SKELETON. This word is frequently applied to regiments that are extremely reduced in their number of men. Thus a British regiment that went out to St. Domingo 1000 strong, and returned to England with 20 or 30 men only, was called a skeleton regiment.
Skeleton plan. See [Outline].
SKETCH. See [ditto].
SKILL. Knowlege in any particular art. As
Military Skill. M. Belleisle, the French general, after the example of Xenophon, the Greek, undertook in the month of December 1742, to withdraw the French army from Prague, where it was at that time shut up, and to march over the enemy’s country, through a road of 38 leagues, upwards of 124 English miles, covered with ice, and over mountains whose precipices were concealed under the snow, having, besides, an army of between eighteen and twenty thousand men, under the command of prince Lobkowitz, to fight with. For the particulars of this famous retreat, which in count Turpin’s words, deserves to be written by Xenophon himself. See page 2, vol. I. of his Art of War.
SKINS. Sheep skins are made use of to cover the mortars or howitzers between firing, to prevent any wet or dampness getting into them.
SKIRMISH, in war, a loose, desultory kind of combat, or encounter, in presence of two armies, between small parties who advance from the main body for that purpose, and invite to a general fight.
Skirmishers. Detached parties of light troops sent out in front of a battalion, &c. riflemen.
SKIRT. In a general acceptation, edge, border, extreme part. As the skirt of a country, the skirts of a wood.
SKY-ROCKET. See [Rocket].