False lights, in debarkations under cover of the night, may likewise be used as signals of deception, when it is found expedient to attract the attention of the invaded country towards one part of the coast or territory, whilst a real attack is meditated against another.
False muster, an incorrect statement of the effective number of men or horses, by which government is defrauded. By the articles of war every officer, paymaster, or commissary, found guilty of false mustering, is ordered to be cashiered.
False report. A false report in military matters, may be truly said to be the ground work of a false return and a false muster, and consequently the primary cause of imposition upon the public. The strictest attention should, therefore, be paid to the most trifling report which is made in a troop or company respecting the presence or absence of men or horses, the state of clothing, accoutrements, or necessaries. This can only be done by the commanding officer of such troop or company having constantly the general good of the service at heart in preference to his own convenience, or to that of others. Every serjeant or corporal of a squad should be severely punished when detected in making a false report.
False return, a wilful report of the actual state of a brigade, regiment, troop, or company, by which the commander in chief or the war-office is deceived, as to the effective force of such regiment, troop or company.
FANION, Fr. corrupted from the Italian word gonfanone, a particular standard which was carried in the front of the ordinary baggage belonging to a brigade in the old French service. It was made of serge, and resembled in color the uniform or livery of the brigadier, or of the commandant of any particular corps.
FANTASSIN, Fr. A foot soldier. The term is derived from the Italian fante, a boy, the light troops in the 14th and 15th centuries being formed of boys who followed the armies, that were formed into corps with light arms, hence the origin of the word infantry; the French still use the words mes enfans.
FARAILLON, Fr. a light house.
FARIAL, Fr. a light house; also a watch light.
FARRIER, in a general acceptation of the term, any person who shoes horses, or professes to cure their diseases. In a practical military sense a man appointed to do the duty of farriery in a troop of cavalry. Troop farriers should be under the immediate superintendance and controul of a veterinary surgeon, to whom they ought to apply whenever a horse is ill or lame, that he may report the same to the officer commanding the troop. No farrier should presume to do any thing without having first received directions from his superior.
When the farrier goes round, after riding out, or exercise on horseback, he must carry his hammer, pincers, and some nails to fasten any shoe that may be loose.