Platform. Is a strong flooring upon which a piece of ordnance, mounted on its carriage, is manœuvred when in battery. Its object is to facilitate the service of heavy guns and mortars, and to insure accuracy of fire. Fixed platforms are used for casemate and barbette batteries in fortifications, and are constructed with the works; siege-platforms for guns and howitzers; and siege-platforms for mortars; the other kinds are the rail-platform, the ricochet-platform, and the platforms for sea-coast mortars. Platforms should possess strength and portability, and the pieces composing them should be constructed of the same dimensions, viz.: 9 feet long, 5 inches wide, and 31⁄2 inches thick. The weight of each piece in a platform is about 50 pounds; and in a siege-platform for guns and howitzers, there are 49 pieces, 1 being used as a [hurter] on the front part of the platform to prevent the carriage from running too far forward, and 12 for sleepers. The weight of this platform complete is 26011⁄2 pounds. This platform is laid with an elevation to the rear, of 11⁄2 inches to the yard, or 41⁄2 inches in the whole length. This elevation is given to diminish the recoil of the piece and to permit the water to run off. The length of this platform is 15 feet by 9 feet. The platform for a siege-mortar is composed of only 6 sleepers and 21 deck-planks. It is laid level, and the front and rear deck-planks are connected by eye-bolts to every sleeper. This platform is about 9 feet deep by 9 feet wide, and weighs 1220 pounds. The rail-platform for siege-mortars consists of 3 sleepers and 2 rails for the cheeks of the mortar-bed to slide on, instead of the deck-plank, and is very strong, and easily constructed and laid. For method of laying platforms for siege-gun or howitzer, and for mortars, see “Hand-book of Artillery,” by Roberts, pages 143-47.
Platform Wagon. A sort of wagon used for transporting heavy ordnance.
Platoon. Probably from the French peloton, a “ball of thread,” a “knot,” was a term formerly used in the English service to designate a body of men who fired together. In U. S. tactics, it is now a recognized subdivision of a company, being one-half.
Plattsburg. A township and capital of Clinton Co., N. Y., situated on both banks of the Saranac River, at its entrance into Lake Champlain. In the bay was fought the naval battle of Champlain, in which the British flotilla, under Commodore Downie, was defeated by the American commodore McDonough, September 11, 1814; while the land forces amounting to 14,000 men, under Sir George Prevost, were defeated by Gen. Macomb.
Play. Is occasionally applied to a military action; as, the guns played upon the enemy.
Plea. That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause; in a stricter sense, an allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer; in a still more limited sense, and in modern practice, the defendant’s answer to the plaintiff’s declaration and demand. That which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant’s plea.
Plevna. A town of Bulgaria, which became important in a military sense through the battles which took place around it during the Russo-Turkish war. The first battle took place July 15-16, 1877, resulting in the capture of Nikopolis. The second took place July 30, with considerable loss to both sides, but without any decisive results. The third took place September 11.
Plombée (Fr.). An ancient war-club, whose head was loaded with lead.
Plongée. In artillery and fortification, means a slope toward the front. Thus, in speaking of the course of a shell through the air, its plongée is from the point of greatest altitude to the point at which it strikes the earth. So, in fortification, the plongée is the top of the parapet, sloping gently toward the front. This depression varies from one-fourth to one-sixth of the thickness of the parapet.
Ploy. To form a column from a line of battle on some designated subdivision.