FORTIFICATION. 
_ Rortificas out, Wauban himself indeed soon discovered the su- 
tion. 
>. pert 
2. wl during the latter 
: enn the equilibrium which he had destroyed. His 
"% 
¢ 
PLATE 
 CCLVIL 
ye distance from A to the 
_ Detaions. called the 
iority of his system of attack to that of his defence, 
; of his life, endeavoured to 
disciples, as well as those who differed in some points 
from him, continued to labour in the same cause ; but 
after all the and improvements which they in- 
troduced into his plan of defence, it was found, that 
ir Pe wera ing to counteract the power which 
had been put into the hands of the That 
was soon pronounced to be irresistible, and at 
the same time so regular in its operations, that the du- 
ration of a siege was calculated as easily, and in man 
cases as accurately, as a question in dynamics. Su 
calculations applied to ee ant of moral causes, 
may indeed seem very ; but so deeply have en- 
Pe tibe gales 3 reeabeirube: Asn oe it is utterly 
jor gr one id out against the modern system of at-. 
, that a siege generally terminates after a certain 
progress has been made by the besiegers, whatever may 
487 
be the means of defence which the garrison still pos- 
sesses. Such a system appears to be an agreement en- 
tered into among belligerent powers, to eliver up to 
one another fortified places at a certain price, and cer- 
tainly has a tendency to suppress that fortitude and de- 
termined spirit of resistance, which the history of an- 
cient, as well as of some modern sieges, has proved 
to be the chief cause of a long and successful defence. 
In the remaining part of this article, we shall endea- 
vour to lay before our readers a complete account of 
the modern plan of fortification, with the art of attack- 
ing and defending fortified places. 
shall take an opportunity of noticing the various im- 
provements which have either been pro , or actu- 
ally adopted ; and among others, the plan of defence 
recommended by Carnot, who has long been distin- 
ished by’ mathematical, political, and military ta- 
fore. and well known for ‘his famous defence of Ant- 
werp, in 1813. . 
Partl. ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF FORTIFIED PLACES. 
SECT. I. 
Permanent Fortifications. 
‘irw: of Every fortified place is in the form of « polygon, 
ces. 
for- more or less 
according to circumstan 
be considered as chords of 
In Plate CCLVII. Fig. 1, is exhibited the trace of a re- 
gular fortification of five sides,in which DEFGH is call- 
ed the exterior, and KLMNI the interior polygon. The 
i of the exterior polygon is 
radius, from A to the angle of the 
interior the small radius. The contained 
between two radii, as EBCF, is ¢ a front of the 
tion is the about the angle of the polygon, as 
VUFZC. curtain is that part of the front which 
areca BC. In the bastion VUFZC, the 
he 
U 
of the omen or 
the face and the curtain is called the flock: el 
angle of the tenaille. When the shoulders of 
tion are built in the circular form P, Q, they are called 
orillons, or tours creuses. The distance between the 
angles of the flanks, as VC. is called the of the 
bastion ; and CM, or MV, the demr-gorge. coe, 
line, drawn from the saliant angle of one bastion to 
le of the flank in another, as FB, is called a line of 
defence. If this line be drawn along the face, and pa- 
rallel to it, it is called a razing defence ; and if the line 
make an angle with the face, the defence is said to be 
Jichant, or oblique. When the line of defence meets 
the curtain short of the extremity, the part of the cur- 
tain between that point and the extremity is called the 
second flank. : 
The whole circumference of the works about a town, 
as represented in Fig. 1, is called the enceinte, or corps 
de la ee . Other works have each a particular name ; 
but they are in general called outworks. The chief 
In this account we. 
Fortifica. 
tion. 
—_——_ 
Permanent 
Fortifica- 
tions. 
strength of the corps de Ja place, as well as of the out- 
works, is a mound of earth called the rampart, and of 
which the trace shows the thickness at the bottom. On 
ae of ot em git is raised e another mound, called 
parapet, for the purpose of covering the besi 
and their guns from the fire of the lett. Behind thin 
are two or three steps called banguettes, on which the 
soldiers stand when they fire over the parapet ; and be- 
tween these and the town, is a ed the terre- 
plein, of sufficient breadth for the movement of troops, 
and the conveyance of cav: from one place to ano~ 
ther. The rampart is generally lined with a wall, call- 
ed a revetenvent, on the top of which is a round 
the parapet of about two feet in breadth, the way 
of rounds. The sloping surface of a work is called the 
escarpe, if it declines from the place; and if it inclines 
towards it, the counterscarje. 
Before the rampart in all works, is a ditch called the 
fossé, made by excavating the earth for the rampart. 
Round the coun of this ditch, and at a conve-~ 
nient distance from it, is cut out a passage called chemin- 
—— age ‘be add . From the parapet that 
ends thi clines by a gentle slope to- 
wards the field, and is called the ma ¥ : 
The command of a work is its height above the field, 
or above some other work, and is not to be confounded 
with relief, which is the height above the horizon. 
When a fortification has only a partial command of the 
field, it is called a razing fortification ; and when it is 
much elevated above the ground, it gets the name of a 
. If any of a fortification cannot be seen 
from the parapet, it is called a dead angle. 
The profile of a fortification, is a vertical section of 
the works from the extreme boundary of the glacis 
