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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



may be best utilized; some of the men, previously detailed for just such 

 an emergency, are engaged in throwing up earthworks, piling logs, 

 stones, anything that can be utilized for barricades. The officer charged 

 with that duty, if possible a skilled engineer, goes quickly from place to 

 place, hurriedly indicating the lines of defense; these connecting the 

 several buildings in such a manner as to enclose the entire command 

 within lines of quite formidable intrenchments. All this time the 

 troops, having taken possession of the houses, have poured an uninter- 

 rupted fire upon the assailants, obliging them to retire, or at least giving 

 the diggers — or sappers, as they are called — time to complete their labor 

 of defense. Surrounded by a force sufficiently large to make resistance 

 in the field quite hopeless, we are at least in position to protract the 

 struggle, and one capable of defense, except against an assault in over- 

 whelming numbers, or against heavy artillery. The latter they are not 

 provided with, or the measures we are taking might all go in the end 



for nothing. Several assaults are attempted during the day, but are 

 easily repulsed with no small loss. The enemy at last withdraws, 

 and we now see that he is busy throwing up intrenchments. Mean- 

 while, we have not been idle. To facilitate communication, and to en- 

 able us to concentrate our forces under cover, passageways have been 

 constructed between the various buildings, inner partitions prevent- 

 ing free access from room to room within the houses have been broken 

 through, and the debris, together with beds broken up, mattresses and 

 'any old thing 5 capable of arguing with a bullet, piled in the window 

 embrasures, leaving loopholes here and there, as occasion offers, while 

 galleries may be constructed with loopholes in the floor to fire down- 

 wards. 



One of the most important matters to be attended to is the securing 

 of as many good positions as possible, from which fire may be concen- 

 trated upon exposed points. In a regular siege the points of attack 

 selected will always be those most exposed, on account of their project- 



