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frequently called roailing ; and in pharmacy, uilion, or 

 torrefaftion. 



ASSAULT, in the Art of War, fitrnifies a j^eneral attack 

 irade by a beficgin'T army, to become mailers of an intrenched 

 camp, poll:, or fortrefs. In the latter cafe it is particularly 

 underftood to take place without the advantage of any works 

 to fcreen the alTailants from the fire of the garrifon. 



Anciently, when tatties were yet in their infancy, and 

 the art of bcfieging places bore comparatively no proportion 

 to that of defence, we rarely meet v/ith inftances of walled 

 tenvns entered by alTault. A clofe blockade was generally 

 the mealure reforted to, and the garrifon were flowly dif- 

 trclTed, and the patience of the beliegers exhaufted, by cir- 

 cumvallaiions fupported for years. The fieges of Azotus 

 by the Egyptians, of Nineveh by the Medes and Babylo- 

 nians, and of Babylon by Darius Hyftafpes, where treachery 

 alone prcvente<l a refilhince equally tedious with that of the 

 two former places, are evidences of the almoft infuperable 

 difficulties attending the reduiSlion of llrong holds iu earlier 

 days. 



The Greeks, previoufly to the xra of Alexander, had very 

 imperfett notions of aflaulting towns. The Carthaginians 

 firR demonftrated the pofTibility of (liortening fieges by the 

 fummary expedient of reiterated and furiuns attacks. Thus 

 they became mailers, in the filth century B. C, of Himera 

 and Sclinos in Sicily ; an^l, nearly two hundred years after, 

 of Saguntum in Spain. The cruelties they executed againft 

 the unfortunate inhabitants were afterwards amply retaliated 

 upon themfelves by the Romans. 



That warlike nation was employed for ages in almoft con- 

 tinual wars before they praftifed this method of attack. 

 Surprife, not an open and vigorous afTault, made them 

 mailers of Vtii. In the firfl Punic war, Lilybaeum for years 

 baffled their utmofl efforts, though they had then united to 

 their own fyflem of taftics, wliateverwas moft new and va- 

 luable in that of the Greeks. The ftorming of New Car- 

 thage by Scipio is one of the firfl and moft memorable ex- 

 amples of a fuccefsful affault in the Roman annals. To 

 what perfection thev afterwards carried this branch of mili- 

 tary fcience, the capture of Athens by Sylla, of Avaricum 

 by Coefar, and of Cremona and Rome itfelf by the armies 

 of Vefpafian, are melancholy witneffes. 



In the dark period of the decline of the empire, the 

 barbarians who fucceflively invaded it only carried on their 

 operations againil fortified places by continued aflfaults, which 

 were commonly fuccefsful, nor were the fuperior tallies of 

 the Romans then capable of refilliiig their fury. 



Alike impetuous and irrefittible, the Mogul deftroyers, 

 ■who, under Jengis Khan and his fuccelTors, defolated the 

 faireft regions of Afia, mocked the ordinary rules of war. 

 A place which had once refulld capitulation, never enjoyed 

 a repetition of the offer. Affault fucceedcd to affault with 

 aftonifhing rapidity,- and no refpite was allowed the devoted 

 garrifon, till weakened beyond the power of further refill- 

 ance, they were involved, with the innocent inhabitants, and. 

 the place itf.lf, in one common deftrudlion. 



W'th the Europeans of the middle ages, the fcience of 

 attack loft much of its former fuperiority ; and the callle of 

 a petty- baron frequently baffled the endeavours of the moll 

 powerful monarch. 



The invention of gunpowder offered new advantages to 

 the art of befieging : but general affanlts have become infi- 

 nitely more dangerous againil ramparts mounted with 

 artillery. Even after the requifite breach is made, it is 

 abfolutely neceffai-y to deftroy the works whofe fire, on. 

 either fide, flank and proteft the point ot attack. Before 

 therefore a llorm is attempted, the befieging general Ihould 

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afceitain that his troops are expofed to rro other fire than th* 

 garrifon arc able to maintain from the front of the breach 

 itfelf. 



Owing to the fancied advantages a regular garrifon were 

 fuppofed to poffcfs behind good fortifications, the rules of 

 w,->r fovmeily required a governor to fuftain three affaults 

 before he furrendered. But fuch rigid notions have been by 

 degrees difregarded. Few commanders chufe, by maintain- 

 ing a fortrefs to the lafl extremity, to expofe their troops to 

 an ufelcfs flaughter, or the inhabitants to the murder and 

 pillage inevitably the attendants of a ftorm. At Glogaw, 

 carried by the Pruffians in 1741, and Bergen op Zoom, by 

 the French in 1 747, fuccefs wias more the effeft of a coup 

 de main than a regular affault. 



The Turks, however, materially differ from us on this 

 head. It is with them a maxim of religion, never to fur- 

 render to Chrilllans a place where they have once poffcffed 

 a mofque. They, therefore, hold out to the lall. Severe 

 puiiiflunent has, indeed, attended this obflinacy. Bender, 

 Ockzakow, and Ifmael, are memorable for the undillin- 

 guilhed (laughters exercifed by Ruffian ferocity, and have 

 crowned with bloody laurels the names of Panin, of Po- 

 temkin, and of Suwarrow. 



The capture of Warfaw, in 1 794, is a frefh inftance of 

 the fummary methods obferved by the latter general in 

 attacking towns, and of the lamentable confequences 

 of ineffeclual refiftauce to a barbarous and unforgiving 

 enemy. 



During the late war, an inceffant cannonade and bom- 

 bardment have been chiefly fubftltuted by befiegers to the 

 fyilem of affault. Pavia indeed, with fome fmaller places 

 in Italy, fuffered, in 1796, all the horrors of a llorm, from 

 the French army, under general Buonaparte. The year 

 1799 alfo furnilhes four remarkable inftances: i. The attack 

 of Naples (January 22), by genei-al Championet, to which- 

 the rafhnels of the Lazzaroni madly expofed themfclves; but 

 memorable for the daring and defpcrate, though unfncceff- 

 fnl refittance, maintained by them ngainll regular troops. 

 2. The ftorming of Jafta by Buonaparte (Feb.), the garri- 

 fon of which place, 3,500 ftrong, was nearly extirpated, 

 prefcnts a linking and frightful picture of Turkiffi obfti- 

 nacy. 3. That of Acre (May 8), where the French, after 

 having penetrated within the town, were eventually repulfed 

 with great lols, is the more worthy of notice, from its hav- 

 ing effeftua'ly checked the adventurous progrefs of Buona-« 

 parte on the fide of Syria. 4. The affault of Zurich 

 (Sept. 24) by the republican army of Helvetia, and 

 which may with more propriety be denominated a battle, 

 difplays fo much ingenuity in the comphcated movement* 

 directed by general Maffena, all of which were infeparably 

 conneiled with the main point of attack, fuch precifion, 

 firmneis, and bravery in the execution, and fuch impor- 

 tance in the confequences, as to demand a feparate relation 

 elfewhere. It will here be fufficient to obferve, that the 

 Ruffian camp before Zurich was forced, the town itfelf 

 carried fword in hand, and that this event gave fo decided 

 a fuperiority to Maffena, as to be immediately fohowed 

 by a preciptate retreat of the allied forces from Swiffcr. 

 land. 



Affailants, as fuch, acquire a ver\' confiderable fuperiority 

 over thole they attack. This fuperiority, fays an excellent 

 writer on tadlics, may be derived from two caufes ; the firlt 

 a phyfical one, viz. that air of boldnefs, peculiar to affail- 

 ants, cannot but allonilh and intimidate an enemy who lees 

 that no difficulty can Itop them ; the fccond is, that the 

 affa laiits can command as much time as they pleafe, to take 

 tlieir meafures for overcoming all obllacles that can be thrown 



in 



