Evans Rifle. See [Magazine Guns].
F.
Fabian. Delaying; dilatory; avoiding battle, in imitation of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, a Roman general who conducted military operations against Hannibal, by declining to risk a battle in the open field, but harassing the enemy by marches, countermarches, and ambuscades.
G.
Gad. The first-born of Zilpah, Leah’s maid, was the seventh son of Jacob. The tribe of Gad numbered in the wilderness of Sinai more than 40,000 fighting-men. Nomadic by nature, they preferred to remain on the east side of Jordan, and were reluctantly allowed to do so by Joshua, on condition of assisting their countrymen in the conquest and subjugation of Canaan. The men of Gad—if we may judge from the eleven warriors who joined David in his extremity—were a race of stalwart heroes; “men of might, and men of war, fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains.”
Gomer Chamber. Chamber of the 24-pounder Coehorn mortar; it is in the form of a frustum of a cone, superior diameter 3 inches, and inferior, 2 inches.
Gore. In heraldry, a charge consisting of one-third of the shield cut off by two arched lines, one drawn from the dexter or sinister chief, and the other from the bottom of the escutcheon, meeting in the fess point. A gore sinister is enumerated by heralds as one of the abatements or marks of dishonor borne for unknightly conduct. See Gusset.
Guelf, Guelph, or Welf. The name of a noble family in Germany, the founder of which lived in the time of Charlemagne.
H.
Half Merlons. The merlons at the ends of the parapet.