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

Hoplital (Fr. hoplites). Foot-soldiers among the Greeks, who bore heavy armor, and engaged with broad shields and long spears. These took precedence of all other foot-soldiers.

Horde. A wandering troop or gang; especially a clan or tribe of a nomadic people possessing no fixed habitations, but migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, or the like cause.

Hordearium. The money which the Romans gave their cavalry for the sustenance of their horses.

Horion (Fr.). A term which formerly signified a helmet, and which in the vulgar acceptation of it now, among the French, means a blow upon the head.

Horizon (Gr. orizo, I bound or terminate). In astronomy and geography, is the plane of the great circle of the sphere, dividing the visible from the invisible hemisphere. The horizon is either sensible or rational. The sensible horizon is a plane which is a tangent to the earth’s surface at the place of the spectator, extended on all sides till it is bounded by the sky; the rational horizon is a plane parallel to the former, but passing through the centre of the earth. Both the sensible and rational horizon are relative terms, and change with every change of the spectator’s position on the surface of the earth; in all cases they are perpendicular to the direction of gravity.

Horizontal Fire. The fire of guns and howitzers under low angles of elevation.

Horizontal Plane. That which is parallel to the horizon; a plane tangent to the surface of the earth, at the place.

Horizontal Range. In gunnery, is the distance to which a piece of ordnance will project a ball on a horizontal plane. Supposing no resistance from the atmosphere, the greatest range would be when the piece is elevated at an angle of 45°; and in all other positions the horizontal range would be as the sine of twice the angle of elevation. In a resisting medium the maximum horizontal range requires the elevation to be less than 45°. It is found by experience that, with the ordinary velocity, a cannon-shot ranges the farthest when the elevation of the piece is about 30°.

Hornwork. A kind of work in advance of a fortification, akin to a crown-work, but consisting of only one curtain and two half-bastions.

Hors de Combat. A French military phrase, signifying that an individual or body of men are so completely beaten as not to be able to maintain the field of battle. Mettre hors de combat, to drive your opponent before you; to press him so closely that he cannot make a stand against you; to put him out of the lists of contests. To be wounded or incapable of individual effort, is also being hors de combat.