Prendre Parti dans l’épée, Fr. to embrace a military life.
PARTIALITY. Unequal state of the judgment, and favor of one above the other, without just reason. If any member of a general court-martial expresses a previous judgment, in partiality either to the prisoner or prosecutor, before he is sworn, it is to be deemed a good cause of challenge; and he should not be allowed to sit in judgment on the case.
PARTISAN, has been applied to a halberd or pike, and to a marshal’s staff. See [Baton].
PARTISAN, in the art of war, a person dexterous in commanding a party; who, knowing the country well, is employed in getting intelligence, or surprising the enemy’s convoy, &c. The word also means an officer sent out upon a party, with the command of a body of light troops, generally under the appellation of a partisan corps. It is necessary that this corps should be composed of infantry, light-horse, and riflemen.
PARTY, in a military sense, a small number or detachment of men, horse, or foot, sent upon any kind of duty; as into an enemy’s country, to pillage, to take prisoners, and oblige the country to come under contribution. Parties are often sent out to view the roads and ways, get intelligence, seek forage, reconnoitre, or amuse the enemy upon a march; they are also frequently sent upon the flanks of an army, or regiment, to discover the enemy, if near, and prevent surprise or ambuscade.
Parties escorting deserters in the British service receive the following allowances, being the same as have been granted to those of other forces, in consideration of the unavoidable extraordinary wear of their clothing and necessaries on that duty, viz.
| Distances from quarters. | For each man | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £. | s. | d. | ||||||
| Between | 8 | and | 20 | miles | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 20 | 50 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||||
| 50 | 100 | 0 | 4 | 0 | ||||
| 100 | 150 | 0 | 5 | 0 | ||||
| 150 | 200 | 0 | 6 | 0 | ||||
| Above | 200 | 0 | 7 | 6 | ||||
In the like proportion, allowances are to be made for parties of four, five, and six men, but no higher. This is however to be understood as a regulation of allowance merely, it not being the intention of government thereby to restrain any commanding officer from employing larger parties on the escort duty, if he should think proper, but that whatever may be the actual number of the parties, the allowances are to be in the proportion of
| Three | men for an escort of | from | 5 | to | 8 | deserters |
| Four | ———— | from | 9 | to | 12 | |
| Five | ———— | from | 13 | to | 16 | |
| Six | ———— | from | 17 | to | 20 |
Exact returns of the said duty, as performed by each corps, are to be made up, agreeable to a form annexed, as soon as may be after every 24th of June and 24th of December, for the half years immediately preceding, and are to be transmitted to the office of the secretary at war, in order that the allowances thereon may be settled and directed.