APPOINTE. This word was applicable to French soldiers only, during the old monarchy of France, and meant a man who for his long service and extraordinary bravery received more than common pay. There were likewise instances in which officers were distinguished by being stiled officiers appointés.
The word appointé was originally derived from it being said, that a soldier was appointed among those who were to do some singular act of courage, as by going upon a forlorn hope, &c.
APPOINTMENT, in a military sense, is the pay of the army; it likewise applies to warlike habiliments, accoutrements, &c.
APPREHEND, in a military sense, implies the seizing or confining of any person. According to the articles of war, every person who apprehends a deserter, and attests the fact duly before a magistrate, is entitled to receive a reward.
APPROACHES. All the works are generally so called that are carried on towards a place which is besieged; such as the first, second, and third [parallels], the [trenches], [epaulements] with and without trenches, [redoubts], [places of arms], [saps], [galleries], and [lodgments]. See these words more particularly under the head [Fortification].
This is the most difficult part of a siege, and where most lives are lost. The ground is disputed inch by inch, and neither gained nor maintained without the loss of men. It is of the utmost importance to make your approaches with great caution, and to secure them as much as possible, that you may not throw away the lives of your soldiers. The besieged neglect nothing to hinder the approaches; the besiegers do every thing to carry them on; and on this depends the taking or defending of the place.
The trenches being carried to their glacis, you attack and make yourself master of their covered-way, establish a lodgment on the counterscarp, and effect a breach by the sap, or by mines with several chambers, which blow up their intrenchments and fougades, or small mines, if they have any.
You cover yourselves with gabions, fascines, barrels, or sacks; and if these are wanting, you sink a trench.
You open the counterscarp by saps to make yourself master of it; but, before you open it, you must mine the flanks that defend it. The best attack of the place is the face of the bastion, when by its regularity it permits regular approaches and attacks according to art. If the place be irregular, you must not observe regular approaches, but proceed according to the irregularity of it; observing to humor the ground, which permits you to attack it in such a manner at one place, as would be useless or dangerous at another; so that the engineer who directs the attack ought exactly to know the part he would attack, its proportions, its force and solidity, in the most geometrical manner.
Approaches, in a more confined sense, signify attacks.