STIRRUPS. Iron hoops suspended by straps to each side of the saddle, in which the horseman sets his feet in mounting or riding.
STOCCADO. A push or thrust with a rapier.
STOLE. See [Order of the Stole].
STOCK. The wooden part of a musquet or pistol.
Stock. A part of an officer’s dress, which consists generally of black silk or velvet, and is worn round the neck instead of a neckcloth. The soldier’s stock is of black ribbed leather, and is part of his small mounting. Red stocks were formerly worn in the British guards; they are still so in some Prussian regiments.
Stock Purse. A certain saving which is made in a corps, and which is applied to regimental purposes. In some corps this fund is so honestly managed, that, without encroaching upon the public, the most beneficial effects are produced: in others again, it is so mysteriously handled between commanding officers and paymasters, that it becomes a perpetual source of discontent and jealousy.
STOMPER, Fr. To sketch out a design, or to draw with colors that have been pounded into dust. Instead of the pencil or crayon, a roll of paper which is dipped into the colored dust, serves to put on the different colors.
STONES, in military architecture, may be distinguished into two sorts; that is, into hard and soft: hard stone is that which is exposed to the open air, such as rocks, and which lie loose upon the surface of the earth: the soft stone is that which is found in quarries, and underground. It is undoubtedly true that the hardest stones make the most durable works; but as there is seldom a sufficient quantity to build the whole fortification, the best serve in the facings of the work, in the foundations, and where the works are exposed to the violence of the waves.
The stones of some quarries are very soft, and easily worked, when first cut out; but, when exposed for some time to the open air, become very hard and durable.
As there is undoubtedly a kind of sap in stones as well as in timber, by which the same sort of stone, taken out of the same quarry, at one season, will moulder away in a few winters, but, when dug out in another season, will resist the weather for many ages: stones should always be dug in the spring, that they may have time to dry before the cold weather comes in; for the heat of the sun will extract the greatest part of the moisture, which otherwise expands in frosty weather, and causes the stone to splinter, although it be otherwise hard and good.