BATTERY. 



BATTLE-AXE. 



10 



placed behind a parapet, or elevation of earth, either to defend a 

 position, destroy the works, or dismount the artillery of an enemy. It 

 likewise means the equipment of a certain number of pieces of artillery. 

 [FIELD ARTILLERY.] 



It may be said that the ancients made use of a species of ordnance in 

 the operations of attack and defence; and the battering-rams, the 

 baliste, and the catapulte, which, when placed on the natural ground, 

 or in buildings of timber, or elevated on mounds of earth, served the 

 besiegers to demolish the walls of fortresses, or to drive the defenders 

 from them, may be considered aa corresponding to the guns, mortars, 

 &c., which constitute the armament of a modem battery. 



Vitruvius states ('De Architecture,' lib. x.) thatCetras of Chalcedon 

 was the first who covered the ram with a shed, in order to secure the 

 men who worked it from the arrows, darts, and stones thrown by the 

 enemy ; and he adds, that the construction of the shed was subsequently 

 improved by the engineers of Philip and Alexander. The testudlnes and 

 helepolei were buildings of this nature, for the protection of the men 

 and military engines, and in this respect they correspond to the parapets 

 and tpaulcment*, which cover the ordnance at present employed in the 

 attack of a fortress. (See the description of the hele"polis'(fA'iro\i5) of 

 Demetrius. Plutarch, ' Life of Demetrius,' cap. 21.) 



While the same species of artillery continued to be used in warfare, 

 it is evident that no material change could take place in the nature of 

 the edifices constructed to cover it ; but from the epoch of the invention 

 of gunpowder, the wooden sheds or towers were superseded by masses 

 of earth, whose thickness was necessarily made greater than the depth 

 to which a cannon-shot can penetrate into them. In modern times the 

 designation of a battery varies with the purposes to be accomplished, 

 the nature of the ordnance employed, and the manner in which the 

 firing may be made. 



A brearkiny battery is one which may be placed at between 50 and 

 1000 yards from any wall or rampart, in order to demolish it ; and the 

 effect is produced at all times by firing perpendicularly to the front to 

 be breached, and, if near enough, -jmnt blank at it ; such a battery 

 generally, therefore, has its front parallel to the face of the wall to be 

 breached. 



An enfilading battery is one whose parapet is perpendicular to the 

 produced line of the enemy's rampart ; so that the shot from the 

 guns may graze the interior side of that rampart or its parapet, in the 

 direction of its length. When shot discharged from pieces of ordnance 

 make successive rebounds along the ground, the firing is said to be 

 d ricochet, and the battery a ricochetting battery ; and this mode of 

 firing is employed when it is intended to dismount artillery by enfilading 

 a rampart. The effect is produced by giving to the axis of the gun an 

 elevation of between six and nine degrees above a line passing from its 

 chamber through the crest of the enemy's parapet in front ; and, 

 according to the latest experiments, the distance at which a battery 

 should be placed from the nearest extremity of the rampart to be 

 enfiladed by ricochet firing is between 400 and 600 yards : at a greater 

 distance than the latter much of the ammunition would be expended 

 without effect. 



A yun battery is one in which guns only are employed, for either of 

 the purposes above mentioned, or to defend any ground, by a fire of 

 round or solid shot. 



A hoioitxr battery is one in which howitzers are employed. This 

 species of ordnance throws shells, or hollow shot, generally at a small 

 elevation of the axis to the horizon ; and it serves to produce, by the 

 bursting of the shells, a breach in a rampart of earth ; or, when fired 

 d ricochet, to destroy the palisades or other obstacles which might 

 impede the troops in assaulting an enemy's work. Howitzers are also 

 used in conjunction with guns, to form breaches in ramparts of brick 

 or stone. 



A mortar battery is one in which shells are thrown from mortars at a 

 great elevation of the axis of the piece ; so that, by the momentum 

 acquired in falling, they may crush the roofs, and by their explosion 

 complete the destruction of magazines or other buildings. This is 

 called a vertical fire. By employing large charges of powder, a very 

 extensive range has been produced by mortars ; for, at the siege of 

 . the French are said to have sent shells to the distance of more 

 than three miles from the battery. 



When the battery is mounted on a natural or artificial eminence, in 

 order to allow the guns to fire from above downward, or to make what 

 is called a plunging fire against or into the works of the enemy, it con- 

 HtituteM a carnlier batter;/; and when the guns are elevated on a 

 platform, or on tall carriages, so as to be enabled to fire over the 

 superior slope of the parapet or dpauleraent, the battery is said to be 

 en barbette. This kind of battery is usually executed at the most 

 advanced points of a fortress, for the purpose of allowing considerable 

 lateral splay in the direction of the artillery to the right or left ; by 

 which means the reconnoitring parties of the besiegers may be annoyed 

 while at a distance and in motion. 



In the formation of any of the field batteries above mentioned, while 

 they an: Iwyond the range of the enemy's musketry, they may bo 

 executed without cover for the working parties, like any simple 

 breast-work, after the outline has been traced on the ground by 

 the engineers; but when the men employed in the work would be 

 much exposed to annoyance from the enemy's fire, it becomes neces- 

 sary that they should be protected by * mask of yabions. [GABION.] 



These being planted on their bases along the exterior side of the 

 intended trench in front of the battery, permit a cover, which a 

 musket-ball cannot pierce, being soon obtained. Within this line of 

 gabions the excavation is commenced, and part of the earth obtained 

 from the trench is thrown into and beyond the gabions, till the covering 

 mass is thick enough, if necessary, to be proof against a cannon-ball : 

 the men thus work in comparative security to raise the parapet with 

 earth, which they do generally to the height of about seven feet from the 

 ground, and to the thickness of eighteen or twenty feet, not including 

 the breadths of the slopes given to the exterior and interior sides. The 

 exterior slope is generally left with that inclination which earth, when 

 thrown up, naturally assumes, that is at about 45 to the horizon ; but 

 the interior [slope being necessarily more steep, in order to allow the 

 guns to be brought close up to it, is retained by a rertltement or 

 covering, either of fascines [FASCINKS], gabions, or sand-bags, bags full 

 of earth. Batteries are termed derated, half -sunken, or suitkcn, accord- 

 ing to their method of construction. The parapet of the elevated 

 battery is constructed of earth obtained from the ditch; of a half- 

 sunken battery, part from the ditch and part from the interior ; and of 

 a sunken battery, wholly from the interior. 



The embrasures, or openings in the parapet, through which the 

 guns are to fire, are, at the neck or interior extremity, about two feet 

 wide, and at the exterior about half the thickness of the parapet : 

 each of their sides or cheeks has a small declination from a vertical 

 plane, so that the breadth of the opening at top is rather greater than 

 at the bottom, or on what is called the sole of the embrasure, in order 

 that the L flame from ,the muzzle of the gun may be less liable to 

 damage those sides : for the same reason the latter are lined with 

 fascines, or which is preferred, with gabions, at the neck of the 

 embrasure. The interval between two embrasures is called a merlon ; 

 and the part between the sole and the ground within the battery is 

 called the genouillire. 



The guns rest on platforms, generally of timber, either of a 

 rectangular or dovetailed figure. [PLATFOHM.] 



Besides the parapet which forms the front of the battery, a wing is 

 constructed of the same materials on each side, called an paulment, 

 in order to protect the interior from any enfilading fire of the enemy. 

 MAGAZINES are always formed either within or near the rear of the 

 battery, to contain the ammunition for its service, in the proportion of 

 one magazine to three or four guns : this is generally a rectangular pit, 

 sunk to about three feet below, with sides and a roof of timber rising 

 about as much above, the natural ground : the roof is covered with 

 earth of a thickness which may be capable of resisting the momentum 

 of a shell, and the descent to the floor of the magazine is by an 

 inclined plane towards the rear. Traverses, or elevations of earth, 

 revetted at the sides generally by gabions', are formed at intervals in the 

 interior of the batteiy, to afford protection for the men against such 

 shot or shells of the enemy as may fall there. 



Howitzer and mortar batteries are executed nearly in the same 

 manner as the others, except that mortar batteries never have em- 

 brasures, and the embrasures of a howitzer battery are made of a 

 peculiar shape. [EMBRASURE.] 



Some further particulars of batteries will be found under SIEGE. 



BATTLE-AXE, a military weapon of offence used in different coun- 

 tries from the remotest times. Sir Samuel Meyrick says, as it was 

 suggested by, so it immediately followed, the invention of the hatchet. 

 The two Greek names for the battle-axe, oiV?j (annc), and tre\tKvs 

 (pdekiu), occur in Homer in the same verse, ' II.' O. 1. 711. What was 

 the precise difference between the two weapons we are not told by 

 ancient writers, but it seems probable that the axlne was similar to 

 our hatchet, while the pelcku.i, which is usually translated in Latin by 

 bi 'pennit, had evidently two heads or edges ; for Homer mentions 

 another instrument of the same kind in the 23rd book of the ' Iliad,' 

 called 'Hnnre\(Kov (hemipclekmi), or the half-axe. Suidas interprets 

 'H/juwt\tKa (hemipelcka), by at fioi>6irTo/j.oi atmi, one-edged axes. (See 

 Kuster's note on 'HjuiWAe/co.) The pelekus, or bipemtis, was also called 

 securi Amazonica, the Amazonian axe, from its being supposed to 

 have been used by those female warriors. The best representation 

 of the ancient form of this bipennis is probably to be found in Petit's 

 ' Dissertatio de Amazonibus,' 8vo, Amst., 1687, where it appears on 

 the reverse of a coin of Thyatira, as well as upon the reverses of two 

 coins of Marcus Aurelius. Numerous other coins of great antiquity 

 bearing the bipennis are referred to in Rasche's ' Lexicon Rei Num- 

 maria;,' torn. i. col. 502, et seq.; ' Supplem.' torn. i. p. 596. 



Among the nations and tribes who joined the great expedition of 

 Xerxes, we find battle-axes among the Sac;c (Herodot. vii. c. Ixiv.), 

 and the Egyptians (ibid. c. Ixxxix.) Brennus, at the siege of the 

 Roman capitol by the Gauls, was armed with a battle-axe. The Vin- 

 delici fought against Drusus with the battle-axe. (Horat. ' Carm." iv. 4.) 

 Tacitus, speaking of a later period (' Hist.' ii. 42), describes Otho's 

 forces as cutting through helmets and breastplates with their swords 

 and axes (f/ladiis et semrihns). In the Roman armies, however, we do 

 not find the battle-axe in ordinary use. It seems to have been con- 

 sidered as the weapon more peculiarly used by uncivilised nations. 

 Ammianus Marcellinus (fol. Par. 1681, lib. xix. c. vi.), under the 

 year 359, describes a body of Gauls as furnished with battle-axes and 

 swords. 



The introduction of tho battle-axe into this country has wen 



