Military execution, the ravaging or destroying of a country or town that refuses to pay the contribution inflicted upon them. Also the punishment inflicted by the sentence of a court-martial.
Military first principles, is the bodily training for a soldier, to make him hardy, robust, and capable of preserving health amidst fatigue, bad weather, and change of climate; to march at such possible pace, and for such length of time, and with such burden, as, without training, he would not be able to do.
MILITARY REGULATIONS. The rules and regulations, by which the discipline, formations, field exercise, and movements of the whole army, are directed to be observed in one uniform system. The American military system is scarcely entitled to the name of a system; and as to regulation that requires yet to be established, the worst of all is that there does not appear to be a suspicion in congress that any regulation is required. See [Regulations].
MILITIA. A force whose services, in general, do not exceed the boundaries of the nation, but which may volunteer beyond them. The American militia has no coherent system, every state has power to regulate its own, and the effect is, that there is either no regulation at all, or what is worst, an imbecile mockery, the only use of which is the preservation on the statute book that there is a power though there is not a will to regulate the militia. The militia among the Romans was frequently called Agrarian soldiers. The system of our revolution though it was not complete in general was the most effectual ever established; the French system of conscription was borrowed from America, who borrowed it from the Romans.
MILL, properly denotes a machine for grinding corn, &c. but more generally all such machines whose action depends upon a circular motion. There are various kinds, though foreign to this work.
Gunpowder Mill, is that used for pounding and beating together the ingredients of which gunpowder is composed.
These ingredients being duly proportioned, and put into the mortars of the mills, which are hollow pieces of wood, each capable of holding 20 pounds of paste, are incorporated by means of the pestle and spindle. There are 24 mortars in each mill, where are made each day 480 pounds of gunpowder, care being taken to sprinkle the ingredients in the mortars with water, from time to time, lest they should take fire. The pestle is a piece of wood 10 feet high, and 4¹⁄₂ inches broad, armed at bottom with a round piece of metal. It weighs about 60 pounds.
MIM BASHY, Ind. A commander of one thousand horse.
MINE, in a military sense, implies a subterraneous passage dug under the wall or rampart of a fortification, for the purpose of blowing it up by gunpowder.
The excavation formed by the blowing up of a mine is found by experiment to be nearly a paraboloid. It was formerly supposed that the diameter of the entonnoir, or excavation, was always equal to only double the line of least resistance; but experiments have proved, that the diameter of the excavation may be increased to six times the line of least resistance; and that the diameter of the globe of compression may be increased to eight times that line; this is called the maximum of a mine, or the greatest effect that can be produced by a globe of compression. In any mine intended to produce an effect within this extent, the effects will be nearly as the charges.