Part 51

=Hollow Square.= The form in which a body of foot is drawn up with an empty space in the middle for the colors, drums, baggage, etc. A body of troops formed into a square to resist the charge of cavalry on critical occasions.

=Hollow Tower.= A rounding made of the remainder of two brisures, to join the curtain to the orillon, where the small shot are placed, that they may not be so much exposed to the view of the enemy.

=Hollow Way.= Any pass or road, both sides of which are commanded by heights.

=Holstein.= An extensive duchy of Germany, formerly a dependency of Denmark. The king of Denmark had originally a seat at the German Diet on account of his Holstein possessions, but in 1806, on the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, this privilege was lost; but in 1815 he was admitted into the Germanic Confederation. In 1848 this duchy, with Schleswig, attempted to gain its independence; but, after some severe fighting, it was reduced to obedience in 1850. In 1863 the struggle was renewed; and, under the pretext of separating this duchy, together with that of Schleswig, from Denmark, and of annexing it to the Germanic Confederation, an allied Austrian and Prussian army invaded the country and drove out the Danes, after a short but desperate struggle. It was annexed to Prussia after the Prussian-Austrian war (1866), and now forms a part of the North German Confederation.

=Holsters.= Leathern cases for pistols, affixed to the pommel of the saddle. They are frequently covered with wool or fur, to prevent injury to the rider in the event of his being thrown forward upon them. They are also worn on a belt.

=Holstered.= Bearing holsters; as, a holstered steed.

=Holy Alliance.= A league formed after the fall of Napoleon by the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, nominally to regulate the relations of the states of Christendom by the principles of Christian charity, but really to preserve the power and influence of the existing dynasties. Most of the other European rulers acceded to it, and the treaty was made public February 2, 1816. A special article of the treaty excluded forever the members of the Bonaparte family from any European throne. But after the secession of England and France the alliance became practically obsolete.

=Holy Ghost, Order of the.= A Roman Catholic order consisting of hospital knights, which was founded in the 12th century, and ceased to exist as a knightly order in 1700.

=Holy Island=, or =Lindisfarne=. An island off the coast of Northumberland, 8 miles southeast from Berwick-on-Tweed, and is connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus or neck of sand. On the south of the island lies the town, and near it are the ruins of an old abbey which the Danes destroyed in 900.

=Holy League.= A name applied to several combinations of sovereigns or princes of Europe for warlike or defensive purposes. The first was organized in 1510 by the pope, Venice and Spain against Louis XII. of France. But the most important of all was _the holy league_, so called by way of eminence, which was organized at Perrone in 1576, and lasted till 1593, to prevent the accession of Henry IV. of France to the throne.

=Holy Sepulchre, Knights of the.= An order of knighthood instituted probably by Pope Alexander VI., for the guardianship of the Holy Sepulchre, and the relief and protection of pilgrims. The pope was originally the grand master, but he subsequently ceded his rights to the Guardian Father of the Holy Sepulchre. The knights must, by the rules of the order, be all of noble descent; they were bound to hear mass daily, to fight, to live, and to die for the Christian faith, etc. In return for these duties, the knights had the most unusual and extraordinary privileges conferred on them; they were exempt from taxation, could marry, and yet possess church property, legitimize bastards, cut down and bury the bodies of criminals who had been hanged. On the recapture of Jerusalem by the Turks, the knights retired to Italy, and settled at Perugia. After a temporary union with the Hospitallers, the order was reconstructed in 1814 both in France and in Poland, and is still in existence within a very small circle of knights elected by the Guardian Father from the most respectable pilgrims who come to Jerusalem.

=Holy Wars.= See CRUSADE.

=Homelden.= In Northumberland, England, where the Scots, headed by the Earl of Douglas, were defeated by the Percies (among them Hotspur), September 14, 1402.

=Home-service.= Consists in military operations and arrangements for the immediate defense of our own country, should it be threatened by invasion, or by domestic broils or insurrections.

=Homme d’Armes= (_Fr._). A military phrase among the French, signifying a gentleman or cavalier who belonged to one of the old companies, was armed _cap-a-pie_, and always fought on horseback. In ancient times, every man of this description was accompanied by two horsemen independent of his servants. One of the mounted attendants was armed with a cross-bow, and the other with a common bow or battle-axe; so that 100 _hommes d’armes_ composed a body of 300 horse. It was a species of cavalry which existed from the reign of Louis XI. until the reign of Henry II.

=Honduras.= A republican state of the confederation of Central America; being bounded north by the Caribbean Sea and Bay of Honduras, southeast by the Mosquito Territory and Nicaragua, south by San Salvador and the Bay of Conchagua, on the Pacific, and west by Guatemala.

=Honeycomb.= A defect in guns resembling the cells of wax in which the bee stores her honey. These flaws in the metal arise either from careless or imperfect casting, or from long disuse of a gun and exposure to damp. A honeycombed gun is liable to burst in firing.

=Hong-Kong.= An island off the coast of China; was taken by Capt. Elliott, August 23, 1839, and ceded to Great Britain, January 20, 1841.

=Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense= (_Fr._). See GARTER, ORDER OF THE.

=Honor.= In a general acceptation may be properly called a consciousness of worth and virtue in the individual, and a lively desire to preserve the reputation of virtue. As a term, it is variously used in military life. As a quality of the mind, it cannot be too much encouraged or too much cultivated among military men of all ranks and descriptions. The possession of it is a guarantee for good conduct, a bond of fidelity, and a certain barrier against military corruption. Men are excited to deeds of valor and enterprise by a sense of honor, who would otherwise remain inactive, or only perform the mere drudgery of service. This term may likewise be considered as esteem, reputation, the glory which is attached by mankind to talents and virtues.

=Honor, Affair of.= A transaction connected with a duel, or a challenge to fight a duel; a duel itself.

=Honor, Court of.= Is a species of board of inquiry, which has not only the power of ascertaining the degree of guilt which may be attached to misconduct, but of pronouncing an opinion which may or may not entail ignominy upon the guilty persons. See COURT OF HONOR.

=Honor, Debt of.= An obligation which among honorable men, especially officers, is more binding than those engagements or contracts that are guaranteed by law. The reason is manifest.

=Honor, Point of.= A nice discrimination in matters affecting one’s honor. A delicacy of feeling, which is generally acquired by education, and strengthened by intercourse with men of strict integrity and good conduct. It is likewise very frequently the offspring of peculiar habits, received notions, and established etiquettes; also, a minute distinction; a punctilio.

=Honor, Signatures upon.= Are instruments, such as declarations of officers on vouchers for allowances, pay, etc., that are guaranteed by the names of individuals, without oath.

=Honor, Word of.= A promise or engagement that is made or entered into by word of mouth, the breach of which entails disgrace upon the violator. _To die upon the bed of honor_, is a term particularly applied to military men, who die in battle fighting in their country’s cause.

=Honors of War.= A compliment granted on capitulation to a garrison which has made a gallant defense. The exact nature of the honors accorded have varied in different ages and on different occasions. Ordinarily they are as follows: The garrison marches out through the gap in the breach, if there is one, with arms and personal baggage. The drums beat, the colors fly, officers carry their swords drawn, and the men their bayonets fixed. A certain number of guns--ordinarily two--accompany the force, and formerly the gunners carried lighted matches. On reaching the glacis the garrison--unless it is one of the stipulations that it is to join the main army--forms up and grounds arms, only the officers retaining their swords, and is marched off under escort.

=Honvéd.= The name given in Hungary under the earlier kings to the national champions. With the disappearance of these, the word too disappeared; but in the summer of 1848 it was revived, and applied first to those Hungarian volunteers dispatched to the south against the Servians, and subsequently, when the war with Austria really commenced, to the whole patriotic army. Still, in common parlance, the term honvéd is used only with reference to the Hungarian infantry.

=Hood= (Sp. _tapadera_). A leather cover for the stirrup of a saddle.

=Hooghly.= A town of Bengal, and the capital of a district of the same name, situated on the west hank of the Hooghly River, 27 miles north from Calcutta. This place is supposed to have been founded by the Portuguese about 1538, and after their expulsion in 1632 by the Mogul troops, it became the imperial port of the Mogul empire. In 1757 it was taken by the British; it was retaken shortly after by Surajah Dowlah, but ultimately fell, after a few months, into the hands of the British under Lord Clive.

=Hooks.= Pieces of bent iron fixed to the transom plates of a field-carriage are so called. They serve to fix the bricoles or ropes for drawing it occasionally backwards or forwards.

=Hookum.= An Indian word, signifying order or command.

=Hookummaumeh.= In India, signifies a letter of instructions, or the paper that contains orders.

=Hoplital= (Fr. _hoplites_). Foot-soldiers among the Greeks, who bore heavy armor, and engaged with broad shields and long spears. These took precedence of all other foot-soldiers.

=Horde.= A wandering troop or gang; especially a clan or tribe of a nomadic people possessing no fixed habitations, but migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, or the like cause.

=Hordearium.= The money which the Romans gave their cavalry for the sustenance of their horses.

=Horion= (_Fr._). A term which formerly signified a helmet, and which in the vulgar acceptation of it now, among the French, means a blow upon the head.

=Horizon= (Gr. _orizo_, I bound or terminate). In astronomy and geography, is the plane of the great circle of the sphere, dividing the visible from the invisible hemisphere. The horizon is either _sensible_ or _rational_. The sensible horizon is a plane which is a tangent to the earth’s surface at the place of the spectator, extended on all sides till it is bounded by the sky; the rational horizon is a plane parallel to the former, but passing through the centre of the earth. Both the sensible and rational horizon are relative terms, and change with every change of the spectator’s position on the surface of the earth; in all cases they are perpendicular to the direction of gravity.

=Horizontal Fire.= The fire of guns and howitzers under low angles of elevation.

=Horizontal Plane.= That which is parallel to the horizon; a plane tangent to the surface of the earth, at the place.

=Horizontal Range.= In gunnery, is the distance to which a piece of ordnance will project a ball on a horizontal plane. Supposing no resistance from the atmosphere, the greatest range would be when the piece is elevated at an angle of 45°; and in all other positions the horizontal range would be as the sine of twice the angle of elevation. In a resisting medium the maximum horizontal range requires the elevation to be less than 45°. It is found by experience that, with the ordinary velocity, a cannon-shot ranges the farthest when the elevation of the piece is about 30°.

=Hornwork.= A kind of work in advance of a fortification, akin to a crown-work, but consisting of only one curtain and two half-bastions.

=Hors de Combat.= A French military phrase, signifying that an individual or body of men are so completely beaten as not to be able to maintain the field of battle. _Mettre hors de combat_, to drive your opponent before you; to press him so closely that he cannot make a stand against you; to put him out of the lists of contests. To be wounded or incapable of individual effort, is also being _hors de combat_.

=Horse.= A military term for a body of cavalry.

=Horse Artillery.= Is that portion of the artillery which usually serves with cavalry, and in which the cannoneers are mounted on horseback, to enable them to conform with the rapid movements of that arm of the service. Possessing, from their lighter construction and mounted detachments, much greater locomotive powers than other field-batteries, they are especially adapted for following the rapid evolutions of cavalry, for sudden attacks upon particular points, and for supporting the advance, or covering the retreat of an army.

=Horse, Associated.= A body of cavalry so called in the days of Cromwell. At the famous battle of Naseby (June 14, 1645), which decided the fate of Charles I., the Associated Horse were posted in the rear of the right wing of the Republican army, and formed a part of the reserve. Cromwell commanded the cavalry on the right of the whole, and the Associated Horse were under his immediate orders.

=Horse, Cavalry and Artillery.= Horses generally make in a minute, at ordinary pace, 120 steps, and they cover 110 yards; at a trot, 180 steps, covering 220 yards; and at a gallop, 100 steps or strides, covering 352 yards; from which it would appear that the length of the stride at the ordinary pace is about 0.917 yard, and that the velocity corresponds to about 1.74 yards per second; and at a trot the stride is about 1.28 yards and the speed about 3.68 yards per second; and at a gallop the stride is about 3.52 yards, with a speed of about 5.87 yards per second. A good horse carrying a weight of 225 pounds, can travel, without over-exertion, 25 miles in a day of from seven to eight hours; his speed in this case would be between 1.75 and 1.53 yards per second. The weight of an average-sized horse is about from 900 to 1350 pounds. The age of the horse is determined by the appearance of the teeth, which vary according to the number of years the animal has attained, and may be easily understood by a slight attention to the subject; the number, quality, and size of the teeth indicating the respective ages. The lower front teeth or nippers are those by which the age of a colt is usually determined. At two years old these teeth will be complete; that is to say, the colt will have a full set, six in number, of milch-teeth. Between two and three years old the two centre teeth are displaced, and two permanent teeth succeed them, easily distinguished from colt’s teeth by being broader, larger, and having a dark cavity in the centre of the upper surface. At three years old the colt will have in the lower jaw two permanent and four colt’s teeth; between the third and fourth year the next pair of incisor teeth will be shed, and permanent teeth succeed them. At four years old there will be four permanent teeth in the centre, and two colt’s teeth at each corner of the lower jaw. Between the fourth and fifth year the last remaining colt’s nipper, or corner tooth, will be cast; and, if a horse or gelding, the tushes, four in number, will show themselves, two in the upper and two in the lower jaw. At five years old the horse will have a full or complete set of permanent teeth in the upper and lower jaws; for the same change that takes place in the lower is developed in the upper jaw also. The colt at this age takes the name of horse, and is supposed to be equal to all the laborious duties expected from him. Although we can no longer judge of his age by the shifting or shedding of his teeth, we can form a tolerably correct conclusion from other appearances of them. At six years old the dark oval-shaped mark in the centre of the two front nippers, usually called by horsemen “the bean,” will be nearly or quite worn away; the tushes higher and stronger, and the cavities of the interior part of the tooth more filled; the two corner nippers level with the others, and equally developed. At seven years old the marks in the second pair of nippers are filled up, and the tushes become more round externally and internally. At eight years old the marks in the corner nippers are worn out, and the tushes more round and blunt. From this age the animal is said to be, in horse phraseology, “past knowledge”; and although a tolerably correct opinion may be formed for many years to come by the appearance of the upper jaw and other prognostics, still they cannot be implicitly relied on. It often occurs at a much earlier period that the best judges of age are deceived by the untimely structural alteration of the teeth, produced by mechanical or pathological causes, such as crib-biting, biting the rack or manger, eating hard food, etc. Horses used for cavalry in the United States are selected with regard to climate, the American horse east of the Rocky Mountains, and what is known as the Mexican or _bronco_, west of the Rocky Mountains; the power of endurance of the latter being much more than that of the former, they are better adapted to the rugged, arid country that an American cavalry soldier has to travel over on the western frontier. For artillery large, strong American horses are used. A horse occupies a space in the ranks of a front of 40 inches, a depth of 10 feet; in a stall, from 3¹⁄₂ to 4¹⁄₂ feet front; at picket 3 feet by 9. Cavalry horses usually charge at the rate of 24 miles per hour, or one mile in 2¹⁄₂ minutes. See PACK AND DRAUGHT HORSES.

=Horse Guards.= The name was applied to a large public office in Whitehall, London, appropriated to the departments under the general-commanding-in-chief, and guarded by a squadron of Horse Guards. In 1871 the headquarters were removed to Pall Mall.

=Horse Guards, Royal= (Oxford Blues). Is the third heavy cavalry regiment of the Household Brigade (English). The regiment was raised in 1661 from the remnants of the disbanded army of the late Commonwealth. It took part in Marlborough’s campaigns; served under the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, and has always been considered one of the finest heavy cavalry corps in the world.

=Horseman.= A mounted soldier.

=Horsemanship.= The act or art of riding, and of training and managing horses; manege.

=Horse-power.= A measure for the quantity of work of which an engine or motor is capable in a given time. It is 33,000 foot-pounds in one minute.

=Horse-shoe.= In fortification, is a small round or oval work, with a parapet; generally made in a ditch, or marsh.

=Horse-tail.= A Turkish standard. Commanders are distinguished by the number of horse-tails carried before them, or planted in front of their tents. Thus, the sultan has seven, the grand vizier five, and the pashas three, two, or one.

=Hospital.= A place appointed for the sick and wounded men, provided with physicians, surgeons, nurses, servants, medicines, beds, etc.

=Hospital, Field.= Is the staff and apparatus for the surgical treatment of the wounded in the field, and the locality assigned for the resort of the latter to obtain it. In the United States there is a hospital at every military post, under the superintendence of the army medical department.

=Hospital, Regimental.= In Great Britain, each regiment has a hospital for the reception of the sick belonging to it. This hospital is under the immediate care of the regimental surgeon, who is subordinate to the general medical board.

=Hospital Steward.= In the U. S. service, is a non-commissioned officer of the general staff, whose duty consists in making up prescriptions, administering medicines, and in a general supervision of the sick, under the instructions of an army medical officer.

=Hospital Tent.= A large tent used for hospital purposes. See TENT.

=Hospitallers.= A celebrated brotherhood founded at various times and in different countries for the care of the sick in hospitals. The vow to devote themselves to this work of mercy is, in all these brotherhoods, superadded to the ordinary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, which are common to all the religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church. One of the earliest recorded instances of a hospital served by such a brotherhood is that of Constance, in the 13th century. See SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM and TEUTONIC KNIGHTS.

=Hospodar.= A title borne by the governors of Wallachia and Moldavia, under the Turks. Although nominated by the porte, they possessed absolute power within their own dominions. By the treaty of Adrianople in 1829, the principalities were placed under Russian protection, and from that time till the treaty of Paris in 1856, the hospodars were virtually the nominees of Russia.

=Host.= An army; any large body of men assembled together in arms.

=Hostages.= Are persons given in pledge for the performance of conditions. When a town capitulates, victors and vanquished usually give into the custody, one of the other, several officers, as pledges that each party will duly carry out the terms stipulated. When the terms are fulfilled, the hostages are exchanged; but if the terms be evaded, the opposite side holds the right to put to death, or otherwise punish, the hostages in its possession; of late years the practice is going out of use.

=Hostile.= Belonging to an enemy; appropriate to an enemy; showing ill-will and malevolence, or a desire to thwart and injure; occupied by an enemy or a hostile people; inimical; unfriendly; as, a hostile force, hostile country, etc.

=Hostilities.= A rupture between the natives of different countries. The first hostile act that is committed by either party is considered the commencement of hostilities. Between nations, the first act of hostility presupposes a declaration of war.

=Hosting.= An encounter; a battle. A muster or review. This term is now obsolete.