ENCEINTE, in fortification, is the interior wall or rampart which surrounds a place, sometimes composed of bastions or curtains, either faced or lined with brick or stone, or only made of earth. The enceinte is sometimes only flanked by round or square towers, which is called a Roman wall.
ENCLOUER un canon, Fr. to spike the cannon.
ENCLOUEURE, Fr. this term is used in the artillery, to signify the actual state and condition of any thing that has been spiked.
ENCOUNTERS, in military affairs, are combats, or fights, between two persons only. Figuratively, battles or attacks by small or large armies. The marquis de Feuquieres mentions four instances of particular encounters brought on by entire armies, with a design to create a general engagement.
ENCOURAGE. See [Animate].
ENCROACHMENT, the advancement of the troops of one nation, on the rights or limits of another.
ENDORMI, Fr. asleep; soldat endormi, a soldier asleep on guard. See the [articles of war], which [direct] that any centinel who is found asleep during the period of his duty, shall be punished with death.
ENDECAGON, a plain figure of 11 sides and angles.
ENEMY, in a military sense, one who is of an opposite side in war, or who publicly invades a country.
ENFANS perdus, forlorn hope, in military history, are soldiers detached from several regiments, or otherwise appointed to give the first onset in battle, or in an attack upon the counterscarp, or the breach of a place besieged; so called (by the French) because of the imminent danger they are exposed to.