ECHANTILLON, Fr. means literally a pattern or model. In a military sense, it signifies a plank, which is covered on one side with iron, and serves to finish the mouldings, &c. of a piece of ordnance.
ESCHARPE, Fr. a scarf. In ancient times, a military mark to distinguish officers and soldiers from the rest of the people. Before a regular clothing was adopted among the nations in Europe, officers and soldiers appeared with two scarfs of different colors, which crossed each other before and behind, in order to point out the country and the corps to which the wearer of it belonged. The scarf was preserved among the French, as late down as the reign of Louis the XIVth. It consisted of a piece of white silk, which previous to the revolution, was the national color of France.
Scarfs, however, were continued much later among other nations, particularly among the Germans, who wear them to this day across their uniforms. Cross belts succeed the scarf.
En ECHARPE, in the military art. To batter en echarpe, is to fire obliquely, or sideways. See [Battery].
ECHAUGETTE, in military history, signifies a watch-tower, or kind of centry-box.
ECHELLE, Fr. scale. In a mathematical sense, is a straight line drawn double, which is divided into a certain number of parts, each part containing as many toises or yards, &c. as the size of the chart or paper will admit, which are again reduced into feet.
Echelle, Fr. ladder, in civil and military architecture, means a machine, which is made of two side pieces or arms, that receive a certain number of small steps, at equal distances from one another. These echelles or ladders, are of two kinds: large and small. The small ladders are used to descend into the ditches of fortified places, and the large ones for scaling the walls, &c. See [Scaling Ladders].
ECHELLON, Fr. from echelle, a ladder. A position in military tactics, where each division follows the preceding one, like the steps of a ladder; and is convenient in removing from a direct to an oblique, or diagonal line. When troops advance in echellon, they almost invariably adopt the ordinary time. Hence to march in echellon, may not improperly be said to approach towards any given object by a gradual movement.
Echellon movements and positions, are not only necessary and applicable to the immediate attacks and retreats of great bodies, but also to the previous oblique or direct changes of situation, which a battalion, or a more considerable corps already formed in line, may be obliged to make to the front or rear, or on a particular fixed division of the line.
The oblique changes are produced by any wheel of less than the quarter circle of divisions from line, which places them in the echellon situation. The direct changes are produced by the perpendicular and successive march of divisions from line to front, or rear. See Amer. Mil. Lib.