Assignment. If, upon marches, guards, or in quarters, different corps of the army shall happen to join or do duty together, the officer highest in rank of the line of the army, marine corps, or militia, by commission, there on duty or in quarters, shall command the whole, and give orders for what is needful to the service, unless otherwise specially directed by the President of the United States, according to the nature of the case. See Appendix, [Articles of War], [122].
Assignment of Pay. By a non-commissioned officer or private, previous to discharge, is invalid. A transfer subsequent to the discharge is valid.
Assinaries, or Assinaires. Festivals which were instituted at Syracuse, in commemoration of the destruction of the Athenian fleet commanded by Nicias and Demosthenes.
Assinarus (now Falunara). A small river in Sicily, near which the army of Nicias and Demosthenes was defeated 413 B.C.
Assistant. In the English army, is the third grade in any particular branch of the staff, such as the quartermaster-general’s or adjutant-general’s. After the principal comes the deputy and then the assistant. In the United States it is the second grade in the staff branches of the army.
Assyria. A name which is usually appropriated to the first of what are known as the four great empires of the world, but which in geography nearly corresponds with the modern Koordistan. Its capital was Nineveh, of which the ancient ruins may still be traced. In 625 B.C., Nineveh was destroyed by Cyaxares the Mede, and Assyria became a province of Media.
Astapa (now Estepa). A city in the province of Seville, Spain; it was besieged by the Romans under Marius; the besieged slew their women and children and allowed themselves to be cut down to a man before they would surrender to the Romans.
Asta-Regia. A city of Spain (now in ruins); near here the prætor Caius Atinius gained a victory over the ancient Lusitanians, in 186 B.C.
Asti, or Asta. A city in Piedmont, Italy. Chevert took its fortress in 1745.
Astorga (anc. Asturica Augusta). A city in Spain, which was taken by the French in 1810.