RKDOITT. 



RKDOUT. 





the town mod fleet, was a Urge work well furnished with artillery ; 

 yet, oo being attacked by the republican troops, it was taken, after a 

 gallant resistance, in which the enemy wu twice repulsed. The 

 ditches being undefended by flanks, the assailant*, on being driven 

 into thorn, re-formed their order with little molestation ; and at the 

 third attack they succeeded in getting pun union of the work. 



It is admitted among military men that in firing over a parapet, the 

 soldier doing the duty as rapidly as possible, and fearing to expose 

 t,im.lf while adjusting bin musket, places the latter mechanically in a 

 direction nearly perpendicular to the line of the face behind which he 

 is stationed. It follows that in front of every salient angle of the 

 work there must be an undefended Doctoral space, as t in the sub- 

 joined cut, which represents the plan of a square redout, in which 

 space, in order to avoid the direct fire from the faces, the enemy may 

 advance to the attack ; and on this account it is recommended that 

 the faces of the work should be disposed BO that the angles may be 

 turned towards ground which is impassable, or which will not permit 

 the enemy to establish batteries for the purpose of enfilading those 

 faces. When this disposition ia not possible, various methods may be 

 adopted by which the troops who man the work might direct some of 

 their fire within those sectors. The simplest of these, and that which 

 is generally put in practice, is to form the crest of the parapet near the 

 angle, perpendicularly to the capital (the line bisecting the angle) as at 

 al>; by which means the space between to and i may be directly 

 defended, and the sectors xv and ly being small, very little attention 

 on the part of the men about a and b will enable them to give their 

 musketa an oblique direction so aa to fire upon an enemy advancing 

 within those spaces. A second method is that of rounding off the 



interior of the parapet at the angles, as at erf; but this has been 

 objected to on account of the divergency of the lines of fire. The 

 third method, which is much dwelt on by writers on fortification, 

 consists in forming the interior of the parapet with indentations, as at 

 eg and /A, alternately parallel and perpendicular to the capital, each 

 indent being three feet long ; and a parapet of this kind is said to be 

 en cremailttre. It is evident that by placing men contiguously to the 

 sides of these indentations, a fire may be kept up in either of the 

 directions just mentioned ; and by placing them at the angles, they 

 may fire perpendicularly to the general face of the work. It must be 

 observed, however, that the men cannot fire in these different direc- 

 tions at the same time, because, the muskets crossing one another, thai 

 of one man might be injured by the fire of the next, and therefore what 

 is gained in one direction is lost in another. The only objections to 

 this method are, that the parapet can be so formed only by men 

 belonging to the corps of Koyal Engineers, who are regularly trained to 

 the construction of fortifications, but who may not be present when 

 wanted; and that the unsteadiness of the soldiers in firing almost 

 always renders such preciionin the formation of the work useless. 



The ditch of a redout having no flanks, being unseen and incapable 

 of defence from the parapets, it has been proposed, in order to have 

 some means of annoying the enemy when in the ditch, to form an 

 enclosed space A, at one or more of the angles of the ditch, by planting 

 a Hue of palisades across the latter on two contiguous faces of the w< >rk : 

 the enclosure may have a roof of timber covered with earth, and loop- 

 holes, three feet asunder, must be cut in the palisades, that the 

 defenders may be enabled to fire along the ditches. 



Another method, which may be advantageously adopted when a face 

 of the work has considerable length, is to form, as at B, what is called 

 a palisade caponniore, by planting across the ditch, at the mi. ]<!]. of the 

 face, two rows of palisades about eight feet asunder ; each row being 

 pierced with loop-holes. The entrance into the caponniore is by steps in 

 the interior of the redout and a gallery under it* parapet ; and thin 

 work, as well as that at A., may have a roof, but in no case should such 



roof be above the level of the natural ground, in order that it may be 

 concealed as long as possible from the view of the enemy. And if 

 practicable, the floor of the capomiiere may be sunk, so that the roof 

 being only a few feet above the level of the ditch should not afford a 

 bridge by which to enter the work. One of the redout* which was 

 executed near Lisbon, being commanded by a height in its front 

 whence the parapet* might have been destroyed and t 

 ploughed by shot, there was formed a gallery behind i !,* counterscarp, 

 and opposite one of the angles of the work, with loop-link*, from 

 whence the ditch along each face might have been defended by mus- 

 ketry if the enemy had penetrated into it. The soil being chalk, no 

 timber-frames were necessary for the support of the sides 

 between this recess and the interior of the redout there was a gallery 

 of communication passing under the bottom of the ditch. 



A row of palisades is frequently planted quite along the ditrl 

 redout. Sometimes also the escarp of the work is fraized, or fur- 

 nished with palisades planted in an inclined position, and a line of 

 chevaux-de-fri/e is disposed upon the benne. In order to retard the 

 advance of an enemy, the work is generally surrounded, at a distance 

 not exceeding the range of musket-tthot, by a single or double abatis, 

 and often by two rows of pit* called trout de loup. 



The magnitude of a redout, whatever be its form, is determined by 

 the strength of the garrison and the quantity of ordnance by hi.-h it 

 is to be defended ; all the men being supposed to be lodged within it. 

 It was formerly the practice to allow on the area of the ten 

 within the foot of the banquette, ten square feet for each m;r 

 324 square feet for each piece of artillery ; consequently when the 

 redout is of a square form, the breadth of the banquette being known 

 (about 11 feet), the length of the crest-line on each face coulil be 

 easily determined. In order that the defenders may conveniently use 

 their arms on the banquette, it has been customary to allow three feet 

 along the crest of the parapet for each man, who is to stand con- 

 tiguously to the interior slope ; and it was once considered that a 

 redout intended to make a considerable resistance when attacked on 

 all sides, would be adequately garrisoned if the number of men in it 

 were equal to the number of feet in the whole length of the crest of 

 parapet ; that is to say, if there were three ranks of men along each 

 face, the work being supposed to be capable of containing such a 

 number. It is said that each side of the square redouts which 

 Marshal Saxe caused to be constructed at the siege of Maastricht, in 

 1748, was above 100 feet long, measured on the crest of the parapet, 

 and that each redout was garrisoned by 500 men ; and it will be found 

 by computation that, consistently with the above rules, a square 

 redout, each of whose faces is sixteen yards long, is the least that 

 ought to be constructed ; for if less, the interior within the banquette 

 would not contain the number of men necessary to line its parapet with 

 one rank. But the rule relating to the area within the banquette has 

 been objected to as an unnecessary affectati< in of mathematical pre- 

 cision. The British engineers who constructed the works for the 

 protection of Lisbon observe that, except at night, or at the moment 

 of being attacked, part of the garrison will lie on watch, or otherwise 

 occupied outside of the work ; and even at those times at least one- 

 third will bo under arms on the banquette. Colonel Sir John Jones' 

 states that the strengths of the garrison were finally determined by 

 allowing two men per yard in the length of the parapet for the r\ 

 works, and one man per yard for the interior works : deductions being 

 made for the spaces where artillery was to stand. Each gun takes up 

 about eighteen feet of the length of a parapet. 



The crest of the parapet of a redout may be about 8 feet above the 

 natural ground, unless the work is to be defiladed from some command- 

 ing ground in the neighbourhood, in which case it must be higher. 

 The form of a section or profile of the parapet is similar to that which 

 is used for permanent fortification [LINKS OF INTRK.NC HMKNT, / 

 but the breadth of the superior slope may vary with the nature of the 

 arm which the enemy can bring against it ; three feet will sutfii 

 work can be attacked by infantry only, but it may be as much aa 10 or 

 12 feet if it is to resist field artillery of the heaviest calibre. The 

 superior surface of the parapet should slope down towards the ex- 

 terior, so that the defenders may see the top of the counterscarp of the 

 ditch iu front ; and when, from the great relief of the work. 

 impossible, the counterscarp should be raised by earth obtained from 

 the ditch to the height necessary for this purpose ; taking care, 

 ever, to give the raised earth a gentle slope towards the exterior, that 

 the enemy may not be screened by it. The exterior of the parapet and 

 the escarp of the ditch are covered or revetted with sods when tho 

 earth has not sufficient tenacity to stand unsupported ; and when the 

 work is to resist the fire of heavy artillery, the revetment mi^ht con- 

 sist of stout logs of timber planted obliquely in the ground or in the 

 bottom of the ditch, and leaning against the face of tho work. The 

 interior of the parapet is usually revetted with sods or fascines.} 



Redouts are intended to fortify military positions, for which 

 purpose they usually occupy the heights and command the defiles ; 

 and their magnitude or number must depend upon the : 

 for their construction. [LINES OF lx r n: 



TIOK8.] It sometimes happens that they are thrown up during tho 

 night to protect artillery on the wings, or in some important situation 

 in front of the army, in expectation of an engagement taking place the 

 next day; and then they ore necessarily few and small. 



