Battre d’écharpe, Fr. to direct shot, so that the lines of fire make a manifest acute angle with respect to the line of any particular object against which cannon is discharged.
Battre en flanc, Fr. is when the shot from a battery runs along the length of the front of any object or place against which it is directed.
Battre a dos, Fr. to direct the shot from one or several pieces of cannon so as to batter, almost perpendicularly, from behind any body of troops, part of a rampart or intrenchment.
Battre de revers, Fr. to direct shot, in such a manner as to run between the two last mentioned lines of fire. When you batter from behind, the shot fall almost perpendicularly upon the reverse of the parapet. When you batter from the reverse side, the trajectories or lines of fire describe acute angles of forty five degrees or under, with the prolongation of that reverse.
Battre de bricole, Fr. This method can only be put in practice at sieges, and against works which have been constructed in front of others that are invested. A good billiard player will readily comprehend what is meant by the bricole or back stroke; it means simply the firing of shot against a wall so that the balls may rebound and in the rebound strike men or objects, that could not be struck directly.
Battre la Caisse, Fr. to beat a drum.
Mener battant, to overcome.
Mener quelqu’un au Tambour battant. To overcome by strokes of the drum. To disconcert, to confound, puzzle and perplex any body.
BAVINS, in military affairs, implies small faggots, made of brush-wood, of a considerable length, no part of the brush being taken off. See [Fascines].
BAYARD, Fr. a provincial term used in ancient Languedoc and Roussillon to signify a wheel-barrow.