Military men who may be desirous of adding to the stock of useful and correct knowlege, will oblige by pointing out any defects or errors, or recommending any additions that are pertinent to the nature of this work, addressed to the compiler.
July 4, 1810.
MILITARY
DICTIONARY.
A.
ABATIS, in a military sense, is formed by cutting down many entire trees, the branches of which are turned towards an enemy, and as much as possible entangled one into another. They are made either before redoubts, or other works, to render the attacks difficult, or sometimes along the skirts of a wood, to prevent an enemy from getting possession of it. In this case the trunks serve as a breast-work, behind which the troops are posted, and for that reason should be so disposed, that the parts may, if possible, flank each other.
ABLECTI, in military antiquity, a choice or select part of the soldiery in the Roman armies, picked out of those called extraordinarii.
ABOLLA, in military antiquity, a warm kind of garment, generally lined or doubled, used both by the Greeks and Romans, chiefly out of the city, in following the camp.
ABORD, Fr. attack, onset.
S’ABOUCHER, Fr. to parley.
ABOUT, a technical word to express the movement, by which a body of troops changes its front or aspect, by facing according to any given word of command.