To clear the Breach, that is, to remove the ruins, that it may be the better defended.
BREAK off, a term used when cavalry or infantry are ordered to diminish its front. It is also used to signify wheeling from line; as BREAKING-off to the left, for wheeling to the left.
BREAK-Ground, the first opening of the earth to form entrenchments, as at the commencement of a siege. It applies also to the striking of tents and quitting the ground on which any troops had been encamped.
To Break ground, to begin, to open and work at the trenches in a siege, &c.
BREAST PLATE, in military antiquity, a piece of defensive armor worn on the breast of both men and horses. They are but seldom used now.
Breast-work See [Parapet].
BREECH of a gun, the end near the vent. See [Cannon].
BREVET rank, is a rank in the army higher than that for which you receive pay; and gives a precedence (when corps are brigaded) to the date of the brevet commission.
Brevet, Fr. commission, appointment. Under the old government of France it consisted in letters or appointments signed by the king, by virtue of which every officer was authorised to discharge his particular duty. All officers in the old French service, from a cornet or sub-lieutenant up to a marshal of France were stiled Officiers à Brévet.
Brevet d’Assurance ou de Retenue d’Argent, Fr. certain military and civil appointments granted by the old kings of France, which were distinguished from other places of trust, in as much as every successor was obliged to pay a certain sum of money to the heirs of the deceased, or for the discharge of his debts. Hence the term brevet d’Assurance ou de retenue.