BA8TI'>S 



BASTION. 



it in onto to raid, as much M possible, being exposed to 

 1 UK neighbouring work*, it is true 

 of the town* rendered it impossible for the en.-my 



'.-. -.>:.. Mntei al Ikt 



fhbouring work*, 

 it impossible f..r 



to be wholly ooooealed at their front ; but the desire of entirely de- 

 priving the enemy of the benefit inning from the undefended nature 

 of that ground probably induoed engineer* to dispose the face* of tln-ir 

 towers like those of a modern bastion, ao that two of them might (nn 

 projecting angle, whow vertex waa on the capital 



There ia no reaaon to believe that any material change took place in 

 the manner of constructing the tower* of fortreana during all the long 

 period in which the ancient arm* were employed ; but it is easy to 

 conceive that the invention of fire-arum would render it Decennary to 

 enlarge the tower fur the purpoee of receiving the gum, and to increase 

 the thicknea* of the rampart, that it might be able as well to resist the 

 concussion produced by the discharge of the ordnance placed ujmn it, 

 a* the shock of the enemy's artillery when fired against it. On this 

 account, also, the ramparts were constructed of earth, and their exterior 

 surface was formed at such an inclination to the ground as would 

 enable it to stand unsupported, except where it became necessary to 

 pi event an escalade ; in which case a facing of stone, brick, or timber 

 was made sufficiently high and steep to create a serious impediment to 

 any attempt of that nature. An opinion that the bastions are the 

 weakest parts of a fortress remained in force, however, long after the 

 modern artillery was introduced in sieges. On this account they were 

 at first made very small, when compared with the extent of the wall 

 between them ; and the line of each face, when produced towards the 

 town, was made to intersect that wall, in order that the fire from the 

 part intercepted between this produced line and the flank of the next 

 bastion might co-operate with the fire from the latter in defending the 

 ditch in front of the former bastion. But when the ramparts of a 

 town were found to disappear almost instantly under the weight of 

 shot discharged from large ordnance, it became necessary to employ 

 ordnance of corresponding size on the walls ; and the dimensions of 

 the bastions were finally augmented to those at present assigned. The 

 longtha of the faces vary from 100 to 120 yards, and the flanks are 

 usually about 50 yards long ; but the magnitude of the projecting angle 

 in front, called the taliext or flanked angle, to distinguish it from the 

 ogles formed by the faces and flanks which are denominated nhoultlcr 

 amgtn, evidently depends upon the angle of the polygon on which the 

 enfrinte is constructed. Each face of a bastion, if produced towards 

 the town, now falls at the interior extremity of the flank of the col- 

 lateral bastion, so that the flank defence of the faces of a bastion 

 depends wholly upon the fire from the flanks of those on its right and 

 U-ft. 



It is to Italy that we must look for the invention of the modern 

 bastion : the wars which raged in that country from the commence- 

 ment of the 12th century, and which were more systematically con- 

 ducted there than in any other port of Europe, gave rise to this, as 

 well as to many other inventions for military purposes. The precise 

 date of its first formation is quite unknown ; but if we omit the 

 improbable story related by Folard, that the Turkish commander, 

 Achinet Pacha, caused bastions to be constructed about Otranto, when 

 he took that place in 1480, we may observe that it is spoken of under 

 the name of Balrardo, as an improvement of great importance in the 

 military art, by Tartaglia, in his ' Quesiti ed inventi divers! ,' which 

 waa published in 1546 ; and in the same work is given a plan of the 

 fortifications of Turin, which exhibits a bastion at each of the four 

 angles of the rampart Both Vasari, in his ' Lives of the Architects,' 

 and Haffei, in his ' Verona Illustrate,' ascribe the invention to San 

 slirhs'li of Verona : one of the bastions of this city has on it the date 

 1627, and its construction is still ascribed to that engineer, who, in 

 fact, was about that time employed in the erection or repair of several 

 of the fortresses in Italy. From the word Balvardo, denoting a strong- 

 hold, the earliest French engineers gave to this work the appellation of 

 Btmltrard ; and such is its designation in the treatise of Errard, which 

 was published in 1594. The term /faction appears to have been taken 

 from the Italian writers, for Haggi, in his treatise ' Delia Fortificatione 

 dell* CitU,' applies the term Ikuti-mi to redoubts constructed of earth ; 

 and, according to Fire Daniel, the French subsequently gave to such 

 works the name of BattiUct, or Battidt*. Froissart also uses these terms 

 in speaking of the forts constructed during the siege of Ventadour 

 by the Duo de Bern, under Charles VI. It should be remarked, how- 

 ever, that Errard applies the name of fitutio* indifferently to works in 

 the situation of those now so called, and to those to which the name of 

 RmttiM is generally given ; and doubtless it denoted originally any 

 work of earth constructed on the exterior of one more ancient. 



It appears that it had been the practice from the earliest times to 

 form a rampart, or bank of earth, in front of the walls of fortresses, in 

 order to secure the latter from the destructive effects of the ram ; and 

 it is easy to conceive that, by forming such a bank in front of -the old 

 towers of a place, so as to connect those previously existing in front of 

 the adjacent curtains, the work would assume a figure like that of a 

 modern bastion; and indeed would very much resemble one f the 

 detxhed bastions in what is called the second system of Vauban ; the 

 original tower of the fortress occupying the place of the interior bastion 

 of that system, and constituting a sort of rttnmtkmext to the new work. 

 The construction was proposed by Castriotto, in his elaborate work 

 published at Venice in 1544, seemingly as U it had been his own idea ; 



but probably he meant only to recommend the adoption of a kind of 

 work which must have been than a novelty. 



The Italian engineers, immediately after the invention of the bastion 

 system of fortification, became celebrated for their skill in military 

 architecture, and they seam to have been extensively employed in the 

 construction or repair of fortresses beyond the Alps : one of the first 

 of their labours in the north of Europe was the fortification of Landreci, 

 with bastions, for Francis I. ; and the like works were executed about 

 Mew Hesdin, on the frontiers of Artois, for Charles V. In 1568, the 

 Duke of Alva employed Pacciotto in the construction of the citadel of 

 Antwerp, a regular fortress, whose bastions still exist within those 

 subsequently erected at that place ; and, during the reign of Elizabeth, 

 Qcnebella was brought from Flanders to this country in order to super- 

 intend the formation of a bastioned enctintt about the ancient castle of 

 Carisbrook, in the Isle of Wight. 



Albert Dttrer, the celebrated engraver, proposed, in 1527, to fortify 

 places with circular towers only, Tike those of the ancients, but of 

 larger dimensions ; and in most of the plans published during the 16th 

 century by Italian engineers, there appears to be a union of the old and 

 now methods ; for the angles of the polygons are furnished with round 

 towers, and these are protected exteriorly by bastions. 



The guns mounted on the flanks of a bastion, by firing along the 

 ditch in front of the curtain and of the neighbouring bastions, created 

 a serious impediment to the passage of the enemy across the ditch in 

 attempting an assault, and it became necessary for him to silence that 

 fire by a battery placed for the purpose in the direction of the ditch ; 

 but the establishment of this battery necessarily compelled the 

 defenders to augment the number of guns in their bastions. To get 

 room for these guns, engineers were induced to form their bastions 

 with a double and even a triple flank on each side, the flanks receding 

 from each other, from below upwards, iu the manner of terraces, 

 towards the interior of the bastion ; and, to prevent the enemy from 

 dismounting the guns in the lower flanks by other batteries raised in 

 the prolongations of those flanks, it became necessary to mask them by 

 extending the rampart of the face beyond them, and giving it a return 

 towards the curtain ; this return was frequently rectilinear, but gene- 

 rally in the form of on arc of a circle, like a portion of a round tower, 

 and the projection with its return received the name of orecehtone or 

 arill'tn. Besides masking the lower flanks from the effect of any enfi- 

 lading, or lateral fire, it concealed one or more guns on the upper flank 

 from the fire of an enemy's battery directly opposed to that flank, 

 while it permitted those guns to defend the main ditch and the breach 

 mode by the enemy in face of the collateral bastion. In Castriotto's 

 work above mentioned he describes bastions with triple flanks and 

 cavaliers, and orillons, similar to those of Coehorn ; olio many other 

 works supposed to be modern improvements, such as thani* da rondet. 

 [BERME]. COUNTERMINES, CASEMATES, COUNTEKARCHED REVETMENTS, 

 and the FACSSE BKAY. 



The desire of avoiding the exposure of the flanks of the bastions 

 gave rise to the practice of making them form a right, and even ;m 

 acute angle with the curtain; but a better judgment subsequently 

 rejected this disposition, as the musketry fire from the defenders of 

 the flank was thereby liable to injure the men stationed on the curtain. 

 The lower flanks also were eventually suppressed, because they con- 

 tracted too much the interior of the bastion to which they belonged ; and 

 because the enemy's fire, soon destroying the parapets of those above, 

 masses of brickwork fell among the defenders below, and obliged them 

 to quit their guns at the very time that their service was most required. 

 The orilloni, moreover, ore now considered useless, as they contract 

 the length of the flank ; and the guns which they protect from a fire in 

 their front ore liable to be dismounted by a fire from their rear. 



In what are called the second and third systems of Vauban, the 

 principal bastions are detached from the enceinte by a ditch iu tin ii- 

 rear, and consequently the capture of those works would nut JIIIIHI-- 

 diately compel the surrender of the fortress. In these systems, a small 

 bastion of brickwork, closed by a parapet-wall at its gorge, is con- 

 structed at each of the angles formed by the polygonal wall surrounding 

 the place. The fire from the parapets of these tower bastions, as they 

 ore called, would have a powerful effect in preventing the enemy, after 

 he has breached and stormed the great bastions, from erecting batteries 

 in them to destroy the interior walls; and, in order to preserve tin- 

 artillery of their flanks uninjured till the end of the siege, engineers 

 placed it in casemates [CASEMATE], whence the guns might i>nr .1 

 destructive fire upon the assailants when crowing the ditch of the 

 enceinte. In one of the systems of Coehom, each principal UiMii-n is 

 attached to the enceinte, and contains an interior one for the purpose of 

 prolonging its defence. At the shoulders of the former ore constructed 

 towers of masonry, serving as m-iUont, and containing galleries whose 

 front walla are pierced with loop-holes, to allow a fire to be directed 

 along the interval between the parallel faces of the two bastions. 



Bastions are now made either solid or hollow : that is, either the 

 int. -riur in filled with earth up to the level of the platforms of the guns, 

 or it is left cuinridmt with that of the natural ground. Of the two 

 methods, the former is generally preferred, because it affords some 

 facilities for the formation and defence of interior parapets or ret 

 menU. In almost every system of fortification the ramparts of the 

 faces and flanks of bastions have been made rectilinear on the plan ; a 

 few cases however occur in which the flanks have been curved, with 



