And the general officers commanding in chief on the different foreign stations, are to decide on the claims preferred in their respective districts of command upon the ground of this regulation, and to grant payment accordingly.
INDEMNITY, a security or exemption from penalty, loss, or punishment. It is sometimes connected with amnesty. Thus Charles the second on his restoration, endeavored to conciliate the minds of his subjects, by promising amnesty and indemnity to the different parties that had been directly active, indirectly instrumental, or passively the means of his father’s death.
To INDENT, a word particularly made use of in India for the dispatch of military business. It is of the same import and meaning as to draw or set a value upon. It likewise means an order for military stores, arms, &c. As an indent for new supplies, &c.
Indented line, in fortification, is a line running out and in like the teeth of a saw, forming several angles, so that one side defends another. They are used on the banks of rivers, where they enter a town; the parapet of the covert-way is also often indented.—This is by the French engineers called redans. Small places are sometimes fortified with such a line, but the fault of such fortifications is, that the besiegers from one battery may ruin both sides of the tenaille of the front of a place, and make an assault without fear of being enfiladed, since the defences are ruined.
Independent, in a military sense, is a term which distinguishes from the rest of the army, those companies that have been raised by individuals for rank, and were afterwards drafted into corps that were short of their complement of men.
| Independent Company, | - | |
| Independent Troop, |
is one that is not incorporated into any regiment.
INDIAN Camp. An Indian camp may be considered as one of the loosest assemblages of men, women, and children, that can perhaps, be imagined.
Every common soldier in the army is accompanied with a wife, or concubine; the officers have several, and the generals whole seraglios; besides these the army is encumbered by a number of attendants and servants, exceeding that of the fighting men; and to supply the various wants of this enervated multitude, dealers, pedlars, and retailers of all sorts, follow the camp, to whom a separate quarter is allotted, in which they daily exhibit their different commodities, in greater quantities, and with more regularity, than in any fair in Europe; all of them sitting on the ground in a line, with their merchandise exposed before them, and sheltered from the sun by a mat supported by sticks.
Indian Engineer. Mr. Orme, in his history of the Carnatic, affords an instance of the art of engineering being known, and cultivated by the native Indians. In page 265, he gives the following account of a place called Chinglapet, which had been fortified by an Indian engineer. Chinglapet is situated about 30 miles west of Covelong, 40 south-west of Madras, and within half a mile of the northern bank of the river Paliar. It was, and not without reason, esteemed by the natives, a very strong hold. Its outline, exclusive of some irregular projections at the gateways, is nearly a parallelogram, extending 400 yards from north to south, and 320 from east to west. The eastern and half the northern side, is covered by a continued swamp of ricefields, and the other half of the north, together with the whole of the west side, is defended by a large lake. Inaccessible in these parts, it would have been impregnable, if the south side had been equally secure; but here the ground is high, and gives advantages to an enemy.—The Indian engineer, whoever he was that erected the fort, seems to have exceeded the common reach of his countrymen in the knowlege of his art, not only by the choice of the spot, but also, by proportioning the strength of the defences, to the advantages and disadvantages of the situation: for the fortifications to the south are much the strongest, those opposite to the rice-fields, something weaker; and the part that is skirted by the lake, is defended only by a slender wall: a deep ditch 60 feet wide, and faced with stone; a fausse braye, and a stone wall 18 feet high, with round towers, on, and between the angles, form the defences to the land: nor are these all, for parallel to the south, east, and north sides of these outward works, are others of the same kind, repeated within them, and these joining to the slender wall, which runs to the west along the lake, form a second enclosure of fortification.