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

Picket-pin. An iron pin with a ring at the top. It is driven in the ground and the lariat is attached to it to secure a horse while grazing.

Pickets, Tracing. See [Tracing Pickets].

Picqueering, Pickering, or Pickerooning. A little flying skirmish, which marauders make when detached for pillage, or before a main battle.

Picrate. See [Explosives].

Picric Acid. See [Explosives].

Picric Powder. See [Explosives].

Picts (Picti). The ancient inhabitants of the northeast provinces of Scotland. The Pictish territory extended along the whole sea-coast from the Firth of Forth to the Pentland Firth. It was bounded on the west by the country of the Scots, which extended along the western coast from the Firth of Clyde to the modern Ross-shire; but the precise line between the two nations cannot be ascertained. The country of the Picts was bounded on the south by the Firth of Forth and the province of Lothian, then possessed by the English; while the country of the Scots had for its southern boundaries the Firth of Clyde and the kingdom of Cumbria, held by the independent Britons. In the middle of the 7th century, a portion of the southern province of the Pictish territories was subdued by Oswy, king of Northumbria. Egfrid, Oswy’s son and successor, seems to have contemplated the subjugation of the whole Pictish kingdom. He advanced northwards with his army; Brude, son of Bili, king of the Picts, retreating before him. The English sovereign passed the Tay, and the Picts made a stand at Nechtansmere, supposed to be Dunnichen, in Anchus; the English were utterly defeated, and their king slain, May 20, 685. The most active of all the Pictish sovereigns was Hungus, son of Urgust, who succeeded, in 730, and reigned for thirty years. He was in constant wars with the Scots, the Britons, and the English, in which he was generally victorious. After his death the kingdom began to decline. Between 838 and 842, the Scots under Kenneth II. totally subdued the Picts, and seized all their kingdom. Their incursions in England led to the Saxon invasion.

Picts’ Wall. One of the barriers erected by the Romans across the northern part of England to restrain the incursions of the [Picts] (which see).

Piece. A general name for any kind of ordnance or musket.

Piece. In heraldry, an ordinary or charge; as, the fesse, the bend, the pale, the bar, the cross, the saltire, the chevron, are called honorable pieces.