HAIL-SHOT. See [Grape-Shot].
HAIR-CLOTH, a stuff made of hair. It is laid on the door of powder-magazines and laboratories, to prevent accidents of fire from the shoes of the men treading or rubbing upon nails, sand, or gravel.
Hair-Cloth—Weight 30 lbs.—length 15 feet—breadth 11 feet.
HAKIM. A term used in India to signify a master, the governor of a city, a judge, or a king. It sometimes means the government, and power.
| HALBERD, | - | |
| HALBERT, |
a weapon formerly carried by the serjeants of foot and artillery. It is a sort of spear, the shaft of which is about 6 feet long, generally made of ash. Its head is armed with a steel point edged on both sides. Besides this point, which is in a line with the shaft, there is a cross piece of iron, flat and turned down at one end, but not very sharp, so that it serves equally to cut down or thrust with. This weapon has of late been exchanged for the half-pike.
HALBERDIER, a soldier armed with a halbert.
HALEBARDE, Fr. halbert. This weapon, as well as the pike, was first adopted by the French, in imitation of a similar one which was carried by the Swiss troops. It was not known in that country before the reign of Louis XI. and when it fell into disuse among the rank and file, it was confined to the serjeants of infantry. The length of a French halbert was six of their feet from one extremity to the other. The handle or shaft was a long stick, with a strong, sharp, iron ferrel at the end, and the upper part had a flat sharp blade, with a cross bar attached to it.
HALF, is frequently used in military terms. Thus,
Half-Brigade, (demie brigade, Fr.) which signifies half the number of men of which a whole brigade is composed. A brigade of infantry in the French army, consists of six battalions, each of one thousand men, making together six thousand men. Three thousand of course constitutes a demie-brigade, or half-brigade. In the British service, a brigade is various, according to the number of regiments that may be encamped, or lie contiguous to each other. Sometimes two, three, or four regiments form a brigade; so that half the recited number of men which composes a brigade, whether of cavalry or infantry, makes a half-brigade.