Traverses. In fortifications, are mounds of earth, above the height of a man, and 18 feet thick, placed at frequent intervals on a rampart, to stop shot which may enfilade the face of such rampart. A fire of this nature, in the absence of traverses, would dismount the guns, and prove altogether ruinous. The traverses also give means of disputing the progress of an assailant who has gained a footing on the wall, for each traverse becomes a defensible parapet, only to be taken by storm.
Traversing-plates. In gun-carriages, are two thin iron plates, nailed on the hind part of a truck-carriage of guns, where the hand-spike is used to traverse the gun.
Traversing-platform. An elevation on which the guns are mounted for the defense of the coast, and generally for all sea-batteries, as affording greater facility of traversing the gun, so as to follow, without loss of time, any quick-moving object on the water.
Travois. A rude but efficient mode of transportation for conveying the wounded over a level or rolling country, when ambulances are not at hand. It consists of two poles about 16 feet long and 4 inches in diameter; two stretcher bars or poles, 21⁄2 inches in diameter and 3 feet long; and a canvas or rawhide bottom, 51⁄2 feet long and 21⁄2 feet broad; and if of canvas, with eyelet-holes at the sides and ends, which are to be lashed to the poles with rope. The rear ends of the travois-poles rest on the ground, while the front ends are attached to each side of a mule, which draws the travois. The [litter] is better adapted to a rough country. (See [Litter].) The ordinary teepe-poles with which the Indians pitch their tents when in villages are also used in constructing the travois. The Dakota and Montana Sioux, who use mountain-pine or ash-poles, select straight, well-proportioned saplings of those woods, trim them down to the proper size and taper, and lay them aside to season. The dressed poles are about 30 feet long, 2 to 21⁄2 inches at the butt, and 11⁄2 inches at the other extremity. The couch is oval, and the rim is made exclusively of ash, bent into the desired shape when the wood is green. A net-work of rawhide is afterwards lashed to the rim and completes the bed. The bed is 31⁄2 to 4 feet in its transverse, and 21⁄2 to 3 feet in its conjugate diameter. Two or three of the teepe-poles are lashed together, butts to butts, with rawhide, and then lashed to the pack-saddle on the mule, the small ends of the poles trailing the ground. The bed with the longer diameter is then laid transversely on the poles and lashed about 1 foot in rear of the animal. A blanket, piece of canvas, or buffalo-robe lashed to the lower half of the oval rim of the bed completes the outfit. This latter travois is claimed by some officers of the army to be well adapted for transporting wounded even over a rough country.
Tread. In fortification, the tread of a banquette is the upper and flat surface on which the soldier stands whilst firing over the parapet.
Treason. A general appellation to denote not only offenses against the king and government, but also that accumulation of guilt which arises whenever a superior reposes confidence in a subject or inferior, between whom and himself there subsists a natural, a civil, or even a spiritual relation; and the inferior so abuses that confidence, so forgets the obligations of duty, subjection, and allegiance, as to destroy the life of any such superior or lord. It is, according to English law, a general name, in short, for treachery against the sovereign or liege lord. High treason (the crimen læsæ majestatis of the Romans) is an offense committed against the security of the king or kingdom, whether by imagination, word, or deed. In the United States, treason is confined to the actual levying of war against the United States; or an adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.
Treaty. An agreement, league, or contract, between two or more nations or sovereigns, formally signed by commissioners properly authorized, and solemnly ratified by the several sovereigns or the supreme power of each state; an agreement between two or more independent states.
A treaty of guaranty is an engagement by which one state promises to aid another when it is disturbed, or threatened to be disturbed, in the peaceable enjoyments of its rights by a third power. Treaties of alliance may be offensive or defensive; in the former the ally engages generally to co-operate in hostilities against a specified power, or against any power with which the other may be at war; in the latter, the engagements of the ally extend only to a war of aggression commenced against the other contracting party. The execution of a treaty is occasionally secured by hostages; as at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, when several peers were sent to Paris as hostages for the restoration of Cape Breton by Great Britain to France. For celebrated treaties, see appropriate headings in this work.
Trebbia. A small but famous stream of Northern Italy, which joins the Po 2 miles west of Piacenza. On its banks Hannibal decisively defeated the Roman consul Sempronius, 218 B.C.; the French were also defeated here by Suwarrow in 1799.
Trebuchet, or Trebucket. A machine used in the Middle Ages for throwing stones, etc., acting by means of a great weight fastened to the short arm of a lever, which, being let fall, raised the end of the long arm with great velocity, and hurled stones with much force.