BRASSARTS, Fr. thin plates of beaten iron which were anciently used to cover the arms above the coat of mail.
Brassarts and cuirasses were worn in the days of St. Louis.
BRASSER la Matiere, Fr. to mix the different ingredients which are required for the making of gunpowder or other combustible matter.
BREACH, in fortification, a gap, or opening, in any part of the works of a fortified place, made by the artillery or mines of the besiegers, preparatory to the making an assault.
The batteries to make a breach, should commence by marking out as near as possible, the extent of the breach intended to be made; first, by a horizontal line within a fathom of the bottom of the revetement in a dry ditch, and close to the water’s edge in a wet one; and then by lines perpendicular to this line, at short distances from each other, as high as the cordon; then, by continuing to deepen all these cuts, the wall will give way in a body. The guns to produce the greatest effect should be fired as near as possible in salvos or vollies. The breach should be one third the length of the face, from the centre towards the flanked angle. When the wall has given way, the firing must be continued to make the slope of the breach practicable.
Four 24 pounders from the lodgement in the covert way will effect a breach in 4 or 5 days, which may be made practicable in 3 days more.
Another way of making a breach is by piercing the wall sufficiently to admit two or three miners, who cross the ditch, and make their entry during the night into the wall, where they establish two or three small mines, sufficient to make a breach. See [Artillery at Siege]; see also [Battery].
To repair a Breach, is to stop or fill up the gap with gabions, fascines, &c. and prevent the assault.
To fortify a Breach, is to render it inaccessible by means of chevaux-de-frize, crow’s-feet, &c.
To make a lodgment in the Breach. After the besieged are driven away, the besiegers secure themselves against any future attack in the breach.