Veren WHAT has hitherto been said has been of the creation of obstacles and defences, rather than of the improvement of such as chance affords. But, though perhaps instruction in principles may be best derived from the study of the former branch of the subject, it is in the practice of the latter that the field-engineer may most frequently have to apply his principles. And not the professional engineer only. To him, it is true, will be generally confided the design and construction of systematic works. But any infantry officer may be called upon to maintain an outpost, a garden, a village, or group of buildings, and may fail lamentably from mere want of knowledge how to improve and turn to account the capacities of his position for defence. The possession of this knowledge, and readiness to apply it, may enable an officer commanding a small detachment, with a little preparation, to repel a far superior force, or to maintain his ground, when his doing so is of the greatest moment to the success of the army to which he belongs. And this not in defensive fighting only. "During the progress of an attack, there frequently occur points which it is of the last importance to maintain when gained. Villages and groups of houses may become points of support for prosecuting an attack to a successful issue, if rapidly secured and barricaded; or, they may save an attacking army from defeat; and sometimes it becomes of great consequence to troops who have. taken a barricaded village, to know how to render the defences useless, or to reverse them."* If there is a choice of buildings to be occupied and defended, the main points which guide the selection will be substantial structure, commanding situation, capability of affording flanking fire and materials useful for defence, facility of rendering access difficult whilst affording ready means of retreat for its occupants, (should retreat not be absolutely excluded from consideration by the circumstances,) and, of course, size, with reference to the garrison which is to occupy it. It is also to be considered whether the post is altogether isolated, and liable to attack on any side, or forms a member of a system of defence protected in rear and flanks by other works, or by the troops which it assists to cover. In the latter case, attention would be entirely given to strengthening the front open to attack, leaving free communication with the rear. * Colonel Reid in the R. E. Professional Papers, vol. ii. All fences encircling the house, and not intended to be defended, or whatever else may give cover to an enemy, should be cleared away, and all thatch or similar readily combustible substances destroyed. If we have force enough to garrison outhouses, and are likely to have time to render them a part of our post, they will be left, otherwise they must also be swept away. Loopholes must be broken through the walls at every three feet, especially in positions flanking the doors, and points most liable to attack. A double row of loopholes may often be had, if we pierce one row near the ground-level, to be used by men standing in a trench dug inside the wall; another at a height of some seven feet, to be reached from a banquette of planks laid on casks, trestles, or pillars of dry stone or brick.* The loopholes are pierced from the inside, so that the outer orifice is most contracted. If the walls are thick, it will be difficult to make loopholes; if time serves, however, they may be opened by piercing from outside and inside simultaneously. Ditches should be dug outside a loopholed wall to prevent grappling. Where an outside wall does not exceed 6′ high, the upper row of loopholes had best be cut down like notches from the top, and crossed above with sandbags or trunks of trees. Doors and windows on the ground-floor will be strongly barricaded and loopholed. Windows on the upper floors should be built up man's height with bricks, timber, sandbags, &c., leaving loopholes. A free communication round the defences must be formed. by breaking through the partition walls, where doors do not exist. Materials should be ready to barricade the staircases; and the upper floors may be pierced for musketry, so as to prolong the defence when the door is forced. Water should be provided on every floor, to extinguish fire.† * Plate VI., fig. 95. + In Charles XII.'s desperate defence of his house at Bender against the Turks, (1713,) when the latter, after losing upwards of two hundred men, succeeded in setting fire to the building by means of arrows bearing lighted Outside, all the approaches to the house will be crossed by barricades, whether of ditch and parapet, or of palisades strengthened in front by abattis, trapholes, &c., or by the latter alone, under a fire from the building and out-offices. By help of fences, outhouses, &c., an outer continuous line may be thus formed and defended where the garrison is sufficient to man it. Fences so retained for exterior defence had better always have abattis or trous-de-loup outside, to prevent their being turned to the advantage of the enemy. Any balconies existing may be turned to good use as machicoulis, from which to fire down on the assailants. Where there are none, and time can be spared, it may be worth while to construct them of timber over the doors, and other points most liable to attack. Where the form of the building affords no flanking defence, small stockades or tambours may be thrown out from the walls to flank them. These may be made covering a door or window, and so communicating with the interior; otherwise, communications must be broken in the walls. If at the angles of a building, these tambours may be in the form of a bastion, or of a quadrant. Midway in the face of a wall, they will take the form of a redan. An officer having the duty assigned him of strengthening such a post, would first set his men to work on indispensable preparations, such as cutting trees near the house for abattis, collecting carts, harrows, and the like, suitable as obstructions, in the places where they would manifestly be required, filling sandbags, or gathering in the house other materials for barricades. Whilst these works were going on, he would have time to methodise his ideas of the details necessary. 2. In defending a village the practice will be similar. Fences parallel to the circuit of the village will be removed. Those perpendicular to it will be retained as obstructions to the free movements and communications of assailants. All matches, the King, by help of two of his men, laid hold of a cask of liquid which was standing by, and dashed it over the flames; but unfortunately the cask was filled with brandy !-VOLTAIRE. DEFENCE OF POSTS AND VILLAGES. the external approaches from which the enemy can advance will be barricaded. Where the continuity of the defences is kept up by houses and garden walls, these will be loopholed, ditched, and strengthened with all available obstructions; and where these are wanting, parapets will be thrown up, or stockades, or barricades of casks and carts filled with earth, stones, or dung, of agricultural implements, &c. Walls liable to escalade should have ditches, trapholes, harrows, &c., inside as well as outside. Iron window-gratings, with the alternate bars turned up, may be good auxiliary obstacles in such situations, as used by Sir C. Smith inside the breach at Tarifa. Free communication will be cleared around the circuit of the defences, and the internal communications barred and defended by cross fire from the buildings. The artillery, if there are any, will be planted to command the Enes of approach still most accessible. Thatched buildings on the outskirts of the village should be unroofed, and banquettes of scalding may be laid along near the top of fiber octer was Where a fire may have to be kept up cu a exime advancing through a street, communications шust be broken through the party walls from house to house. Advantage will be taken of any local facilities for inundation to cover a part of the circuit. Additional care will be taken in fortifying any substantial buildings which occupy salient positions on the outline. One or more edifices should also be selected as keeps for internal defence. These should be approached by ready communications from the outer works, but should completely command those communications. What has already been said on the defence of a building applies here.* - A lively example of preparation for the defence of a village on the Caffre frontier occurs in the letter of an engineer officer, which lately appeared in the newspapers.—" As some of them threatened to decamp unless I came into the village, I had to leave my poor little redoubt, and ensconce myself and party in an empty house, which we very soon rendered defensible, to the great horror of the owner, who viewed the tearing off the thatch from the roof, the building up of the doors and windows, driving loopholes through the walls, &c., with great disgust. Having once set the example, it was altogether wonderful to witness he expedition with which the people, who had hitherto stood with their hands |