the office at which all business relating to the Barrack department is transacted.
BARRELS, in military affairs, are of various kinds.
Fire-Barrels are of different sorts: some are mounted on wheels, filled with composition and intermixed with loaded grenades, and the outside full of sharp spikes: some are placed under ground, which have the effect of small mines: others are used to roll down a breach, to prevent the enemy’s entrance.—Composition, corned powder 30lb. Swedish pitch 12, saltpetre 6, and tallow 3. Not used now.
Thundering-Barrels are for the same purpose, filled with various kinds of combustibles, intermixed with small shells, grenades, and other fire-works. Not used now.
Powder-Barrels are about 16 inches diameter, and 30 or 32 inches long, holding 100 pounds of powder.
Barrels for powder—Their dimensions.
The whole barrels are made to contain 100 pounds, and the half barrels 50 pounds of powder; but of late only 90 pounds have been put into the barrels, and 45 into the half barrels; which, by leaving the powder room to be shifted, preserves it the better.
Budge Barrels, hold from 40 to 60 pounds of powder; at one end is fixed a leather bag with brass nails: they are used in actual service on the batteries, to keep the powder from firing by accident, for loading the guns and mortars.
Budge-Barrels contain 38 lbs.
Weight of barrel—copper hooped—10 lbs.
Weight of barrel—hazle hooped—6lbs.
Length of barrel—hazle hooped—10¹⁄₂ inches.
Diameter of barrel—hazle hooped—1 foot 1 inch.
BARRICADE. To barricade is to fortify with trees, or branches of trees, cut down for that purpose, the brushy ends towards the enemy. Carts, waggons, &c. are sometimes made use of for the same purpose, viz. to keep back both horse and foot for some time. Abatis.
BARRIER, in a general sense means any fortification, or strong place on the frontiers of a country. It is likewise a kind of fence composed of stakes, and transums, as overthwart rafters, erected to defend the entrance of a passage, retrenchment, or the like. In the middle of the barrier is a moveable bar of wood, which is opened and shut at pleasure. It also implies a gate made of wooden bars, about 5 feet long, perpendicular to the horizon, and kept together by two long bars going across, and another crossing diagonally: Barriers are used to stop the cut made through the esplanade before the gate of a town.
Barrier-Towns, in military history, were Menin, Dendermond, Ypres, Tournay, Mons, Namur, and Maestricht. These towns were formerly garrisoned half by French or Imperial, and half by Dutch troops.
BARM, or Berm. See Berm.
BASCULE, Fr. a counterpoise which serves to lift up the draw bridge of a town. Likewise a term used in fortification to express a door that shuts and opens like a trap door.
BASE, or Basis, in fortification, the exterior part or side of a polygon, or that imaginary line which is drawn from the flanked angle of a bastion to the angle opposite to it.
Base signifies also the level line on which any work stands that is even with the ground, or other work on which it is erected. Hence the base of a parapet is the rampart.
Base, an ancient word for the smallest cannon. See Cannon.
Base-line, the line on which troops in column move, the first division that marches into the alignement forms the base line, or appui which each successive division prolongs.
Base-ring. See Cannon.
BASILISK, an ancient name given to a 48 pounder. See Cannon.
BASIS, the same as Base.
BASKET-Hilt, the hilt of a sword, so made as to contain, and guard the whole hand.
BASKETS, in military affairs, are simple baskets, frequently used in sieges. They are filled with earth, and placed on the parapet of the trench, or any other part. They are generally about a foot and a half in diameter at the top, and eight inches at the bottom, and a foot and a half in height; so that, being placed on the parapet, a kind of embrasure is formed at the bottom, through which the soldiers fire, without being exposed to the shot of the enemy. See Gabion.
Baskets.—Ballast, ¹⁄₂ bushel—weight 5 lbs.
Diameter, 1 foot 6 inches—length 1 foot.
BASTILLE, Fr. any place fortified with towers.
Bastille, a state prison which stood near the Temple in Paris, and was deservedly destroyed by the inhabitants of that capital on the 14th of July, 1789.
BASTINADO, a punishment among the Turkish soldiers, which is performed by beating them with a cane or flat of a sword on the soles of their feet.
BASTION. See Fortification.
BASSE-Enceinte. See Fausse-Braye.
BASSINET, Fr. the pan of a musquet.
BASSON or BASSOON, a wind instrument blown with a reed, performing the base to all martial music, one or two of which are attached to each regimental band.
BAT de Mulet, a pack-saddle used on service when mules are employed to carry stores, &c.
BATAGE, Fr. the time employed in reducing gun-powder to its proper consistency. The French usually consumed 24 hours in pounding the materials to make good gun-powder; supposing the mortar to contain 16 pounds of composition, it would require the application of the pestle 3500 times each hour. The labour required in this process is less in summer than in winter, because the water is softer.
BATAILLE, Fr. a battle.
Cheval de Bataille, Fr. a war horse, or charger. This expression is used figuratively as a sheet anchor or last resource.
BATAILLER, Fr. to struggle hard.
BATARDE, French 8 pounders were so called.
BATARDEAU, in fortification, is a massive perpendicular pile of masonry, whose length is equal to the breadth of the ditch, inundation, or any part of a fortification where the water cannot be[35] kept in without the raising of these sorts of works, which are described either on the capitals prolonged of the bastions or half-moons, or upon their faces. In thickness it is from 15 to 18 feet, that it may be able to withstand the violence of the enemy’s batteries. Its height depends upon the depth of the ditch, and upon the height of the water that is necessary to be kept up for an inundation; but the top of the building must always be under the cover of the parapet of the covert way, so as not to be exposed to the enemy’s view. In the middle of its length is raised a massive cylindrical turret, whose height exceeds the batardeau 6 feet.
BATESME du Tropique, Fr. a christening under the line. This is a ridiculous ceremony which every person is obliged to go through the first time he crosses the Line on his passage to the East-Indies. Different methods of performing it are observed by different nations. Englishmen frequently buy themselves off. Among the French, the individual who was to be baptized or christened, swore that he would individually assist in forcing every person hereafter, who should be similarly situated, to go through the same ceremony. A barbarous usage.
BAT-Horses, -
BAW-Horses,
