Part 32
=Echelon.= A military term applied to a certain arrangement of troops when several divisions are drawn up in parallel lines, each to the right or the left of the one preceding it, like “steps,” or the rounds of a ladder, so that no two are on the same alignment. Each division by marching directly forward can form a line with that which is in advance of it. There are two sorts of echelon, _direct_ and _oblique_, the former of which is used in an attack or retreat.
=Eckmühl=, or =Eggmühl=. A small village of Bavaria, on the Great Laber. This place is celebrated for the important victory gained by the French over the Austrians on April 22, 1809, and which obtained for Davoust the title of Prince of Eckmühl.
=Eclaireurs= (_Fr._). A corps of grenadiers raised by Bonaparte in France, who from their celerity of movements were compared to lightning.
=Eclopes= (_Fr._). A military term to express those soldiers who, though invalids, are well enough to follow the army. Among these may be classed dragoons or horsemen whose horses become lame and cannot keep up with the troop or squadron. They always march in the rear of a column.
=Ecole Polytechnique.= A celebrated military school in Paris, established in 1794, chiefly for the artillery service. The examinations for the schools are public to all France. It not only furnishes officers of artillery, but also civil and military engineers of every description. The pupils of this school defended Paris in 1814 and 1830.
=Economy.= In a military sense, implies the minutiæ or interior regulations of a regiment, troop, or company. Hence regimental economy.
=Ecorcheurs= (_Flayers_). A name given to bands of armed adventurers who desolated France and Belgium during the 15th century, beginning about 1435, and they at one time numbered 100,000. They are said to have stripped their victims to their shirts, and flayed the cattle. They were favored by the English invasion and the civil wars.
=Ecoutes.= Small galleries made at equal distances in front of the glacis of the fortifications of a place. They serve to annoy the enemy’s miners, and to interrupt them in their work.
=Ecreter= (_Fr._). To batter or fire at the top of a wall, redoubt, epaulement, etc., so as to dislodge or drive away the men that may be stationed behind it, in order to render the approach more easy. _Ecreter les pointes des palissades_ is to blunt the sharp ends of the palisades. This ought always to be done before you attack the covert way, which is generally fenced by them.
=Ecu= (_Fr._). A large shield which was used by the ancients, and carried on their left arm, to ward off the blows of sword or sabre. This instrument of defense was originally invented by the Samnites. The Moors had _ecus_, or shields, sufficiently large to cover the whole of their bodies. The _clipei_ of the Romans only differed from the _ecu_ in shape; the former being entirely round, and the latter oval.
=Ecuador=, or =Equator=. A South American republic, founded in 1831, when the Colombian republic was divided into three; the other two being Venezuela and New Granada. Gen. Franco was here defeated in battle by Gen. Flores, August, 1860. Several insurrections have taken place in Ecuador since 1860.
=Edessa=, or =Callinhoe=. An ancient city of Mesopotamia. In 1144 the Edessenes were defeated by the Saracen chief Nur-ed-deen, and all who were not massacred were sold as slaves. After many vicissitudes, it fell successively into the hands of the sultans of Egypt, the Byzantines, the Mongols, Turkomans, and Persians; the city was finally conquered by the Turks, and has ever since formed a portion of the Turkish dominion. Its modern name is Oorfa.
=Edge.= The thin or cutting part of a sword or sabre.
=Edgehill.= An elevated ridge in Warwickshire, England, 7 miles northeast from Banbury. Here was fought, on Sunday, October 23, 1642, the first great battle of the civil war, between the royalist forces under Charles I. and the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Essex. Prince Rupert, who led the right wing, charged with his cavalry the left wing of the Parliamentarians, broke it, and pursued it madly to Keinton. Essex with his force defeated the right wing of the royalists.
=Edinburgh.= The metropolis of Scotland, situated about 1¹⁄₂ miles from the Firth of Forth. It was taken by the Anglo-Saxons in 482; retaken by the Picts in 695; city fortified and castle rebuilt, 1074; besieged by Donald Bane, 1093. The city was taken by the English in 1296; surrendered to Edward III. in 1356. It was burnt by Richard II., 1385, and by Henry IV., 1401. A British force landed from a fleet of 200 ships, in 1544, and burned Edinburgh. The castle surrendered to Cromwell in 1650. The young Pretender occupied Holyrood September 17, 1745, and the battle of Preston Pans took place September 21, 1745.
=Effective.= Fit for service; as, an army of 30,000 effective (fighting) men.
=Efficient.= A thoroughly trained and capable soldier. It is also a term used in connection with the volunteers. A volunteer is said to be efficient when he has performed the appointed number of drills and fired the regular number of rounds at the target, in the course of the year.
=Egham.= A village in the northwest of Surrey, 18 miles west of London. In the vicinity is Runnymede, a meadow on the Thames, where King John conferred with his barons before signing the Magna Charta in 1215.
=Egypt.= A country in Northeast Africa. On the division of the Roman empire (395 A.D.) Egypt became a part of the dominions of Arcadius, ruler of the Eastern empire. But, owing to religious feuds of the Jacobites and Melchites, it became a province of Persia (616) for twelve years. In 640 the governor, Makaukas, endeavored to make himself independent, and invited the arms of the Arabs, and Amrou easily conquered Egypt. Although Alexandria was retaken by Constantine III., the Arabs drove him out and maintained their conquest, and Egypt remained an appendage of the caliphate. It afterwards passed into the dynasty of the Turks, and was administered by pashas. Constant rebellions of the Mamelukes, and the violence of contending factions, distracted the country for more than two centuries. The most remarkable event of this period was the French invasion by Bonaparte in 1798, which, by the conquest of Alexandria and the battle of the Pyramids against the Mamelukes, led to the entire subjection of the country, from which the French were finally expelled by the Turks and British in 1801, and the country restored to the Ottoman Porte. The rise of Mohammed Ali in 1806 imparted a galvanic prosperity to Egypt by the destruction of the Mamelukes, the formation of a regular army, and the introduction of European civilization. He considerably extended its boundaries, even into Asia; but in 1840 he was dispossessed of his Asiatic conquests. The treaty of London, however, in 1841, confirmed the viceroyalty of Egypt as a fief of the Ottoman empire to him and his descendants.
=Ehrenbreitstein.= A town and fortress of Rhenish Prussia, situated on the right bank of the Rhine, directly opposite Coblentz, with which it is connected by a bridge of boats. The fortress of Ehrenbreitstein occupies the summit of a precipitous rock 490 feet high, and has been called the Gibraltar of the Rhine, on account of its great natural strength and its superior works. It is capable of accommodating a garrison of 14,000 men, and provisions for 8000 men for ten years can be stowed in its vast magazines. Ehrenbreitstein was besieged in vain by the French in 1688, but fell into their hands in 1799, after a siege of fourteen months. Two years after, the French, on leaving, at the peace of Lunéville, blew up the works. It was assigned, however, to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna in 1814, and under that country was restored and thoroughly fortified. It is now one of the strongest forts in Europe.
=Eighty-ton Gun.= A large Woolwich gun designed as an armament for the “Inflexible.” Its construction was authorized in March, 1874, and the gun was ready for proof in October, 1875. When first made it weighed 81 tons, having a caliber of 14¹⁄₂ inches. It was bored during the progress of the experiments to 16 inches, and was given an enlarged chamber. The experiments were conducted by the celebrated “Committee on Explosion.” See ORDNANCE, RECENT HISTORY OF.
=Eilau-Preussisch.= A town of Prussia, government of Königsberg. It is chiefly celebrated for the victory gained there by the French over the united Prussian and Russian armies, February 8, 1807.
=Einsiedeln.= A small town of Switzerland, in the canton of Schwytz. It contains a fine abbey, which was rifled by the French in 1798.
=Ejector.= The device used in breech-loading small-arms to throw out the metallic cartridge-case after it is fired.
=Ejector Spring.= The spring which operates an ejector.
=El Arish.= A village of Lower Egypt on the Mediterranean, on the route from Egypt to Syria. It is but little more than a fort and a few houses, and was taken by the French in 1799; and here the French general Kleber signed, in 1800, a convention with Sir Sydney Smith, engaging to leave Egypt with his troops.
=Elath=, or =Eloth=. A seaport situated at the head of that gulf of the Red Sea, to which it gave its name. It was a fortified port in the time of Solomon; revolted against Joram; was retaken by Azariah; and was eventually conquered by Rezui, and held by the Syrians till it became a Roman frontier town. Under the Mohammedan rule it rose for a while to some importance, but has now sunk into insignificance.
=Elba.= An island belonging to the kingdom of Italy, in the Mediterranean Sea, between Corsica and the coast of Tuscany, from the latter of which it is separated by a channel 5 miles in breadth. Elba has been rendered famous in history from having been Napoleon’s place of exile from May, 1814, till February, 1815.
=El Boden.= A mountain-range, near Ciudad Rodrigo, in Spain, where the British troops distinguished themselves against an overwhelming French force in 1811.
=Elbow-gauntlet.= An ancient piece of armor, a gauntlet of plate reaching to the elbow, adopted from the Asiatics in the 16th century.
=Elbow-piece.= An ancient piece of armor, a metal plate used to cover the junction of the rere-brace and rant-brace, by which the upper and lower half of the arm were covered.
=Elchingen.= A village of Bavaria, on the Danube, 7 miles northeast from Ulm. Here the Austrians were defeated by the French in 1805. For this victory Marshal Ney received the title of Duke of Elchingen.
=Electric light.= An intense light produced by passing an electric current between points of carbon forming electrodes of the circuit. There are many forms of the apparatus. It will be extensively used in future wars for lighting harbor channels, approaches to forts, etc.
=Elements.= In a military sense, signify the first principles of tactics, fortification, and gunnery.
=Elephant.= See PACK AND DRAUGHT ANIMALS.
=Elevate, To.= Is to raise the muzzle of the cannon or rifle so that the latter shall be directed at a point above that which it is intended shall be struck.
=Elevating Arc.= In gunnery, is an arc attached to the base of the breech parallel to the ratchets and graduated into degrees and parts of a degree. A pointer attached to the _fulcrum_ points to the zero of the scale when the axis of the piece is horizontal. Elevations and depressions are indicated by the scale. Besides the graduations on the arc, the ranges (in yards) and charges for shot and shell are given.
=Elevating Bar.= An iron bar used in elevating guns or mortars having ratchets at the breech.
=Elevating Screw.= The screw by means of which the breech of a cannon is raised, the result being to depress the muzzle.
=Elevating Sight.= See SIGHT, ELEVATING.
=Elevation.= In gunnery, is one of the elements of pointing, being the movement of the axis of a piece in a vertical plane as distinguished from _direction_ or its movement horizontally. The elevation is usually positive,--that is, the gun is pointed above the horizontal. When it is pointed below, it is said to be depressed. The word is also used to express degree, or as a synonym for _angle of elevation_. The sights or elevating apparatus of guns are graduated on the theory that the object is in the horizontal plane of the piece, or that the line of sight is horizontal, which is not always the case in practice. When the elevation is determined by sights the angle of elevation is the angle between the line of sight and the axis of the piece, when these lines are in the same vertical plane,--or the angle between the line of sight and a plane containing the axis of the piece and a horizontal line intersecting it at right angles, when they are not. The graduations of tangent scales and fixed breech-sights give this angle in degrees. The graduation of the pendulum hausse gives the angle correctly only when the line of sight is horizontal. When the elevation is given by elevating arcs or gunner’s quadrant, the angle of elevation becomes the angle of fire, or the angle which the axis of the piece makes with the horizontal. Elevation is necessary to overcome the effect of gravity on the projectile. The degree of elevation increases with the range. _In vacuo_ the elevation corresponding to the maximum range is 45°. In the air the angle of maximum range diminishes with the velocity and increases with diameter and density of the ball. It is greater in mortars than in howitzers, and greater in howitzers than in guns. In mortars it approximates to 42°; in guns it is about 37°.
=Ellisburgh.= A village of Jefferson Co., N. Y. In 1814 an engagement took place here between the Americans and British, in which the latter were defeated.
=Elmina.= A fortified town and seaport of West Africa, founded by the Portuguese in 1481; was the first European settlement planted on the coast of Guinea. It was taken by the Dutch in 1637, and was ceded by them to Portugal. It was burned by the British troops in 1873.
=Elsass= (Fr. _Alsace_). One of the old German provinces, having the Rhine on the east and the Vosges Mountains on the west. It was ceded to France in 1648; but after the Franco-German war was annexed by Prussia, under treaty of May 10, 1871.
=Elswick Compressor.= An arrangement for compressing friction plates used in the English navy to take up the recoil of gun-carriages upon their slides. The 7 friction plates arranged longitudinally under the carriage and attached to its lower part, have alternating between them 6 long flat bars attached at their ends to the slide by bolts passing through them, but allowing them a side motion. The plates and bars are tightly clamped by short rocking levers, the lower ends of which act on the outside plates. The levers are worked by collars on a threaded shaft, which catch their upper ends. The shaft is called the compressor shaft, and has a handle or crank on the outside of each cheek or bracket,--one is called the _adjusting lever_, the other the _compressor lever_. The first is used to give an initial compression to suit the charge, the other is operated by the recoil being forced down by a tripper on the slide. Two forms of the compressor are used,--one for the _single plate_, the other for the _double-plate carriage_. In the double-plate carriage the adjusting lever can be set to any degree of compression without causing any motion in the compressor shaft or lever.
=Elswick Gun.= Armstrong gun (which see).
=Elvas.= A strong frontier town of Portugal, in the province of Alemtejo, situated on a rocky hill, 10 miles northwest from Badajos. It is one of the most important strongholds in Europe. The arsenal and bomb-proof barracks are capable of containing 6000 or 7000 men. In 1808 it was taken and held for five months by the French.
=Emaum Ghaur.= In Scinde, was a strong fortress in the Thur or Great Sandy Desert, separating that province from the rajpoot state of Jessulmere. It was captured by Sir Charles Napier in January, 1843.
=Embark.= To put or cause to go on board a vessel or boat; as, to embark troops. To go on board of a ship, boat, or vessel; as, the troops embarked for Egypt.
=Embarkation.= The act of putting or going on board of a vessel.
=Embaterion.= A war-song of the Spartans, accompanied by flutes, which they sung marching in time, and rushing on the enemy. The origin of the embaterion is lost in antiquity.
=Embattle.= To arrange in order of battle; to draw up in array, as troops for battle; also, to prepare or arm for battle.
=Embattle.= To furnish with battlements. “_Embattled_” house.
=Embattlement.= An indented parapet; battlement.
=Embezzlement.= See APPENDIX, ARTICLES OF WAR, 60.
=Emblazonry.= See BLAZONRY.
=Emblee= (_Fr._). A prompt, sudden, and vigorous attack, which is made against the covert way and outworks of a fortified place.
=Embody.= To form or collect into a body or united mass; as, to embody troops.
=Embrasseur= (_Fr._). A piece of iron, which grasps the trunnions of a piece of ordnance, when it is raised upon the boring machine, to widen its caliber.
=Embrasure.= In fortification, is an opening in the parapet, or a hole in the mask wall of a casemate through which the guns are pointed. The _sole_ or bottom of the embrasure is from 2¹⁄₂ to 4 feet (according to the size of the gun) above the platform upon which the gun stands. Parapet embrasures are smallest at the interior opening, which is called the mouth, and is from 1¹⁄₂ to 2 feet wide. The widening of the embrasure is what is called the _splay_. The sole slopes downward about one in six. Its exterior line, or its intersection with the exterior slope, is usually made half the length of the sole. The line which bisects the sole is called the _directrix_. The sides are called cheeks. The masses of earth between embrasures are called _merlons_. When the directrix makes an angle with the direction of the parapet, the embrasure is _oblique_. The embrasures of casemates have in horizontal section a shape something like an hour-glass. The nearest part is called the throat. This is sometimes closed with iron shutters.
=Embrocher.= A vulgar term used among French soldiers to signify the act of running a man through the body; literally to _spit him_.
=Emery.= A powder made by grinding a mineral,--corundum,--used by soldiers for cleaning their arms.
=Eminence.= A high or rising ground, which overlooks and commands the low places about it. Such places, within cannon-shot of any fortified place, are a great disadvantage, if the besiegers become masters of them.
=Emir=, or =Emeer=. An Arabic word, equivalent to “ruler,” is a title given to all independent chieftains, and also to all the actual or supposed descendants of Mohammed through his daughter Fatima. In former times, the title of Emir was borne by the leaders in the religious wars of the Mohammedans, and by several ruling families.
=Emissary.= A person sent by any power that is at war with another, for the purpose of creating disaffection among the people of the latter.
=Emousser= (_Fr._). To blunt, to dull. In a military sense, it signifies to take off the four corners of a battalion, which has formed a square, and to give it, by those means, an octagon figure; from the different obtuse angles of which it may fire in all directions.
=Emperor= (_Imperator_). Among the ancient Romans, signified the general of an army, who, for some extraordinary success, had been complimented with this appellation. Subsequently it came to denominate an absolute monarch or supreme commander of an empire. In Europe, the first who bore the title was Charlemagne.
=Empilement= (_Fr._). From _empiler_, to pile up. The act of disposing shot and shell in the most secure and convenient manner. This generally occurs in arsenals and citadels.
=Emprise.= A hazardous attempt upon the enemy.
=Encamp.= To form and occupy a camp; to halt on a march, spread tents, and remain for a night or for a longer time; as, an army or company.
=Encampment.= The pitching of a camp. The act of pitching huts or tents, as by an army, for temporary lodging, or rest; the place where an army or company is encamped. There are _intrenched_ camps, where an army is intended to be kept some time, protected against the enemy; _flying_ camps, for brief occupation; camps of _position_, bearing relation to the strategy of the commander; and camps of _instruction_, to habituate the troops to the duties and fatigues of war.
=Enceinte.= In fortification, denotes generally the whole area of a fortified place. Properly, however, it means a cincture or girdle, and in this sense the _enceinte_ signifies the principal wall or rampart encircling the place, comprising the curtain and bastions, and having the main ditch immediately outside it.
=Encircle.= To pass around, as in a circle; to go or come round; as, the army encircled the city.
=Encombrer= (_Fr._). In fortification, to fill up any hollow place, such as a stagnant lake, etc., with rubbish.
=Encompass.= To describe a circle about; to go around; to encircle; to inclose; to environ; as, an army encompasses a city; a ship’s voyage encompasses the world.
=Encounter.= A meeting with hostile purpose; hence, a combat; a battle.
=Encounter.= To come against face to face; to engage in conflict with; to oppose; as, two armies encounter each other.
=Encounters.= In military affairs, are combats or fights between two persons only. Figuratively, battles or attacks by small or large armies.
=Encroachments.= The advancement of the troops of one nation on the rights or limits of another.
=Enemy.= In military language, the opposing force; as, “We have met the enemy, and they are ours.”
=Enfans Perdus.= Forlorn hope, in military history, are soldiers detached from several regiments, or otherwise appointed to give the first onset in battle, or in an attack upon the counterscarp, or the breach of a place besieged; so called (by the French) because of the imminent danger to which they are exposed.
=Enfield Rifle-musket.= The service arm of Great Britain prior to the adoption of breech-loaders; manufactured at Enfield, England, at the royal small-arms factories. It was first extensively introduced in 1853, and was used during the Crimean war. It had three grooves, with a twist of about one turn in 6 feet. Before the adoption of the Martini-Henry, large numbers of those guns were utilized by converting them into breech-loaders on the Snider principle. The Enfield rifles, though very serviceable weapons, much better than the Belgian and Austrian arms imported to the United States during the civil war, were in almost every respect inferior to the old Springfield (U. S.) rifle-musket, nearly of the same caliber (.58), the Enfield being .577. All those weapons have now given place to various breech-loading arms.
=Enfilade.= Is to fire in the direction of the length of a line of parapet or troops; to “rake it,” as the sailors say. In the siege of a fortress, the trenches of approach are cut in a zigzag, to prevent the defenders enfilading them from the walls.
=Enfilading Batteries.= In siege operations are one of the classes of batteries employed, the other classes being _counter_ and _breaching_ batteries. Enfilading batteries are located on the prolongation of the faces and flanks of the works besieged, to secure a raking fire along the terre-pleins.
=Engage.= To gain for service; to enlist.
=Engage.= To enter into conflict; to join battle; as, the armies engaged in a general battle.
=Engagement.= A general action or battle, whether by land or sea.
=Engarrison.= To protect any place by a garrison.
=Engen.= In Baden; here Moreau defeated the Austrians, May 3, 1800.
=Enghien=, or =Steenkirk=. In Southwestern Belgium. Here the British under William III. were defeated by the French under Marshal Luxemburg, July 24, 1692.