A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer / Comprising ancient and modern military technical terms, historical accounts of all North American Indians, as well as ancient warlike tribes; also notices of battles from the earliest period to the present time, with a concise explanation of terms used in heraldry and the offices thereof. The work also gives valuable geographical information. Compiled from the best authorities of all nations. With an appendix containing the Articles of war, etc.

by Thomas Wilhelm

Base of the Breech. In gunnery, is the rear surface of the breech of a gun.

Basel, Treaty of. This place gives its name to two important treaties of peace, concluded here on April 5 and July 22, 1795, between the representatives of the French Republic, Prussia, and Spain, by which Prussia withdrew from the coalition against France, took under her protection all the states of Northern Germany which should like herself relinquish the war in which the German empire was engaged, and also give up to the victorious republic her possessions beyond the Rhine; whilst Spain gave up her portion of St. Domingo, and prepared the way for that alliance with France which was afterwards productive of consequences so important.

Base-ring. In gunnery, is a projecting band of metal adjoining the base of the breech, and connected with the body of the gun by a concave moulding.

Bashaw. See [Pasha].

Bashi-Bazouks. Are irregular troops in the pay of the sultan. Very few of them are Europeans; they are mostly Asiatics, from some of the pashalics in Asiatic Turkey; they are wild, turbulent men, ready to enter the sultan’s service under some leader whom they can understand, and still more ready to plunder whenever an opportunity offers. During the Russo-Turkish war of 1854, etc., they had many encounters with the enemy in that kind of irregular warfare which the Russians intrust to Cossack horsemen; but the peaceful villagers had almost as much distrust of the Bashi-Bazouks as of the Russians. They were also partially employed by the British during the Crimean war.

Bashkirs. A race supposed to be descended from the Nogay Tartars, who inhabit the Russian provinces of Ufa and Yekaterinboorg, in the governments of Orenburg and Perm respectively. They are but partially civilized, and are generally employed by Russia as guards on the frontier of Asia.

Basientello (Southern Naples). Here the army of Otto II., in an ambuscade, was nearly cut to pieces by the Greeks and Saracens, July 13, 982; the emperor barely escaped.

Basilisk. An ancient piece of ordnance, which was 10 feet long and weighed 7200 pounds; so called from its supposed resemblance to the serpent of that name, or from its size.

Basillard. An old term for a poniard.

Basket-hilt. The hilt of a sword, so made as to contain and guard the whole hand.