MANGAN, Fr. This word is sometimes written MANGON, (See [Gun]). A warlike machine which was formerly used. The term itself, indeed, was generally adopted to signify any species of warlike machine. But it more particularly meant the largest and most powerful machine that could be used for warlike purposes; whether it was practised to throw enormous stones against besieged places, or to cast javelins, &c. It was likewise called balista, from the Greek; tormentum from the Latin à torquendo; and sometimes petraria, because stones weighing upwards of three hundred and sixty pounds, were thrown from it. This machine answered the double purpose of defending or attacking fortified places, and it was sometimes used at sea. According to a French writer, one of these machines may still be seen at Basle.
MANGANELLE, Fr. See [Mangonneau].
MANGONNEAU, Fr. A word originally derived from the Greek, which, according to Potter, seems to signify any engine designed to cast missive weapons. With respect to that particular engine, which the French have called mangan, manganelle, and mangonneau, there is not any specific term for that famous engine, out of which, stones of a size not less than mill-stones, were thrown with such violence, as to dash whole houses in pieces at a blow:—it was called indeed by the Romans, balista; but this name though of Grecian original, appears not to have been used in Greece; this engine, however, was known there, and was the same with that used by the Romans, the force of which is thus expressed by Lucan:—
At faxum quoties ingenti verberis ictu
Excutitur, qualis rupes, quam vertice montis
Abscidit impulsu ventorum adjuta vetustas;
Frangit cunctaruens, nec tantum corpora pressa
Exanimas, totos cum sanguine dissipat artus.
MANIEMENT des armes, Fr. manual exercise. Although it might be thought superfluous to enter into a minute explanation of the manual as practised by the French, it will not be deemed entirely useless to the military man, to make him master of the different terms. With this view, we shall likewise give the words of command used in the platoon exercise &c. The French manual differed from the English in many points; essentially so in the commencement of it, as, (extreme bad weather excepted) the soldiers in the former service, regularly appeared upon parade with fixed bayonets; so that the first word of command was,
Presentez vos armes.—Present arms.