RED hot shot, shot made red hot, and in that state thrown out of cannon, against the vessels or magazines of an enemy.
REDCOAT, a familiar term for a British soldier.
REDANS, in field fortification, are a kind of indented works, lines, or faces, forming sallying and re-entering angles, flanking one another; generally constructed on the sides of a river which runs through a garrison town. They were used before bastions were invented, and are by some thought preferable to them. They are likewise called Ouvrages à scie, from their resemblance to a saw.
REDDITION d’une place, Fr. The surrender of a besieged place.
REDIGER, Fr. To draw out.
Rediger des memoires, Fr. To draw out memorials.
REDINTEGRATION, the act of restoring any single substance, from a damaged mixed body, to its former nature and properties. Thus col. Congreve, of the British artillery, by the redintegration of nitre from damaged gunpowder, has effected a vast saving in that article.
REDOUBT, (Redoute, Fr.) in fortification, a square work raised without the glacis of the place, about musquet shot from the town; having loop-holes for the small arms to fire through, and surrounded by a ditch. Sometimes they are of earth, having only a defence in front, surrounded by a parapet and ditch. Both the one and the other serve for detached guards to interrupt the enemy’s works; and are sometimes made on the angles of the trenches for covering the workmen against the sallies of the garrison. The length of their sides may be about 20 toises; their parapets must have two or three banquettes, and be about nine or ten feet thick. They are sometimes (in a siege) called places of arms.
Redoubt, is also the name of a small work made in a ravelin, of various forms. See [Fortification].
Redoubt, castle or donjon, a place more particularly intrenched, and separated from the rest of a ditch. There is generally in each of them a high position, from whence the country round the place may be discovered.