Part 147
=Vitrified Forts.= The name given to certain remarkable stone inclosures bearing traces of the action of fire, about 50 of which exist in various parts of Scotland. They are generally situated on a small hill, overlooking a considerable valley, and consist of a wall, which may have originally been about 12 feet in height, inclosing a level area on the summit of a hill. The most remarkable feature of these structures is, that the wall is always more or less consolidated by the action of fire,--in some cases only giving a glassy coating to its inner side, while in other instances the vitrification has been most complete, the ruins assuming the character of vast masses of coarse glass.
=Vittoria.= A town of Spain, the chief town of the province of Alava, 30 miles southeast from Bilboa. This place is the site of a brilliant victory obtained by Wellington over the French army commanded by Joseph Bonaparte, king of Spain, and Marshal Jourdan, June 21, 1813. The hostile armies were nearly equal, from 70,000 to 75,000 each. After a long and fearful battle, the French were driven, towards evening, through the town of Vittoria, and in their retreat were thrown into irretrievable confusion. The British loss was 22 officers and 479 men killed; 167 officers and 2640 men wounded. Marshal Jourdan lost 151 pieces of cannon, 451 wagons of ammunition, all his baggage, provisions, cattle, and treasure, with his baton as marshal of France. Continuing the pursuit on the 25th, Wellington took Jourdan’s only remaining gun.
=Vivandière.= In continental armies, and especially that of France, a female attendant in a regiment, who sells spirits and other comforts, ministers to the sick, marches with the corps, and contrives to be a universal favorite. Although a familiar friend to all, these women contrive to maintain themselves respectable, and generally respected; and a corps is usually extremely jealous of the slightest discourtesy being shown to its vivandière. The woman wears the uniform of the regiment, short petticoats taking the place of the man’s tunic.
=Vlissingen=, or =Flushing=. See FLUSHING.
=Vocontii.= A powerful and important people in Gallia Narbonensis, inhabiting the southeastern part of Dauphiné, and a part of Provence. They were allowed by the Romans to live under their own laws, and, though in a Roman province, they were the allies and not the subjects of Rome.
=Voided.= In heraldry, having the inner part cut away or left vacant, a narrower border being left at the sides, the color of the field being seen in the vacant space;--said of a charge or ordinary.
=Voider.= In heraldry, one of the ordinaries, whose figure is much like that of the flanch or flasque.
=Volant.= In heraldry, flying. A bird volant is represented flying bendways towards the dexter side of the shield; and its position may be distinguished from that of a bird rising, by the legs being drawn up towards the body.
=Volant.= A piece of steel on a helmet, presenting an acute angle to the front.
=Volcæ.= A powerful Celtic people in Gallia Narbonensis, divided into the two tribes of the Volcæ Tectosages and the Volcæ Arecomici, extending from the Pyrenees and the frontiers of Aquitania along the coast as far as the Rhone. They lived under their own laws, without being subject to the Roman governor of the province, and they also possessed the Jus Latii. The Tectosages inhabited the western part of the country from the Pyrenees as far as Narbo, and the Arecomici the eastern part from Narbo to the Rhone. A portion of the Tectosages left their native country under Brennus, and were one of the three great tribes into which the Galatians in Asia Minor were divided.
=Volhynia.= A frontier government of West Russia, bounded on the southwest by Galicia, and on the west by Poland, from which it is separated by the river Bug. Volhynia in early times belonged to the ancient Russians, but was conquered by the Lithuanians and Poles in 1320, and remained in their hands till its annexation to Russia in 1798.
=Volley.= The simultaneous discharge of a number of fire-arms.
=Volokolamsk.= A town of Russia in Europe, in the government of Moscow, 60 miles northwest from Moscow. It has suffered many misfortunes, having been twice plundered and almost destroyed by the Tartars, and taken by the Poles in 1613.
=Volsci.= An ancient people in Latium, but originally distinct from the Latins, dwelt on both sides of the river Liris, and extended down to the Tyrrhene Sea. Their language was nearly allied to the Umbrian. They were from an early period engaged in almost unceasing hostilities with the Romans, and were not completely subdued by the latter till 338 B.C., from which time they disappear from history.
=Volsinii=, or =Vulsinii= (now _Bolsena_). Called _Velsina_, or _Velsuna_, by the Etruscans, one of the most ancient and most powerful of the twelve cities of the Etruscan Confederation, was situated on a lofty hill on the northeastern extremity of the lake called after it, _Lacus Volsiniensis_ and _Vulsiniensis_ (now Lago di Bolsena). Volsinii is first mentioned in 392 B.C., when its inhabitants invaded Roman territory, but were easily defeated by the Romans, and were glad to purchase a twenty years’ truce on humiliating terms. The Volsiniensis also carried on war with the Romans in 311, 294, and 280, but were on each occasion defeated, and in the last of these years appear to have been finally subdued. On their final subjugation their city was razed to the ground by the Romans, and its inhabitants were compelled to settle on a less defensible site in the plain.
=Voltigeurs.= Are picked companies of irregular riflemen in the French regiments. They are selected for courage, great activity, and small stature. It is their privilege to lead the attack.
=Volturno.= A river of Naples, which rises in the province of Sannio or Molise, and, after a course of 90 miles, falls into the Gulf of Gaeta 20 miles from Naples. A great battle was fought on the banks of this river in 1800, between the troops of Francis II., king of Naples, and the followers of Garibaldi.
=Volunteers.= See MILITIA.
=Vorant.= In heraldry, a term applied to an animal represented as swallowing another; as, sable, a dolphin naiant, vorant a fish proper.
=Vossem, Peace of.= Between the elector of Brandenburg and Louis XIV. of France; the latter engaged not to assist the Dutch against the elector; signed June 6, 1673.
=Votes.= See FINDING.
=Vougle=, or =Vouillé= (Southwest France; near Poitiers). Here Alaric, king of the Visigoths, was defeated and slain by Clovis, king of France, 507. Clovis immediately after subdued the whole country from the Loire to the Pyrenees, and thus his kingdom became firmly established. A peace followed between the Franks and the Visigoths, who had been settled above one hundred years in that part of Gaul called Septimania.
=Vulned.= A heraldic term, applied to an animal, or part of an animal,--as, for example, a human heart, wounded, and with the blood dropping from it.
=Vulnerable.= Susceptive of wounds; liable to external injuries; capable of being taken; as, the town is extremely vulnerable in such a quarter. It is also applied to military dispositions; as, the army was vulnerable in the centre, etc. An assemblage of men without arms, or with arms but without discipline, or having discipline and arms, without officers, are vulnerable.
W.
=Wad.= To insert or crowd a wad into; as, to wad a gun.
=Wad.= See GROMMET, and JUNK-WADS.
=Wad-hook.= A screw or hook to draw wadding out from a gun.
=Wage Battle, To.= To give gage or security for joining in the _duellum_, or combat.
=Wager of Battle.= In ancient law, the giving of gage or pledge for trying a cause by single combat, formerly allowed in military, criminal, and civil causes. In writs of right, where the trial was by champions, the tenant produced his champion, who, by throwing down his glove as a gage or pledge, thus waged or stipulated battle with the champion of the demandant, who, by taking up the glove, accepted the challenge. The wager of battle, which has long been in disuse, was abolished in England in 1820.
=Wagon.= A vehicle for the conveyance of goods or passengers, is mounted on four wheels, but varies considerably in the construction of its other parts, according to the species of traffic in which it is employed. They are used by armies for the transportation of subsistence, other military stores, baggage, ammunition, sick and wounded. The following wagon has been adopted for use in the service of the U. S. army: The body to be straight, 3 feet 6 inches wide, 1 foot 9 inches deep, 9 feet 6 inches long at the bottom, and 10 feet at the top, sloping equally at each end, all in the clear or inside; the floor 9 feet 10¹⁄₂ inches long, 3 feet 6 inches wide, and 7¹⁄₈ inches thick. Top sides 6 inches wide, 7¹⁄₈ inches thick, 10 feet 2 inches long on the bottom edge, sloping the same as the lower side boards. Six bows of good ash or oak, 2 inches wide, ¹⁄₂ inch thick, with three staples to confine the ridge-pole to its place; one ridge-pole 11 feet 3 inches long, 1³⁄₄ inches wide, ⁵⁄₈ inch thick; seat-boards 3 feet 6 inches long, 1 foot wide, ⁷⁄₈ inch thick to rest on top edge of sides on upright spiral springs, so arranged as to be used with or without the top sides; two plates 7 inches long, 1¹⁄₂ inches wide, ³⁄₄ inch thick, with two bolts in each, for the front wheels to strike against in turning the wagon. The tongue to be 10 feet 6 inches long, 4 inches wide, 2¹⁄₄ inches deep at front end of hounds, 1³⁄₄ inches wide, and 2¹⁄₄ inches deep at point or front end, and so arranged as to lift up the front end of it to hang within 2 feet 6 inches of the ground when the wagon is standing at rest on a level surface; front hounds 6 feet long, 2¹⁄₄ inches deep, 3¹⁄₂ inches wide over axle, and to retain that width to the back end of tongue; jaws of hounds 1 foot 6 inches long and 2¹⁄₄ inches square at the front end. Axle-stock 4 feet ¹⁄₂ inch long, 3¹⁄₂ inches wide, 3¹⁄₄ inches deep. Hind hounds 4 feet 11 inches long, 2¹⁄₄ inches deep, and 2³⁄₄ inches wide back, and 2¹⁄₂ inches wide front; jaws 10 inches long and 4 inches wide at the end where they rest on coupling-pole. Coupling-pole 8 feet 9 inches long, 3¹⁄₂ inches wide, 2³⁄₈ inches deep, with a rivet through front end. Wheels 3 feet 8 inches and 4 feet 8 inches high; sixteen spokes 2 inches wide and 2 inches thick at hub, and 2 inches wide and 1¹⁄₂ inches thick at felloes; eight felloes 2 inches wide, 2³⁄₈ inches deep; hubs 9 inches diameter at flanges, 3¹⁄₂ inches diameter at front, 4 inches diameter at back end, 12 inches long; tires 2 inches wide, ¹⁄₂ inch thick, fastened with 8 screw-bolts, one in each felloe. Distance from the centre of king-bolt hole to centre of back axle, 5 feet 9¹⁄₂ inches; and from centre of king-bolt hole to the centre of bolt in jaw of hind hounds, 1 foot 10 inches; distance from the centre of hind axle to centre of bolt in jaw of hind hounds, 3 feet 11¹⁄₂ inches, and from the centre of king-bolt to centre of slider 2 feet 2¹⁄₂ inches; distance between the inside of front and hind standards, 5 feet 8¹⁄₂ inches,--to receive the body, which is 5 feet 8 inches from outside to outside of cleats of sides. Weight of model wagon, 1325 pounds, complete, for four horses or mules. See ORDNANCE, CARRIAGES FOR, TRAVELING KITCHEN, and TRAVELING FORGE.
=Wagon-body, Ponton.= See PONTONS, WAGON-BODY PONTONS.
=Wagoner.= One who conducts a wagon; a wagon-driver. The number of master-wagoners and wagoners allowed in the quartermaster’s department U. S. army is limited only by the exigencies of the service.
=Wagon-master.= A person in charge of one or more wagons, especially of those used for transporting freight, as the supplies of an army, and the like. The quartermaster-general is authorized to employ from time to time as many forage-masters and wagon-masters as he may deem necessary for the service, not exceeding 20 in the whole, who shall be entitled to receive $40 per month and three rations a day, and forage for one horse; and neither of whom shall be interested or concerned directly or indirectly in any wagon or other means of transport employed by the United States, nor in the purchase or sale of any property procured for or belonging to the United States, except as an agent of the United States.
=Wagon-train.= An indispensable companion of an army under this or some other title. It serves to convey the ammunition, provisions, sick, wounded, camp equipage, etc. Wagons in convoy travel at a rate of from 1 to 2 miles an hour, according to the state of the roads, and other circumstances; and a mile may be said to contain 100 wagons. A great object in the march of a convoy, is to preserve the draught animals as much as possible from fatigue. For this purpose, if the convoy amount to many hundred wagons, they must be formed into divisions of not more than 500 each. Should it consist of thousands, it will be advisable to form them into grand divisions, and then again into subdivisions of 500 each. By this means, and by calculating the time of departure, each division may remain at rest until just before its time of movement, and the necessity will thus be prevented of the latter part of a large convoy being harassed for a considerable time before its turn to move. The different divisions of the convoy should be numbered, and obliged each day to change the order of their marching. Whenever the progress of a wagon-train is arrested by the breaking down of one of the wagons, or other delay, all the wagons in rear of the stoppage should immediately drive up into the first open space, to as great a number as it will hold. This will keep the convoy together, and better under the care of the escort. The escort should be divided into front, centre, and rear guards; besides the divisions in the flanks, which should never be more than 400 yards from each other.
=Wagram.= A village of Lower Austria, on the left bank of the Rossbach, 11 miles northeast from Vienna. It is the site of a battle between the French under Napoleon, Davoust, Masséna, and Macdonald, and the Austrians under the Archduke Charles, in which the former were victorious, July 5-6, 1809. The Austrians retreated in the most orderly manner, carrying with them about 5000 prisoners, and leaving about 25,000 dead or wounded on the field of battle,--the French loss being about equal; the latter claim to have taken 20,000 prisoners.
=Wahabees=, =Wahabis=, or =Wahabites=. A warlike Mohammedan reforming sect, considering themselves the only true followers of the Prophet, arose in Arabia about 1750, under the rule of Abd-el-Nahab (Ibn-abdul-Wahab). His grandson Savoud (Saud, or Saood), in 1801, defeated an expedition headed by the caliph of Bagdad. The conquest of Hejaz was next undertaken by the Wahabees. In 1803, Saoud collected a large army, defeated Ghaleb, the ruler of Mecca, in several battles, laid siege to Mecca, which, after a resistance of two or three months, surrendered at discretion. Not the slightest excess was committed, but the people had to become Wahabees. Failing to take Jiddah, into which Ghaleb had thrown himself, the Wahabi forces went northwards, and, in 1804, took Medina, where they stripped the tomb of Mohammed of its accumulated treasures, and prohibited the approach to it of all but Wahabees. For several years after the conquest of Hejaz, Saoud continued to extend and consolidate his power. Plundering incursions were made to the very vicinity of Bagdad, Aleppo, and Damascus. On the east, Saoud took the island of Bahrein, and annexed a part of the Persian coast, on the east side of the Gulf, and exacted tribute from the sultan of Oman. This brought him into conflict with Great Britain, which sent (1808) a force and severely chastised the Wahabi pirates that infested the commerce of the Persian Gulf. Saoud’s son, Abdallah, long resisted Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, but in 1818 he was defeated and taken prisoner by Ibrahim Pasha, who sent him to Constantinople, where he was put to death. Ibrahim continued some months in Arabia, consolidating his conquests throughout Nejed and the adjoining provinces. But soon an insurrection broke out, and the Egyptians had to retire to Kasim, and Turki, a son of Abdallah, was proclaimed sultan of Nejed. Renewed expeditions were undertaken by the Egyptian commanders, driving, first, Turki from his capital for a time and then his son and successor, Feysul. But soon after the death of Mehemet Ali (1849) the Egyptians gave up the struggle; Feysul was recalled from exile; and under him and his son Abdallah II., who unites in a high degree the fanaticism and ferocity of the Wahabi, with great skill in military tactics, the Wahabi sway, according to the accounts of Palgrave in 1863, and of Col. Pelly in 1865, had become more powerful and extensive, and threatens to swallow up the entire peninsula.
=Wahlstatt.= See KATSBACH.
=Wait.= Ambush. _To lay wait_, to lie in ambush; to prepare an ambuscade. _To lie in wait_, to lie in ambush; to be secreted in order to fall by surprise on an enemy.
=Waiting, In.= This term is used in the British service, to mark out the person whose turn is next for duty; as, an officer in waiting. _Field-officer in waiting_, is the term applied to the monthly duty taken by the field-officers of the three regiments of Foot Guards, who attend the sovereign on court-days, to present the detail of his corps, and receive the parole or other orders from her personally, which are afterwards given to the guards in orders. The field-officer in waiting commands all the troops on duty, and has the immediate care of the sovereign’s person within-doors, as the gold stick has of it while in court. The latter also receives the parole from the sovereign.
=Waiving Amain.= A salutation of defiance, as by brandishing weapons, etc.
=Waiwode=, or =Waywode=. In the Turkish empire, the governor of a small province or town; a general.
=Wakefield.= A town of England, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 26 miles from York. Near it is the site of a battle between Margaret, the queen of Henry VI., and the Duke of York, in which the latter was slain, and 3000 Yorkists fell upon the field, December 31, 1460. The death of the duke, who aspired to the crown, seemed to fix the good fortune of Margaret; but the Earl of Warwick espoused the cause of the duke’s son, the Earl of March, afterwards Edward IV., and the civil war was continued.
=Walcheren.= An island of Holland, in the province of Zealand, in the German Ocean, at the mouth of the Scheldt. The unfortunate expedition of the British to this isle in 1809 consisted of 35 ships of the line, and 200 smaller vessels, principally transports, and 40,000 land forces, the latter under the command of the Earl of Chatham, and the fleet under Sir Richard Strachan. For a long time the destination of the expedition remained secret; but before July 28, 1809, when it set sail, the French journals had announced that Walcheren was the point of attack. Perhaps a more powerful and better appointed armament had never previously left the British ports, or ever more completely disappointed public expectation. The plan was to send the fleet and army up the Scheldt, and attack Antwerp (the principal naval station and arsenal in the north of France), whose fortifications, though formidable, were much in need of repair, and whose garrison at the time only numbered about 2000 invalids and coast-guards; while there were not more than 10,000 French soldiers in Holland. The expedition, after numberless needless delays, at last sailed on July 28, and reached the Dutch coast on the following day. But, instead of obeying the orders of the minister of war, Lord Castlereagh, to _advance at once in force against Antwerp_, the commander-in-chief, Lord Chatham, frittered away his time in the reduction of Vlissingen (Flushing), which was not effected till August 16, by which time the garrison of Antwerp had been reinforced by King Louis Bonaparte with the troops at his command (about 6000), and by detachments sent from France, which swelled the garrison, by August 20, to 15,000 men. About the end of August, Chatham, who, as a general, was a methodical incapable, “found himself prepared” to march upon Antwerp, but by this time 30,000 men, under Bernadotte, were gathered to its defense, and the English army was decimated by marsh-fever, so that success was not to be hoped for. However, it was judged right to hold possession of Walcheren, in order to compel the French to keep a strong force on the watch in Belgium, and, accordingly, 15,000 men remained to garrison the island, the rest returned to England; but the malaria proved too fatal in its ravages, and as peace had been concluded between Austria and France, this force was also recalled. Thus an excellently devised scheme, through utter stupidity of the agent chosen by royalty to carry it out, failed in every point of consequence, and ended in the loss of 7000 men dead, and the permanent disablement of half the remainder. The House of Commons instituted an inquiry, and Lord Chatham resigned his post of master-general of the ordnance, to prevent greater disgrace; but the policy of the ministers in planning the expedition was, nevertheless, approved.
=Wales= (anc. _Britannia Secunda_). A principality in the southwest part of Great Britain. After the Roman emperor Honorius quitted Britain, Vortigern was elected king of South Britain. He invited over the Saxons to defend his country against the Picts and Scots; but the Saxons perfidiously sent for reinforcements, consisting of Saxons, Danes, and Angles, by which they made themselves masters of South Britain. Many of the Britons retired to Wales, and defended themselves against the Saxons, in their inaccessible mountains, about 447. In this state Wales remained unconquered till Henry II. subdued South Wales in 1157; and in 1282, Edward I. entirely reduced the whole country, putting an end to its independence, by the death of Llewelyn, the last prince. The Welsh, however, were not entirely reconciled to this revolution, till the queen gave birth to a son at Caernarvon in 1284, whom Edward styled prince of Wales, which title the heir to the crown of Great Britain has borne almost ever since. For further history of Wales, see separate articles in this work.
=Walk About.= A military expression used by British officers when they approach a sentinel, and think proper to waive the ceremony of being saluted.
=Wall.= A series of brick, stone, or other materials, carried upward and cemented with mortar. When used in the plural number, wall signifies fortification; works built for defense. _To be driven to the wall_, a figurative term, signifying to be so pressed that you can neither advance nor retreat.
=Wallachia.= One of the Danubian principalities, in the northeast of Turkey in Europe. This country formed part of the ancient Dacia of the Romans, and was subsequently brought under the dominion of the Goths and Huns. During the two centuries which preceded the fall of the empire of the East, it was sometimes subject to the Greek emperors, and sometimes to the monarchs of Hungary. It was conquered by the Turks in the 14th century, but the inhabitants struggled to assert their independence until 1536, when it became a province of the Ottoman empire. In 1829 it was placed under the protection of Russia, though it was still considered a dependency of Turkey. See MOLDAVIA.
=Walloon Guard.= The body-guard of the Spanish monarch;--so called because formerly consisting of Walloons.