FORTIFICATION. 
as possible, from the provision, &c. so 
that in case of the former taking fire, the 
garrison should not be necessitated to capi- 
tulate, owing to a want, of subsistence. 
Sally-ports are made, under various parts 
of the works, to favour the sallies made oc- 
casionally, for the purpose of attacking the 
besiegers in their intrenchments, or for 
other essential purposes. These are gene- 
rally galleries, which are shut up, except at 
the moments when in immediate use. Mines 
are frequently prepared in the first construc- 
tion of a fortress ; but the galleries whereby 
they are entered, are usually stopped 
np ; nor are they loaded, that is, filled with 
powder, until the period seems close at 
hand for their being serviceable. Such 
matters are carefully concealed from all 
but the engineers, and the superior officers. 
The supply of water, if from a river, or 
lake, should be very carefully secured ; for 
this purpose, it is often necessary to en- 
large the outworks so as to command 
sluices, &c. whereby the ditch or reservoirs 
are tilled. If possible, large tanks should 
be kept in the garrison, or a proper quan- 
tity of casks should be filled, especially in 
parts where wells cannot be dug ; lest the 
besiegers should either drain off the lake, or 
get command of the sluices, and block 
them up. If particular parts of the sur- 
rounding country can be inundated, it 
sometimes renders all attempts to carry the 
place by breaching the walls, utterly im- 
practicable. When this happens, and that 
the situation admits of its being complete- 
ly invested (whereby it is meant that all 
access is cut off) the place may fall in con- 
sequence of a blockade. The chances of 
war are, however, greatly against the suc- 
cess of blockades ; for, if the garrison be 
strong and well provided, it may make nu- 
merous successful sallies against an army 
which must be greatly dispersed by sur- 
rounding the place ; while the diseases inci- 
dent to fixed camps, bad provisions, putrid 
water, constant watching, and probably the 
necessity of countervallation throughout its 
rear, to keep off partisans, or to repel such 
forces as may hover about with the inten- 
tion to relieve the place, all combine to 
weaken, dishearten, and cause relaxation 
among the besiegers. In this instance, the 
besieged who have but one object, namely, 
the defence of the works, have some ad- 
vantage. But a good general will never sit 
down before a town he is not tolerably cer- 
tain must fall in a given time. 
An ample stock of ready made palisades, 
chevaux de frises, &c. ought to be made in 
time of peace, and be safely deposited, so 
as to be out of the reach of carcases, shells, 
&c. ; lest they should take fire. Such ma- 
chines are generally best preserved, and 
are safest, when immersed in water. Fas- 
cines, which are large faggots, are dangerous 
in a fortress, being so soon kindled, and so 
prompt to get into a great blaze, as to prove 
highly injurious. When the soil is sandy, or 
ot common loam or gravel, cauvas bags 
should be kept in readiness to be filled, so 
as to stop a breach, or to raise a breast- 
work, &c. in case of emergency. 
Every endeavour should be exerted to- 
wards obstructing the enemy from re- 
connoiting the form of the works, as well as 
their disposition before the respective 
parts, and their defilement. The want of 
information as to casemated or solid de- 
fences, sometimes proves very distressing 
to the besiegers ; who not rarely come sud- 
denly upon works of which they had no 
previous information ; and, eventually, find 
themselves enfiladed, or at least directly 
opposed by some masked battery ; such as 
the embrasures in casemated curtains and 
bastions ; or by redoubts within ravelines, of 
which they had no intelligence, and which 
could not be discovered from the glacis. 
It sometimes occurs, that after getting 
possession of the works, the besiegers are 
compelled to quit the body of the place, 
and to retreat to their lodgments on the 
counterscarp. This, for the most part, is 
occasioned by the judicious situation of a 
citadel ; or by the peculiar mode of building 
the houses, &c. Indeed it has more than 
once happened, that as the breach was 
stormed, and perhaps carried, succours 
have entered at some opposite part of the 
fortress, and enabled the garrison to take 
the field with advantage. Sieges are, very 
frequent^q raised by the approach of suc- 
cours ; and many an army, thus retiring, 
has been either shut up, or compelled to 
lay down its arms. 
The great variety of favourable occur- 
rences occasionally offering in behalf of 
those brave men, who, regardless of the 
labours, and of the painful privations to 
which the besieged are ever subject, conti- 
nue firm to their duty, should stimulate 
each individual to the utmost exertion, and 
to submit to every hardship without a 
murmur. The example of the governor, 
and of the Officers in general, rarely fails to 
produce that happy effect ; and, as we have 
so gloriously witnessed, in the case of Gene- 
