Part 66

=Louisburg.= A famous fortress built by the French soon after the peace of Utrecht (1713) upon the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island. Since the existence of so strong a place threatened the colonial and English fisheries, it was determined in 1745 by the Legislature of Massachusetts Bay (France and Great Britain being then at war) to strike a blow at the town. Accordingly, a force of colonists consisting of 3250 Massachusetts militia, aided by 516 men from Connecticut and 304 from New Hampshire, set sail in 100 vessels, and landed near the town, April 30, 1745. An active but irregular siege (though the men were without tents and the proper means of conducting such operations) was terminated June 17, 1745, by the capitulation of the French under Duchambon. But the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) gave back all Cape Breton to France. The town was invested in 1758 by Gen. Amherst with 14,000 British troops, 20 line ships, 18 frigates and other vessels. After a tremendous bombardment, which quite destroyed the town, and breached the walls badly, the garrison and French fleet surrendered July 26, 1758. The English overthrew the fortifications at an expense of $50,000. The first cost was one hundred times that sum.

=Louisiana.= One of the Southern or Gulf States of the United States, lying between Arkansas and Mississippi on the north and east, the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and Texas on the west. The country was visited by La Salle, and the mouth of the Mississippi discovered in 1691, and though Iberville attempted to found a colony in 1699, his efforts were not successful. The country was transferred to Spain by France in 1762; restored to France in 1800; and purchased by the United States in 1803. That part of the Territory now known as the State of that name was admitted into the Union in 1812, and was within three years afterwards the scene of the great battle of New Orleans, fought January 8, 1815, between the British troops under Gen. Pakenham, and the Americans under Gen. Jackson, in which the former were defeated with great loss. The State seceded, and was the theatre of many important events during the civil war (1861-65).

=Loup des Anciens= (_Fr._). Was an iron instrument, made in the shape of a tenaille, by means of which they grappled the battering-rams, and broke them in the middle.

=Louviers.= A town of France, in the department of the Eure, situated on the Eure. It was sacked both by Edward III. and Henry V. of England.

=Lover’s War.= In French history, a name given to a civil war in the year 1580, during the reign of Henry IV. It was so called because it arose from the jealousies and rivalries of the leaders, who were invited to meet at the palace of the queen-mother.

=Loyalist.= A person who adheres to his sovereign, or to the constituted authority; especially one who maintains his allegiance to his prince or government, and defends his cause in times of revolt.

=Lozenge.= In heraldry, a charge generally enumerated among the sub-ordinaries, in the shape of a rhombus placed with the acute angles at top and bottom. The horizontal diameter must be at least equal to the sides, otherwise it is not a lozenge, but a _fusil_. The term _lozengy_ is applied to a field divided by diagonal lines crossing one another at regular intervals, so as to form a diamond pattern, the compartments being of alternate tinctures.

=Lubeck.= One of the three cities of the German empire, situated on the river Trave, about 14 miles from the Baltic. Lubeck has existed since the 11th century, and received important privileges from the German emperors in the 12th century, which were confirmed by the Danes, into whose power it fell in 1201. It was declared a free city of the empire in 1226, and thereafter maintained its independence against the Danes, and joined the other towns in the great Hanseatic League (which see). With the decline of the Hanseatic League, it lost its historic importance, but continued to flourish as an independent city, till it was taken and plundered by the French, November 6, 1806. In 1810 it was incorporated with the French empire, and in 1813 the Russians compelled the French to deliver it to its rightful owners; but the French again occupied it, until it was liberated by Sweden. In 1871 it was annexed to the German empire.

=Lubny=, or =Lubnu=. A town of European Russia, government of Poltava, or Pultowa, on the Sulla. Charles XII. of Sweden besieged this place for a considerable time, but he did not succeed in taking it.

=Lubricant.= A greasy substance or mixture of substances placed on the surface or in the cannelures of bullets to lessen friction in the bore. Bayberry tallow, beeswax, Japan wax, stearine, graphite, soapstone, etc., are some of the substances used.

=Lucanians.= A warlike people of Southern Italy; defeated Alexander of Epirus at Pandosia, 332 B.C.; were subdued by the Romans, 227; revolted after the battle of Cannæ, 216; were reduced by Scipio, 201; again revolted, 90; admitted as Roman citizens in 88.

=Luceria= (now _Lucera_). Sometimes called Nuceria, a town in Apulia, on the borders of Samnium. In the war between Rome and Samnium, it was taken by the Samnites, 321 B.C., and next by the Romans, 319; but having revolted to the Samnites in 314, all the inhabitants were massacred by the Romans, and their place supplied by Roman colonists.

=Lucknow= (Hind. _Laksmanavate_). A city of British India, capital of Oude, situated on the right bank of the Goomty, 610 miles from Calcutta. In 1857, during the Indian mutiny, this place was besieged by the rebels, but was bravely defended by the troops under Sir Henry Lawrence, and afterwards by Gens. Outram and Havelock. The long-suffering troops and English residents were finally relieved by Sir Colin Campbell, who then effected one of the most masterly retreats on record in the annals of Indian warfare. The British regained possession of it in 1858.

=Lucon.= A town of France, in the department of Vendée, situated on the edge of a marshy plain. The Republicans sustained a defeat under the walls of Lucon in 1703, and the insurgent Vendeans besieged the place some months afterwards, but without success.

=Ludlow.= A municipal and Parliamentary borough of England, in the county of Salop, at the confluence of the Corve and Teme. The castle, now a magnificent ruin, was at one time one of the most important strongholds against the Welsh.

=Lugo.= A town of Italy, in the province of Ravenna. It was sacked and nearly destroyed by the French in 1796.

=Lugs.= The ears of a bombshell, to which the hooks are applied in lifting it.

=Luncarty.= A village of Scotland, 4 miles north from Perth, where the Danes were defeated in 990 by Kenneth III.

=Lundy’s Lane, Battle of.= Called also the battle of Niagara, and of Bridgewater, was fought on the Canadian frontier within sight and hearing of the Falls, July 25, 1814. In this contest the American troops, numbering about 4500, commanded by Gen. Brown, succeeded, after a display of desperate valor and perseverance, in repulsing about midnight a body of 7000 British, and capturing one of their generals, Riall, and 7 pieces of cannon. The losses on both sides were nearly equal (about 850 killed, wounded, and missing). During the night the Americans fell back to Chippewa, being unable to convey their trophies with them for want of means of transportation, and in the morning when they advanced to Bridgewater Mills they found the enemy again occupying the battle-ground, in possession of their captured cannon, and having been reinforced too strong to be again dislodged. The Americans thus lost all the substantial fruits of the victory.

=Lunge= (a corruption of _allonge_). A pass or thrust with a sword; a shove with a boarding-pike.

=Lunette.= A field-work consisting of two faces forming a salient angle, or one projecting towards the enemy, and two flanks parallel, or nearly so, to the capital or imaginary line bisecting the salient angle. In shape it is like the gable end of a house. It is intended for the defense of avenues, farm-houses, bridges, and the curtains of field-works.

=Lunette.= An iron ring at the end of the trail of a field-piece, which is placed over the pintle-hook of the limber in limbering up the gun. The term is also applied to the hole through an iron plate on the under side of the stock of a siege-piece, into which the pintle of the limber passes when the piece is limbered.

=Lunettons.= A smaller sort of lunettes.

=Lunéville.= A well-built town of France, in the department of the Meurthe. The palace was for many years the residence of Stanislas, king of Poland. The first treaty of Austria and the French republic was signed in this town in 1801.

=Lunge.= In fencing and bayonet exercise, an extended thrust.

=Lunt.= The match-cord used for firing cannon.

=Lusitania.= A district of ancient Hispania, considered in its original meaning as the country of the Lusitani. It now comprises Portugal south of the river Douro, and a large number of provinces in Spain. The Lusitanians, especially those that inhabited the mountains, were much addicted to plunder, were the bravest of all the Iberians, and offered most resistance to the Romans.

=Lustration= (Lat. _lustratio_). Sacrifices or ceremonies by which the ancients purified their cities, fields, armies, or people, defiled by any crime or impurity. There were several ways of performing lustration, viz., by fire, by sulphur, by water, and by air. The Roman people underwent a lustration in the Campus Martius, after the census, which was taken every five years (_lustrum_), had been completed. In the armies, some chosen soldiers, crowned with laurel, led the victims--a cow, a sheep, and a bull--thrice round the army ranged in battle-array in the field of Mars, to which deity the victims were subsequently sacrificed, after many imprecations had been invoked upon the enemies of the Romans. The Gothic kings abolished these ceremonies when they became masters of Rome.

=Lutter.= A town of Germany, 23 miles southwest from Brunswick, in the Hartz district. Christian IV., king of Denmark, was defeated near this town by Tilly in 1626.

=Lutzen.= A small town of Prussia, province of Saxony, famous for two great battles fought in its vicinity. The first took place on November 16, 1632, between the Swedish army under Gustavus Adolphus and the Imperialists under Wallenstein; Gustavus Adolphus was killed, but the victory was gained by the Swedes. The second great battle was fought on May 2, 1813, somewhat farther to the south, at the village of Groszgörschen. It was the first great conflict of the united Russian and Prussian armies with the army of Napoleon in that decisive campaign. The allies gained at first great successes; but the French were left in possession of the field at the close of the day.

=Luxemburg.= The capital of the grand duchy of Luxemburg, situated on the Else, or Alzette. The Spaniards, Austrians, French, and Dutch, who successively held possession of the town, so increased and strengthened its fortifications that in the beginning of the 19th century it was considered to be, with the exception of Gibraltar, the strongest fortress in Europe. In 1867 it was declared neutral ground.

=Lycaniens= (_Fr._). Hungarian light infantry are so called.

=Lydda.= An ancient town of Palestine, which stood in the fertile plain of Sharon, about 9 miles from Joppa. It was rebuilt by Hadrian, and its name changed to _Diosopolis_, “the city of Zeus.” It was destroyed by a Mongol tribe in 1271. The modern village of Ludd occupies its site.

=Lyers, Out-=. See OUT-LYERS.

=Lying.= To be actually stationed or quartered in a given place. _In-lying_ and _out-lying pickets_. See PICKET.

=Lying Out of Quarters.= See APPENDIX, ARTICLES OF WAR, 31.

=Lyman Gun.= See MULTI-CHARGE GUNS.

=Lyon=, or =Lord Lyon King-at-Arms=. The chief heraldic officer for Scotland, whose title is derived from the lion rampant in the royal escutcheon. The Scottish king-at-arms has, unlike his brother-kings of England, from an early period exercised jurisdiction independently of the constable and marshal, holding office directly from the sovereign by commission under the Great Seal. In early times he was occasionally designated the _Lord_ Lyon; but the now prevalent custom of so calling him seems to have arisen from the circumstance that, since 1796, the office has been held by a peer. According to Nesbet, the Lyon has precedence of all knights and gentlemen not being officers of state, or senators of the College of Justice. Since the Union, he has ranked next to Garter; Clarencieux and Norroy follow; then Ulster; but it has sometimes been maintained that within Ireland, Ulster has place next after Lyon. The Lyon is king-at-arms to the order of the Thistle.

=Lyons=, or =Lyon= (anc. _Lugdunum_). A city of France, capital of the department of the Rhône, situated at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône. A Roman colony is said to have been established here in 43 B.C. The city was destroyed by fire in the time of Seneca, but was shortly after restored by Nero to its former splendor. It was plundered and again burnt by the soldiers of Septimius Severus, after the defeat of Albinus near it in 197 A.D. In 1793, the city having refused to submit to the Convention, sustained a memorable siege from August 8 to October 9, on which date it was taken, and suffered severely at the hands of the republicans.

M.

=McAllister, Fort.= A formidable casemated earthwork, with bombproofs, mounting 9 guns, on Genesis Point, about 6 miles above the mouth of Great Ogeechee River, Georgia, which was erected by the Confederates during the civil war. On January 27, 1863, it was attacked by the ironclad “Montauk,” under the command of Capt. John L. Worden, three gunboats, and a mortar-schooner; but after a bombardment of many hours’ duration, they failed to reduce it. Another attack was made with like results on February 1, the “Montauk” again participating in it. A third attack was made on March 3, and after a bombardment of eight hours by a fleet of ironclad monitors and mortar-schooners, under the command of Capt. Drayton, they again failed to reduce it. After the naval attacks the fort received additions in armament and garrison, and in 1864 comprised three half-bastions and two curtains, mounted 21 guns, several of which were 8-inch and 10-inch pieces, and was garrisoned by 250 men. On December 13, 1864, it was taken by assault by a division of Gen. Sherman’s army under Gen. Hazen, and its entire garrison and stores captured. Communication by water being thus opened, the capture of Savannah followed on December 21.

=Macadamized.= A term applied to roads covered with broken stone,--from McAdam, a Scotch engineer, who first introduced this method of road-making.

=Macana.= The war-club of the South American Indians.

=Macassar=, or =Mankasser=. The chief settlement of the Dutch in the island of Celebes, and is defended by Fort Rotterdam. In 1810 it surrendered to the British, but was restored to the Dutch in 1814.

=Maccabees.= A family of patriotic Jews, who commenced their career during the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, 167 B.C., when Mattathias, a priest, resisted the tyranny of the governor. His son, Judas Maccabæus, defeated the Syrians in three battles, 166 and 165 B.C., but fell in an ambush, 161 B.C. His brother Jonathan made a league with the Romans and Lacedæmonians, and after an able administration was treacherously killed at Ptolemais by Tryphon, 143 B.C. His brother and successor, Simon, was also murdered. The history of the Maccabees is contained in five books bearing that name.

=Mace.= A strong, short, wooden staff, with a spiked metal ball for a head. It was a favorite weapon with knights, with the cavalry immediately succeeding them, and at all times with fighting priests, whom a canon of the church forbade to wield the sword. No armor could resist the force of a well-delivered blow from the mace. The mace is now borne before magistrates as an ensign of authority.

=Macedonia.= Anciently the name of a country lying north of Thessaly, which was originally of small extent. The history of Macedonia is involved in much obscurity till about 490 B.C., when the Persians subdued it, so that the Macedonian king, Alexander I., was compelled to take part with Xerxes in his invasion of Greece. It again regained its independence upon the retreat of the Persians after the battle of Platæa in 479 B.C. After a period of civil wars Philip II. ascended the throne in 359 B.C., and his son Alexander III., surnamed Alexander the Great, brought half the then known world under his empire; but after his death the Macedonian empire was broken up, and, at the end of a period of twenty-two years of incessant wars, formed into four principal kingdoms under his greatest generals. Macedonia itself fell to the lot of Antipater, after whose death ensued another period of civil wars and contests for the throne. The Macedonians were defeated by the Romans in the great battle of Cynocephalæ, 197 B.C., and their country became subject to the Roman power. After the time of Constantine the country was ravaged by Slavic tribes, and by the 7th century the old semi-Greek Macedonians were extinct, and in the latter ages of the Byzantine empire their place was supplied by colonies from Asia, many of them of Turkish descent.

=Macedonian Pike=, or =Sarissa=. A spear or lance of great length used in warfare by the Greeks.

=Macerata.= A town of Central Italy, in a province (formerly a delegation) of the same name, situated on an eminence between the rivers Potenza and Chienti, 21 miles southwest of Ancona. The place was taken by assault and sacked by the French, in 1799.

=Machete= (_Sp._). A large, heavy knife resembling a broadsword, often 2 or 3 feet in length, used by the inhabitants of Spanish America as a hatchet, to cut their way through thickets, and for various other purposes.

=Machicolation.= The act of hurling missiles or pouring various burning or melted substances upon assailants through machicolations.

=Machicolations.= The apertures between the corbels or brackets supporting a projecting parapet; the term is applied also to the parapets. The apertures are for the purpose of allowing projectiles to be hurled at an enemy when he approaches near the wall, as in scaling, undermining, etc. Such defenses are very common in castellated architecture, especially over gateways, towers, etc.

=Machicoulis.= The same as machicolation.

=Machine Guns.= See BATTERY GUNS.

=Machine, Infernal.= This term has been applied to various deadly contrivances, for instance, to the battery gun with which the attempt to assassinate Louis Philippe was made, as well as to the devices used on similar historical occasions; also to the fire-ship used by the English at St. Malo. This was a three-decker charged with powder on the first deck; shells, carcasses, etc., on the second; and with barrels filled with combustibles on the third; the gun-deck was covered with old guns overloaded. It was intended to destroy ships, bridges, etc.

=Machines, Artillery.= See IMPLEMENTS.

=Machines of War, Ancient.= Under this head is comprehended every kind of machine or engine made use of before the invention of gunpowder, for overthrowing, destroying, and burning the defenses of an enemy. They were of three kinds,--the first for projecting arrows, darts, stones, javelins, and fire-arrows; the second for battering and breaching walls, etc.; and the third for covering the troops thus engaged. They are as follows:

_Muscule_, _arbalest_, _ballista_, _belfry_, _belier_. (See appropriate headings.)

_Bricole_, machine for projecting quarrels or darts.

_Carreau_, _catapulta_ (which see).

_Chat_, or cat, a covered shed, occasionally fixed on wheels, for protecting soldiers employed in filling up the ditch, preparing the way for the helepole, or wooden tower, or for mining the wall.

_Chat echine_, prickly cat, beam bristling with oaken teeth, for the defense of a town, by being let down on the besiegers.

_Corbeau_, long pole armed with a strong iron harpoon or scythe at one end, suspended in a frame placed on a cart; by manœuvring the other end they tore away the machines with which the besieged endeavored to seize the head of the battering-ram.

_Corbeau à griffe_, pole with strong nippers or pincers, with which any object was seized and lifted up, and afterwards broken, if possible.

_Couillard_, _clide_, _jauclide_, machine for throwing stones.

_Cranequin_, large stirruped cross-bow or latch. (See ARBALEST.)

_Espringal_, _falarique_, _harpe_ (which see).

_Frondibale_, long beam moving in a vertical plane between two uprights on an axle (not in the middle); the longer arm was provided with a bag or case containing stones, and sometimes a sling; the other was heavily loaded, the beam being placed horizontally, and suddenly disengaged; the weight on the shorter limb forced up the other, and projected the stones forward.

_Helepole._ (See HELEPOLIS.)

_Herse._ (See HERSE.)

_Hourdeis_, hurdles employed by the besieged to protect their walls from the machines of the enemy.

_Lyonnois_, machine for defending a breach, with a head like a treble _fleur-de-lis_ on wheels.

_Mangona_, machine similar to the ballista, generic term signifying all kinds of machines.

_Mangonel_, diminutive of the above, applied to small machines.

For the following machines of war, see appropriate headings: MANTELET, MANUBALLISTE, MATAFUNDA, MATE-GRIFFON, MUCHETTÆ, ONAGRE, PLUTEUS, POLIBOLE, RIBAUDEQUIN, SAMBUQUE, SCORPION, TARIÈRE, TESTUDE, TOLENON, TREBUCHET, TREPIED, VIGNE, VIRETON.

=Maciejovice.= Near Warsaw, Poland. Here the Poles were totally defeated, and their general, Kosciusko, taken prisoner, October 10, 1794, after a murderous action. Kosciusko strenuously endeavored to prevent the junction of the Russian and the Austrian armies.

=Mackay Gun.= This gun is made of wrought iron, and distinguished from the Whitworth and Lancaster guns by the following characteristics: The Whitworth has a hexagonal bore in a tube of homogeneous iron, strengthened with hoops forced on by hydraulic pressure; the Lancaster is without grooves, but the bore is oval; the Mackay has numerous grooves, but the projectile does not, as in other guns, fit into them, its rotation being imparted by the rush of gases through the spiral grooves around it. In every case the groove or oval takes one turn, or portion of a turn, within the gun.

=Mackinaw=, or =Mackinac=. Formerly called Michilimackinac, “the great turtle.” A town and fort on an island of the same name in Lake Huron, about 320 miles by water north-northwest of Detroit, Mich. It fell into the hands of the English on the conquest of Canada from the French; but the Indians in its neighborhood remained hostile to their new masters. The fort was captured by a ruse, and the inhabitants massacred by the Chippewas under Pontiac, June 4, 1763. It was again garrisoned by the British in the following year. The island came into possession of the United States in 1796, and was captured by the British and Indians July 17, 1812. The Americans attempted its recapture, August 14, 1814, but without success.

=Macrones=. A powerful and warlike Caucasian people on the northeastern shore of the Pontus Euxinus.

=Madagascar.= An island of the Indian Ocean, situated at some distance from the east coast of Africa, being separated from that continent by the channel of Mozambique. The French formed several settlements in different parts of the island in 1665, but they were repeatedly driven out by the natives. The English were also driven out of the island in 1836, and the old system of Fetichism was restored. Madagascar is at present governed by Ranavalona, a Christian.

=Made.= A professional term for having obtained a commission, or being promoted.