary to add, was granted when the success, though considerable, did not fulfill the conditions specified for a triumph.

=Triumph.= To obtain victory; to meet with success.

=Triumphal.= Of or pertaining to triumph; used in triumph; indicating, or in honor of, a triumph or victory; as, a triumphal crown; a triumphal arch.

=Triumphal Column.= See COLUMN, TRIUMPHAL.

=Triumphal Crown.= See CROWN, TRIUMPHAL.

=Triumphant.= Celebrating victory; expressive of joy for success; as, a triumphant song.

=Triumpher.= One who was honored with a triumph in ancient Rome. One who triumphs or rejoices for victory; one who vanquishes.

=Trojæ Ludus.= Among the Romans was a species of mock fight, similar to the tournaments of the Middle Ages, performed by young noblemen on horseback, who were furnished with arms suitable to their age.

=Trojan War.= In classical history, a celebrated epoch, which occurred nearly thirteen centuries before the Christian era, and which has formed the subject of the two finest poems in the world,--Homer’s “Iliad” and Virgil’s “Æneid.” This war was undertaken by the states of Greece to recover Helen, whom Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy, had carried away from the house of Menelaus. (See TROY.)

=Tromblon.= A fire-arm which was formerly fired from a rest, and from which several balls and slugs were discharged. An ancient wall-piece.

=Trombone.= Formerly a species of blunderbuss for boat-service, taking its name from its unseemly trumpet mouth.

=Troop.= A company of cavalry. It is the same, with respect to formation, as a company in the infantry.

=Troop Corporal-Major.= The chief non-commissioned officer of a troop in the British Household Cavalry.

=Troop Sergeant-Major.= In the British service, is the chief sergeant of a troop.

=Trooper.= A private or soldier in a body of cavalry; a horse-soldier.

=Trooping the Colors.= Is a ceremony performed in the British service, at the public mounting of garrison guards.

=Troop-ship.= A merchant ship “taken up,” as it is called, for the conveyance of soldiers by sea.

=Trophy.= Was a memorial of victory erected on the spot where the enemy had turned to flight. Among the Greeks (with the exception of the Macedonians, who erected no trophies) one or two shields and helmets of the routed enemy placed upon the trunk of a tree served as the sign and memorial of victory. After a sea-fight the trophy consisted of the beaks and stern-ornaments of the captured vessels, set up on the nearest coast. It was considered wrong to destroy such a trophy, and equally wrong to repair it when it had fallen down through time, for animosity ought not to be perpetual. In early times the Romans never erected trophies on the field, but decorated the buildings at Rome with the spoils of the vanquished. In later times pillars and triumphal arches were employed to commemorate victories. Besides these, in modern times, the humiliation of an enemy is rendered lasting by such devices as the bridge of Jena, of Waterloo, and by the distribution of captured cannon. Morally considered, this practice is no improvement upon the simple and perishable trophies of the ancient Greeks.

=Trophy-money.= Was certain money formerly raised in the several counties of the kingdom of Great Britain, towards providing harness and maintaining the militia.

=Trossulum= (now _Trusso_). A town in Etruria, 9 miles from Volsinii, which is said to have been taken by some Roman equites without the aid of foot-soldiers; whence the Roman equites obtained the name of Trossuli. Some writers identify this town with Troilium, which was taken by the Romans 293 B.C.; but they appear to have been different places.

=Trou de Loup= (Wolf-hole). In field fortification, is a round hole, about 6 feet deep, and pointed at the bottom, like an inverted cone, with a stake placed in the middle. _Trous de loup_ are frequently dug round a redoubt to obstruct the enemy’s approach. They are circular at the top, of about 4¹⁄₂ feet in diameter.

=Trou de Rat= (_Fr._). Literally, a rat-hole, or rat-catch; figuratively, any disadvantageous position into which troops are rashly driven.

=Trowel Bayonet.= So called from its shape. A bayonet intended to serve also as an intrenching tool; invented by Lieut. Rice, 5th U. S. Infantry. It is used by part of the U. S. troops at the present time (1880).

=Troy.= The earliest traditions of the Greek people represent the country on both sides of the Ægean as peopled by various races, either of genuine Hellenic, or of closely affiliated tribes. Among those who peopled the eastern Asiatic coast were the Trojans. The story of the Trojan war is extremely simple. The Trojans, in the person of Paris, or Alexander, the son of the reigning monarch, Priam, are represented as having had certain dealings with the Achæans, or Greeks of the Peloponnesus, in the course of which the gay young prince carries off from the palace of Menelaus, king of Sparta, his spouse Helen, the greatest beauty of her age. To revenge this insult, the Greeks banded themselves together and sailed against Troy with a large fleet. The most notable of the tribes who took part in this expedition were the Argives, or Achæans, the Spartans, the Bœotians, and the Thessalians. Of the Thessalians, the most prominent captain was Achilles; and the general command of the whole expedition was committed to Agamemnon, king of Mycenæ. This well-appointed European army is represented as having spent nine years in besieging the god-built walls of the city of Priam without making any impression on its strength. A violent quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, breaking out in the tenth year, so weakened the invading force that the Trojans, under Hector, pushed the Greeks back to the very verge of the sea, and almost set their ships on fire. At the critical moment, however, the Thessalian captain was reconciled to the head of the expedition; and with his return to the field the fortune of war changed; Hector, the champion of Troy, fell, and the impending doom of the city was darkly foreshadowed; it was finally captured and sacked, 1184 B.C. (the date generally accepted).

=Troyes.= A town of France, capital of the department of Aube, on the left bank of the Seine. It occupies the site of the ancient Augustobono, the chief town of the Tricasses. It suffered severely in the civil wars of the 15th century, and was taken by Joan of Arc in 1429. A treaty was concluded here between England, France, and Burgundy, May 21, 1420, whereby it was stipulated that Henry V. should marry Catherine, daughter of Charles VI., be appointed regent of France, and after the death of Charles should inherit the crown. Troyes was taken by the allied armies February 7; retaken by Napoleon February 23; and again taken by the allies March 4, 1814.

=Truce.= An agreement between belligerent parties, by which they mutually engage to forbear all acts of hostility against each other for some time, the war still continuing. Truces are of several kinds: _general_, extending to all the territories and dominions of both parties; and _particularly_, restrained to particular places; as, for example, by sea, and not by land. They are also _absolute_, _indeterminate_, and _general_; or _limited and determined_ to certain things, for example, to bury the dead. During a truce, it is dishonorable to occupy more advanced ground, or to resort to any act which would confer advantage. A truce requires ordinarily to be confirmed by the commander-in-chief to become binding. It is lawful to break it before the prescribed period, on notice previously agreed on being given to the opposite party. This is called denouncing a truce.

=Truce, Flag of.= See FLAG OF TRUCE.

=Truce of God.= A suspension of arms, which occasionally took place in the Middle Ages, putting a stop to private hostilities, at or within certain periods.

=Truck.= Wooden-wheels for the carriage of cannon, etc. The trucks of garrison-carriages are generally made of cast iron. Trucks of a ship-carriage are wheels made of one piece of wood, from 12 to 19 inches in diameter, and their thickness is always equal to the caliber of the gun.

=Truck, Casemate.= See IMPLEMENTS.

=Trumpet=, or =Trump=. A wind instrument, made of brass or silver, used in the cavalry and mounted artillery.

=Trumpet-call.= A call by the sound of the trumpet.

=Trumpeter.= A soldier whose duty it is to sound the trumpet.

=Trumpet-Major.= The non-commissioned officer in charge of the trumpeters of a regiment of cavalry.

=Truncheon.= A club; a cudgel; also, a staff of command. The truncheon was for several ages the sign of office. Generals were presented with the truncheon as the sign of investiture with command; and all those officers who belonged to the suite of the general, and were not attached to regiments, carried a truncheon, or staff, whence the name of officers of the staff.

=Trunnion-gauge.= See INSPECTION OF CANNON.

=Trunnion-plate.= In gunnery, is a plate in the carriage of a gun, mortar, or howitzer, which covers the upper part of the cheek, and goes under the trunnion.

=Trunnions.= In gunnery, are two cylinders at or near the centre of gravity of a gun, by which it is supported on its carriage. The axes are in a line perpendicular to the axis of the bore, and, in our guns, in the same plane with that axis. By means of the trunnions the piece is attached to its carriage; and by being placed at or near the centre of gravity, it is easily elevated or depressed.

=Trunnion-square.= See INSPECTION OF CANNON.

=Truxillo.= A town of the republic of Venezuela, capital of a province of the same name. Though now a poor, mean place, it is said to have been, previously to 1678, when it was pillaged by the buccaneer Grammont, one of the finest and wealthiest cities of America.

=Tubantes.= A people of Germany, allies of the Cherusci, originally dwelt between the Rhine and the Yssel. They are subsequently mentioned as a part of the great league of the Franci.

=Tube-pouch.= See IMPLEMENTS.

=Tuberated.= In heraldry, knotted or swelled out.

=Tuck.= A long, narrow sword.

=Tudela= (anc. _Tutella_). A city of Spain, province of Navarre, on the right bank of the Ebro, 52 miles northwest from Saragossa. Here the French under Marshal Lannes totally defeated the Spaniards, on November 23, 1808.

=Tugenbund= (“League of Virtue”). This league was formed in Prussia soon after the peace of Tilsit, June, 1807, for relieving the sufferers by the late wars, and for the revival of morality and patriotism, gradually became a formidable secret political society, opposed to the French predominance in Germany. It excited the jealousy of Napoleon, who demanded its suppression in 1809. It was dissolved at the peace in 1815.

=Tuileries, Palace and Gardens of the.= Are situated in the middle of Paris, on the right bank of the Seine. In 1793, the National Convention held its sittings in the Tuileries; and when Bonaparte became First Consul, he chose it for his official residence. It was the imperial residence of Napoleon III.; but was burned down by the Commune in 1871.

=Tulwar.= In the East Indies means a sword.

=Tumbril.= A covered cart on two wheels, for the carriage of ammunition, tools, etc., belonging to the artillery. The name obtained a melancholy celebrity from being applied to the carts which served to carry the unfortunate victims of the French revolution to the guillotine.

=Tunic.= A close-fitting coat, with short sleeves, worn in ancient times by the Romans. This sort of clothing was prevalent among the French after their return from the Crusades to the Holy Land. They adopted it from the Saracens, and seemed ambitious of appearing in a garb which bore testimony to their feats of valor. These tunics, which were converted into a sort of uniform, obtained the name of _saladines_ among the French, in compliment to the emperor Saladin.

=Tunis.= One of the Barbary States forming a considerable territory or regency of the Ottoman empire, in Northern Africa. Its history is nearly identical with the city of the same name (which see).

=Tunis.= A fortified city of Africa, and the capital of the country of that name, at the mouth of the Mejerdah, 400 miles east by north from Algiers. Tunis is situated about 3 miles to the southwest of the ruins of ancient Carthage, and it is itself a place of great antiquity. During the Punic wars it was repeatedly taken and retaken. In 439 it fell into the hands of the Vandals, but having been wrested from them about a century thereafter by Belisarius, it continued to be subject to the Greek empire till the end of the 7th century, when Northern Africa was overrun by the victorious armies of the Saracens and became a dependency of the caliphs of Bagdad. In 1286 Tunis became an absolute sovereignty under Aboo-Ferez, who soon added the greater part of Algiers and Tripoli. About this time it became notorious for its piracies, and in 1270, Louis IX. of France, in a chivalrous attempt to suppress them, lost both his army and his life. It remained under African kings till taken by Barbarossa, for Solyman the Magnificent. It was taken with great slaughter, and Barbarossa expelled, by the emperor Charles V., when 10,000 Christian slaves were set at liberty, 1535. The country was subjugated by the Turks (1574), who at first governed it by a Turkish pasha and divan, with a body of Janissaries sent from Constantinople, but were ultimately obliged to allow the Moors to elect their own bey, only reserving to themselves the power of confirming the election and exacting a tribute. The piracies of the Tunisians subjected them to severe chastisement, first from the British under Admiral Blake, who reduced it, on the bey refusing to deliver up the British captives, 1655; and afterwards from France and Holland. During the 18th century it became tributary to Algiers. About the beginning of the 19th century, Hamuda Pasha threw off the Algerian yoke, subdued the Turkish militia, and created a native Tunisian army; in consequence of which Tunis virtually attained independence. An insurrection broke out April 18,1864, and in May, the European powers sent ships of war to protect their subjects.

=Turin.= A large city of Italy, capital of Piedmont, at the confluence of the Dora-Susina with the Po, 79 miles west-southwest from Milan. The foundation of Turin is generally attributed to a colony of Transalpine origin called Taurini, or Taurisci. Shortly after Hannibal crossed the Alps, he made himself master of the territory in which it is situated; but after his expulsion from Italy, the Romans resumed possession and converted Turin into a colony, which took the name of _Colonia Julia_. This name was afterwards changed into that of _Augusta Taurinorum_. It was taken and sacked by the Goths under Alaric. To ward off similar disasters, it was shortly after surrounded by walls, but did not escape the ravages of the Longobards. Charlemagne, into whose hands it subsequently passed, bestowed it as feudal tenure on its bishops. In 1418 (1416) it was declared by Amadeo V. the capital of the states of Savoy, and ultimately rose to be the capital of the whole Sardinian states. The French besieged this city; but Prince Eugène defeated their army, and compelled them to raise the siege, September 7, 1706. In 1798, the French republican army took possession of Turin, seized all the strong places and arsenals of Piedmont, and obliged the king and his family to remove to the island of Sardinia. In 1799 the French were driven out by the Austrians and Russians; but shortly afterwards the city and all Piedmont surrendered to the French. In 1814, it was delivered up to the allies, who restored it to the king of Sardinia.