Transfers. Soldiers taken out of one troop, or company, and placed in another are so called. Non-commissioned officers or soldiers will not be transferred from one regiment to another without the authority of the commanding general. The colonel of a regiment may, upon the application of the captains, transfer a non-commissioned officer or soldier from one company to another of his regiment,—with consent of the department commander in case of a change of post. The transfer of officers from one regiment or corps to another will be made only by the war department, on the mutual application of the parties desiring the exchange.

Transfixed. An ancient term used to express the state of being desperately wounded by some pointed instrument, as being run through by a spear, javelin, or bayonet; pierced through so that the weapon is fixed in another body.

Transfluent. In heraldry, passing or flowing through a bridge,—said of water.

Transfuge. A turncoat, a deserter, a runaway; one who abandons his party in time of war, and goes over to the enemy.

Transit-compass. A species of theodolite, consisting of a telescope revolving in a vertical plane on a horizontal axis, as in a transit-instrument, combined with a compass, a graduated horizontal limb, etc., used for running lines, observing bearings, horizontal angles, and the like; called also surveyor’s transit.

Transoms. In gunnery, are pieces of wood or iron which join the cheeks of gun-carriages and hold them together; they are known as the front and rear transoms.

Transportation. The act of transporting, carrying, or conveying from one place to another; as, the transportation of troops, munitions of war, etc.

Transportation of Artillery. In transporting artillery by sea, divide the total quantity to be transported among the vessels, and place in each vessel everything necessary for the service required at the moment of disembarkation, so that there will be no inconvenience should other vessels be delayed. If a siege is to be undertaken, place in each vessel with each piece of artillery its implements, ammunition, and the carriages necessary to transport the whole or a part; the platforms, tools, instruments, and materials for constructing batteries; skids, rollers, scantling, and plank. If a particular caliber of gun is necessary for any operation, do not place all of one kind in one vessel, to avoid being entirely deprived of them by accident. Dismount the carriages, wagons, and limbers, by taking off the wheels and boxes, and, if absolutely necessary, the axle-trees. Place in the boxes the linch-pins, washers, etc., with the tools required for putting the carriages together again. Number each carriage, and mark each detached article with the number of the carriage to which it belongs. The contents of each box, barrel, or bundle, should be marked distinctly upon it. The boxes should be made small for the convenience of handling, and have rope handles to lift them by. Place the heaviest articles below, beginning with the shot and shells (empty), then the guns, platforms, carriages, wagons, limbers, ammunition, boxes, etc.; boxes of small-arms and ammunition in the dryest and least exposed part of the vessel. Articles required to be disembarked first should be put in last, or so placed that they can be readily got at. If the disembarkation is to be performed in front of the enemy, some of the field-pieces should be so placed that they can be disembarked immediately, with their carriages, implements, and ammunition; also the tools and materials for throwing up temporary intrenchments on landing. Some vessels should be laden solely with such powder and ammunition as may not be required for the immediate service of the pieces. On a smooth sandy beach, heavy pieces, etc., may be landed by rolling them overboard as soon as the boats ground, and hauling them up with sling-carts.

Transylvania. Is the most easterly crownland of Austria, and is bounded on the north by Hungary and Galicia, east by Bukovina and Moldavia, south by Wallachia, and west by the Military Frontier, the Banat, and Hungary. Transylvania is little noticed in history till the Christian era, when part of it was occupied by the warlike Dacians, soon after whom the Sarmatian tribes of the Jazyges and Carpi settled in it. The conquest of the Dacians by Trajan, however, did not include that of the other two peoples, who proved very troublesome to the Roman settlers along the Danube, till they were conquered by Diocletian, and the Carpi carried away to Pannonia and other districts. In the middle of the 4th century, the Goths overran the country, defeating the Sarmatians in a great battle on the Maros, in which the monarch and the chief of his nobility perished; and they in their turn were forced in 375 to retire before the Huns and their confederates. The Gepidæ next took possession of Transylvania, till their almost complete extirpation, in 566, by the Lombards and Avars. It was conquered by the Hungarians about 1000, and was governed by woivodes till 1526, when the death of the Hungarian monarch at Mohacs prepared the way for the union of the two countries under the woivode John Zapolya; but the war which thence arose with the Austrians caused their complete severance, and Zapolya’s sway was, in 1535, confined to Transylvania, of which he became sovereign lord, under the protection of the Turks. The Saxons were summoned by the Hungarian monarchs to act as a counterpoise to the increasing power of the nobles; the firm protection and generous treatment accorded to the Saxons by the Hungarian monarchs were rewarded by steadfast loyalty and succor in men and money whenever required. During the rest of the 16th century the country was distracted by the bitter strife between the Catholic party, who were supported by Austria, and the Protestant party, who were allied with the Turks; the latter party, headed successively by princes of the houses of Zapolya and Bathory, generally maintaining the superiority. The next chief of the Protestant party was the celebrated Botskay, whose successes against Austria extorted from the emperor an acknowledgment of the independence of Transylvania in 1606. To him succeeded Bethlem Gabor, the determined foe of Catholicism and Austria, who did important service during the Thirty Years’ War. Between his son and successor, Stephen, and Ragotski arose a contest for the crown, in which the latter prevailed; but on Ragotski’s death, the civil war was resumed, till the complete rout of the Austrians by the Turks, under Kiupruli, placed the sceptre in the hands of Michael Abaffi, who reigned till his death, in 1690, as a vassal of the Porte. The Austrians now again possessed themselves of Transylvania, despite the heroic resistance of Ragotski; and though Tekeli succeeded for a brief period in rolling back the invaders, the peace of Carlowitz, in 1699, again put them in possession; and in 1713 Transylvania was completely incorporated with Hungary. During the insurrection in 1848 the Hungarians and Szeklers (one of the races inhabiting Transylvania) joined the insurgents and forced Transylvania to reunite with Hungary, despite the opposition of the Saxons; and the Wallachs, still little better than a horde of savages, were let loose over the land, to burn, plunder, and murder indiscriminately; the prostration of the country being completed in the following year during the bloody conflict which took place here between Bem and the Russian troops. In the same year Transylvania was again separated from its turbulent neighbor and made a crownland, the portions of it which had, in 1835, been annexed to Hungary being restored, as well as the Transylvanian Military Frontier, in 1851.

Trapani. See Drepanum.