A military dictionary

by William Duane

2d. With the left hand bring the butt forwards, slipping your left elbow under the firelock, by bringing it between the firelock and the sling; taking hold of the firelock at the same time with the left hand, letting the stock lie between the thumb and fore finger, the butt end pointing a little to the left with the barrel upwards.

3d. Bring the firelock to lie on the left shoulder, and the sling on the right, the barrel upwards, and the butt end pointing directly to the front, keeping the firelock to a true level.

SLOPE Arms, a word of command by which the musquet rests upon the shoulder with the butt advanced. In long marches soldiers are sometimes permitted to slope arms. In all other instances it is strictly forbidden.

SLOPING Swords, a position of the sword among cavalry, when the back of the blade rests on the hollow of the right shoulder, the hilt advanced.

SLOPS. See [Necessaries].

SLOW time. See the time of [slow marching].

SLUGS. Cylindric, or cubical pieces of metal, used as shot for guns.

SLUICE-gate, a water-gate, by which a place may be inundated, or the water excluded at pleasure.

SLUICES, in military architecture, are made for various purposes; such as to make rivers navigable; to join one river to another, which is higher or lower, by means of a canal; to form inundations upon particular occasions, or to drain spots of ground that are overflowed by high tides; they are also made in fortresses, to keep up the water in one part of the ditches, whilst the other is dry; and to raise an inundation about the place when there is any apprehension of being attacked.

Sluices are made different ways, according to the uses for which they are intended: when they serve for navigation, they are shut with two gates presenting an angle towards the stream; when they are made near the sea, two pair of gates are made, the one pair to keep the water out, and the other in, as occasion may require: in this case, the gates towards the sea present an angle that way, and the others the contrary way. The space inclosed by these gates is called chamber.