BATRACHIA 



626 



BATTERING-RAM 



Vincent's an.: .'..-mips, South- 



ern University and Baton Kongo College (tlio 



] i>t two lor n.lored students), public and Hill 

 Memorial libra. 



The city is a port of entry for homo and 

 foreign commerce, ami any vessel i>ntering ilio 

 river at its month may safoly ascend to this 

 point. By far tin- contributor to tho 



!rh ami imhistry of the city is tho Standard 

 Oil Company of Louisiana, tho headquarters of 

 the Staimcola products. The plant covers 450 

 .ploys about 2,000 peoplo. and is the 

 industrial show-place of the city. This is the 

 largost but by no moans the only important 

 industrial establishment in the city. There are 

 mammoth printing houses employing about 

 1.600 people, large sugar refineries, manufac- 

 tories of molasses, cottonseed and lumber prod- 

 ami popper mills. 



:i Rouge was settled by the French and 

 is one of the oldest settlements in the state. 

 It became a British possession in 1763, as part 

 of \Yt -st Florida, and fell under Spanish govern- 

 ment in 1779. In 1817 it was incorporated as 



AH. From 1849 until 1862 it was the state 

 capital ; then Shreveport was chosen for the 

 Confederate seat of government, and in 1864 

 the Unionists made New Orleans the capital. 

 The Louisiana Ordinance of Secession was 

 adopted in Baton Rouge in 1861. In August of 

 1862 the Union forces successfully defended an 

 k by the Confederate forces, under Gen- 

 eral Breckenridge, though the Union leader, 

 Brigadier-General Williams, lost his life. The 

 city was reoccupied after a month and was held 

 until the end of the war. It became the state 

 capital again in 1882. In recent years its growth 



been steady and in 1914 it adopted the 

 commission form of government. B.M.A. 



BATRACHIA, batra' kea, a name originally 



i to an order of animals which included 

 toads, frogs, newts and salamanders. The name 



MS frnf/lil;, . Batrachians live on land and 

 in water, and they are now all included in the 

 family Amphibia, a name meaning double life. 

 Sinn- tin- latter name is more expressive of the 

 chief characteristic of these animals it is pre- 

 ferred to the old name batrachia. See AMPHIB- 



B ATT ALIGN, batal'yun, a term used in 

 nearly every army to denote a unit of military 

 organization, consisting of a body of troops 

 whose numbers vary according to the standard 

 of the army to which they belong. In the 

 United States a battalion consists of four com- 

 panies with a total of 1,000 men. A British 



battalion has 1,000 men. divided into eight 

 companies. (Jrrman battalions in war time 

 number 1,002, in four companies. French, Aus- 

 trian and Italian battalions have practically the 

 same formation as those of (lei-many. 



BATTENBERG, bat' < n Ixrg, a princely 

 family of Prussia which has played a part, in 

 the history of Bulgaria, of Kngland and of 

 Spain. Prince Alexander of Hesse, who married 

 Countess von Hanke, was given to understand 

 that the marriage could be looked upon only as 

 morganatic that is, that neither his wife nor 

 his children could share his possessions nor 

 bear his title. In 1853, however, the countess 

 was created princess of Battenberg, the name 

 being taken from a little town of Hesse-Nassau, 

 and her sons were accordingly known as princes 

 of Battenberg. 



The eldest son, Louis Alexander, Prince of 

 Battenberg (1854- ), became a naturalized 

 British citizen, and entered the British navy. 

 In 1884 he married his cousin, the Princess Vic- 

 toria, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. His 

 rise in rank in the navy was steady, and was 

 based on distinguished services. In 1911 he was 

 made second sea lord of the admiralty, and in 

 the following year admiral of the fleet. 



The second son of Alexander of Hesse was 

 the Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who was 

 chosen prince of Bulgaria when that country 

 became self-governing in 1879. By reason of 

 his real ability as well as his devotion to his 

 adopted country he deserved well at the hands 

 of the Bulgarians, but political troubles ran 

 high, and in 1886 he was compelled to resign 

 the throne. 



A younger brother of the foregoing, Prince 

 Henry Maurice, married the Princess Beatrice, 

 daughter of Queen Victoria, and it was his 

 daughter, the Princess Victoria Ena, who in 

 1906 became queen of Spain as the wife of 

 Alfonso XIII. 



BATTERING-RAM, a device, of the days 

 before the invention of gunpowder and heavy 

 guns for battering down the walls of besieged 

 places. As used by the Greeks and Romans, 

 it consisted of a beam, or spar, with a massive 

 metal head often shaped like the head of a 

 ram, which suggested the name of the weapon. 

 It was carried on the shoulders of a number 

 of men who rushed it against the walls, or was 

 suspended by chains to a beam set across two 

 uprights. Sometimes the framework was 

 mounted on wheels, which greatly increased its 

 effectiveness. Often the ram was 120 feet or 

 more in length, with a head weighing nearly 



