B LO 



.',31 



B LO 



blindage*, if * bombardment it apprchendod, and the con- 

 sumption of every article is carefully ecoromized. The 

 garrison should keep the field as long as possible, disputing 

 with the enemy every spot winch ho may endeavour to 

 occupy, and destroying every thing which may afford him 

 cover : sorties should be made whenever a hope of success 

 presents iUelf without risking the loss of many men, and 

 every other means should bo taken as long as possible to 

 prevent the enemy from establishing bis posts, or forming 

 redoubt* about the place. 



In 1 757 the King of Prussia blockaded Prague, a po- 

 pulous city, and garrisoned by 60,000 soldiers; the invest- 

 ment continued MX weeks, during which time all the ave- 

 nue* were occupied and several engagements took place. 

 The history of the late Peninsular War affords however 

 one of the best examples of reducing a fortified town by a 

 blockade, in that which the Duke, then the Marquis, of Wel- 

 lington, caused to be established about Pampeluna in 1813. 

 Tins town had a garrison consisting of more than 4000 

 men, while the British array could spare neither troops nor 

 artillery sufficient to ensure its surrender by a siege. Nine 

 strong redoubts, each capable of containing a garrison of 

 200 or 300 men, with some field-pieces, were constructed on 

 commanding heights, at from 1200 to 1500 yards from the 

 place, and served to repel every sortie from thence, while 

 the rest of the blockading force was quartered in the neigh- 

 bouring villages, or bivouacked beyond the range of the 

 artillery of the fortress. Buildings near the latter were 

 barricaded and formed strong advanced posts ; the roads 

 were blocked up as usual, and small field-works covered 

 the guards of the army. The blockade continued three 

 months ; and when Marshal Soult advanced to the relief of 

 the town, notwithstanding that the British troops in concen- 

 trating themselves to oppose him were necessarily drawn 

 away from the posts which they occupied, yet the precau- 

 tions used were such, that no communication could take 

 place between the garrison and the French army, though 

 the latter was almost within sight of the ramparts. 



(See Lallemand, Traite des Operations Secondaires de la 

 Guerre ; Jomini, Traite des grandes Operations Afilitaires ; 

 Colonel Sir J. T. Jones, Journals of Sieges in Spain.) 



BLOCKHOUSE (also written BLOCKHAUS), among 

 military edifices is, as the name implies, a building con- 

 structed chiefly of timber ; if alone, it constitutes an inde- 

 pendent fort ; if formed in the interior of a field-work, it 

 becomes a retrenchment or reduit, and serves to protect the 

 defenders from the inclemency of the weather when the 

 work is occupied during a considerable time, or to prolong 

 the defence when the work is attacked ; and, after it is 

 taken, to enable the garrison to obtain a capitulation. 



When the blockhouse is to be employed only as a re- 

 trenchment, its plan is generally a simple rectangle, and its 

 walls consist of a single row of piles, placed upright in the 

 ground ; these arc pierced with loop-holes, at the distance 

 of three feet from each other, in order that the building may 

 lx> defended by a fire of musketry from within. The roof is 

 formed by laying timbers horizontally across the inclosed 

 area, and covering them with fascines and earth. The 

 covering materials, when the work is intended to be bomb- 

 proof, must bo at least four feot thick, since the shells fireil 

 from field-howitzers penetrate into earth nearly to that 

 depth. The entrances, when formed in the walls, are pro- 

 tected by inclined blindages, or by palisades, planted close 

 together in their front, and pierced with loop-holes ; but 

 occasionally the entrances are in the roof, and access to them 

 i-. then obtained by means of ladders. 



The interior breadth of the building may be about eighteen 

 feet, in order to allow a passage between the two rows of 

 bedsteads: these are placed with their heads to the side 

 walls, and serve as stages on which the men may stand to 

 lire through the loop-holes when the latter ore much ele- 



il,o\e the Moor. 



Reduiti of this kind arc nearly indispensable in situations 

 commanded by height*, when consequently the interior of 

 tne |,rnuip:il work is so subject to the plunging flrcs of the 

 enemy, that the defenders could not (it herwise find shelter, 

 and then the side-walls should be thick enough to resist a fire 

 of artillery. In other circumstances it would be advisable 



that the parapets of the principal work should conceal th 

 u-'iuit from the view of the enemy; for which purpose the 

 roof of the latter should be kept as low a* possible : und, in 

 I his case, in order to afford sufficient height in the interior, 

 which should not be less than eight leet, it may be in cowiarjr 

 to sink the floor below the level of the natural ground. 



In a mountainous country the blockhouse possesses great 

 advantages over an ordinary field-fort, inasmuch as the in- 

 terior of the latter would be incessantly ploughed up by the 

 fire of artillery directed into it by the enemy from the sur- 

 roumlinn heights. Here then the blockhouse may with pro- 

 priety lie constructed as an independent work; its plan may 

 have re-entering angles, or be in the form of a cross, in 

 order to allow the faces to be defended by flanking I! 

 musketry from within ; and the walls may be thick enough 

 to resist the shot from nine-pounder guns. For this p\. 

 they must be made by planting parallel to each other, at 

 the distance of three or four ieet, two rows of strum: piles, 

 those in each row being close together, and the interval 

 between the rows being filled with earth up to the height of 

 the loop-holes, which should now be immediately under the 

 roof of the building. The roof must bo made shell-proof a* 

 before ; but it has been recommended, when the work is in a 

 overlooked by the enemy, and when its breadth will permit, 

 to have the piles forming the side-walls long enough I- 

 above the roof, and, either alone, or with a mass of earth 

 behind them, to serve as a parapet. 



To prevent the enemy from setting fire to the blockhouse, 

 it should be surrounded by a ditch ; part of the earth ob- 

 tained from thence should be raised against the building as 

 high as the loop-holes, in order to strengthen it exteriorly, 

 and the rest may be thrown beyond the counterscarp, to 

 form there what is called a reverse glacis. 



Any area inclosed for the purposes of defence by piles or 

 palisades, or by logs of timber horizontally disposed, but 

 without a roof, and defended by loop-holes and machicola- 

 tions, is sometimes called a blockhouse; more generally, 

 however, such constructions are called stockades, under 

 which word they will be described. 



(See Bousmard, Kssai General de Fortification ; Dufour, 

 Memorial pour /r.v Trarani (If Guerre ; Macauley, Captain 

 J. S., Treatise on Field Furtificutinn.) 



BLOCKING-COURSE. [See ENTABLATURE.] 

 BLOEMA ART, ABRAHAM, an historical painter, was 

 born at Gorcum in 1567, but resided principally at Utrecht. 

 His father practised architecture and sculpture. Ho pos- 

 sessed originality and feeling, but was a complete mannerist. 

 making nature subservient to his own peculiar style. Some 

 accounts say that he never travelled ; but others, perhaps of 

 better authority, state that he spent at least above ten years 

 at Paris. Still his advantages from travelling were not 

 great, and this circumstance must have conduced to keep his 

 genius cramped, and have prevented his acquiring a correct 

 taste. Thus he has painted historical pictures in which the 

 figures are as large as life, which shows that he had the am- 

 bition of doing something great ; but the costume is still 

 Dutch, no matter what the subject may be. This error has 

 indeed been committed by other painters, both before and 

 since his time, in the highest departments of the art; though 

 certainly it is a more unfortunate blunder in Holland than in 

 Italy. He acquired however considerable skill in the prac- 

 tice of his art. Besides historical pioture* he also executed 

 some landscapes, which have been admired, and he was not 

 a stranger to the etching needle. His works have remained 

 almost entirely in his native country, and are chiefly at Am- 

 sterdam. There are pictures of his in some of the churches 

 at Brussels and Mechlin. He died in 1647, according to 

 some accounts, but others say 1657, There are engraving* 

 of his works very spiritedly executed by Bolsw crt. 



Abraham left four sons, two painters and two engravers .- 

 according to other accounts, only three sons. Cornelius, the 

 eldest, was an engraver, and is said to have introduced certain 

 improvements in the practice of his art, giving a softer edge 

 to his shadows than his predecessors. The accounts of Bloc- 

 niaart and his sons are exceedingly confused and contra- 

 dictory. In some particulars we have followed /let L'-ri H 

 der aoorlucht. Nederland. en eenige Hnngduittche Scfiil- 

 dert, Sic., door K. Van Mander; J. de Jongh's ed. 1764. . 



END op VOLUME THE FOURTH. 



WU.UAM Cunru and SOKI, SUiufonI-ilrt. 



