The attack (plate VII.) is made upon a bastion and its collateral demi-lunes.

The first parallel is traced, as usual, about 300 toises from the most advanced points of defence, and extended sufficiently to embrace the prolongations of all the works which have influence on the attack.

The inward faces of the adjoining bastions, and their counterguards, are ricoched by the batteries 1 and 4 at the extremities of the parallel; and the batteries 2 and 3 are established to ricocher the inward faces of the two demi-lunes and their ditches.

At the same time that these batteries are constructing, approaches are pushed forward on the three capitals; and the second parallel commenced as soon as the ricochet batteries, 1, 2, 3, and 4, are in activity, which should be in thirtysix hours after their commencement.

M. Carnot despises so completely all the early operations of attack, that we may presume upon being very little opposed in constructing these works; and consequently that they may

easily be finished in the usual manner and time. The barbet batteries in the saliants of the demilunes would soon be destroyed and the guns dismounted, if not removed upon the completion. of the batteries 2 and 3, by which the inward faces of the demi-lunes are ricoched. The faces of the two collateral bastions and their counterguards would also be ravaged and swept by the batteries 1 and 4; and, if necessary, batteries might also be placed in the first parallel, to ricocher the faces of the bastion attacked, and its counterguard; but the importance of throwing a more powerful fire upon these works should induce us to reserve this battery for position in the second parallel, satisfied that it may be constructed without establishing more ricochet batteries in the first place of arms. The battery marked in dotted lines in the plan, may, however, be constructed, and should be armed with heavy mortars and howitzers, to fire, at low elevations, to ruin the circular portion of the escarpe-wall opposite to the casemated battery of the gorge; and to injure or break in the casemates. If eight-inch mortars are placed in this battery, they should use, occasionally, sixtyeight pound shot, or shells filled with lead; but heavy iron howitzers, or carronades, will do better there can be no doubt that with such means the escarpe-wall and casemates would sustain very considerable injury.

As soon as the second parallel is completed, the batteries 5 and 6 are established to ricocher the faces, chemins-des-rondes, ditch, and counterguard of the bastion attacked; and the outward faces of the adjoining demi-lunes with their ditches. The ends of the parallel are secured by redoubts, armed with field artillery.

When batteries 5 and 6 are in activity, the demi-places-d'armes are commenced: they are run out from the flank branches of batteries 5 and 6, until the prolongations of the inward faces of the demi-lunes are intercepted, and there the howitzer-batteries 7 and 8 are constructed.

The batteries made in the second parallel, to ricocher the faces of the bastion attacked will be so effectual in ruining their defences, that it does not appear necessary to construct half-parallels and howitzer-batteries against them, as has been done against the faces of the demi-lunes.

The zig-zags upon the capital of the bastion are pushed forward, from the second parallel, simultaneously with the construction of the half parallels; and, as soon as the batteries 7 and 8 are in activity, the third parallel is commenced, traced, in a right line nearly, joining the three saliants of the glacis en contrepente.

The half-parallels are now extended outwards from batteries 7 and 8 to embrace the prolongations of the flanks of the adjoining bastions, and the batteries 11 and 12 there constructed. The extremities of the half parallels are connected with the second parallel by trenches or places of arms, which are thus flanked by the adjoining faces of the redoubts, and cover the batteries in the halfparallels from being turned by sorties. At the same time that this is doing, the howitzer-batteries 9 and 10 are established in the third parallel, to ricocher the faces of the bastion attacked, its ditch and counterguard, if no half-parallel and

howitzer-batteries have been constructed for these purposes.

The objects of the mortar-howitzer-battery, No. 15, are to endeavour to ruin as much as possible the escarpe-wall of the bastion, and the casemated batteries; also to ricocher, and shell, the communications, chemins-des-rondes, and retranchement générale.

An attentive inspection of the plate will show, that the besieged must suffer greatly from this battery, particularly at that advanced period of the siege which will oblige them to keep their defences manned: for the entrances to the chemins-des-rondes of the bastion being in its gorge at the base of the interior slope, the troops entering and returning will be continually passing, close to the back-wall of the detached casemates which flank the ditch, in directions parallel to the capital of the work, ard consequently exposed to ricochet fire from battery No. 15; and the ramp leading to the interior of the bastion, being constructed exactly upon its capital, will be much ravaged by the continual ricochets fired in that direction. The seven casemates à pierriers being open at the ends, all well directed shot or shells which do not pass more than fifteen feet over the top of the escarpe-wall, will either enter a casemate, or, striking the piers, or the ends of the arches, knock off splinters of stones that cannot fail to commit great destruction among the troops lining the wall immediately in front.

Nor will the battery itself remain in a perfect state to this period of the siege. It is not too much to expect that eight heavy mortars, or howitzers, in action since the opening of the batteries, will have done very material damage to the escarpe-wall by which the ends of the casemates are covered; and it is evident that, whereever a breach or fracture is made in it, the interior of the adjoining casemate will be completely exposed to direct fire, whenever a lodgment on the saliant of the bastion is established: and it should be remarked that the escarpe-wall is only four feet six inches thick, in the recesses made for receiving troops.

As soon as the third parallel is finished, lodgments should be made on the crest of the glacis, by saps branching outwards from the three capitals, in circular directions round the saliants, and thence parallel to the edge of the glacis; constructing traverses and parades wherever it may be necessary to defilade the interior of the trenches from any of the works of the place.

Double-saps are pushed forward at the same time from the third parallel, and an advanced parallel worked right and left to join the lodgments, or couronnement, of the glacis.

At the same time that these works are commenced, trenches are worked from the half-parallels near batteries 11 and 12, to obtain prolongations upon which to construct the batteries 13 and 14, which have very important objects to accomplish, viz. to ricocher the faces of the cavaliers, and the retranchement général. It appears by measurement and calculation obtained from the difference of command of the cavalier and demi-lune, ogether with the distance between their sections

on the line of this prolongation, that the cavalier may be seen at the point marked by the right of battery number 13; and terms taken from the respective commands and distances of the retrenchment and other works on the line of its prolongation show that it may be seen at the places marked for batteries 13 and 14 and consequently that it may be ricoched in both directions. The prolongations of the retrenchment are obtained, as the plate will show, clear of the cavaliers; for the command of these works is such as to cover batteries 13 and 14 from all the intercepted portions of the retrenchment. It is only therefore from the parts most remote to the bastion attacked, that these batteries can be seen, and that very obliquely :they cannot be counterbattered. Thus the portion of the retrenchment from which battery 13 may be seen, would be ravaged by the alternate ricochet battery 14; and the part affecting it, be ricoched by battery 13. The apparent exposure of batteries 13 and 14 to several stages of fire, renders it necessary to notice these circumstances, in order to meet here any observation that might occur as to difficulty in constructing and using these batteries. The nature of the polygon affects some of these circumstances, and would require some modification in the plan of attack; but we must confine our reasoning to the case before us. The batteries 13 and 14 are connected, by trenches, with the couronnement of the glacis, and armed with five twenty-four pounders each.

The trenches, saps, and parallels, should be defiladed from the fire of the place, by making their terrepleins parallel to the plane in which the crests of the enemy's works, and the besieger's trenches lie, so that the lines of direct fire, passing close over the parapets of the trenches, parallel to the plane of their interior spaces, do not command them any more than if both were in the same horizontal plane. This only requires the additional labor of taking out the prism of earth necessary to slope the bottom of the trench in a plane parallel to that of the command (which, in the present case, is very trifling), and to make the parapets of the batteries a little higher than usual. If this be carefully executed, it will effectually cancel the advantages which M. Carnot dwells so much upon, as arising from this effect of command.

We are now come to that part of the operation at which M. Carnot says the besiegers will find themselves exposed to the full effect of

sorties.

Before parallels were introduced, sorties, it appears, were very generally successful. This has furnished M. Carnot with many facts calculated to show the good effect of these enterprises of valor before the science of attack received its vast improvement from the experience of its great master, Vauban; and there is no want of examples to show that sorties may always be made with success from places attacked with insufficient force. But if approaches and batteries be well protected by parallels, and thes intrenched positions be properly occupied, vigilantly guarded, and gallantly defended, sorties will be so severely punished, whatever degree of

it

way do not prevent active defence by sorties, when circumstances of relative force and other considerations, justify their being undertaken; and so far are the real circumstances of this siege from holding it up as a splendid example to show, generally, the vast advantages, and enforce the propriety, of making continual sorties, appears, that the attack was a very condemnable attempt with a force that could not hold out any fair prospect of success. It is well known that, when the prince of Orange was obliged to raise the siege of Oudenarde, he marched to Grave with the Dutch contingent, and that M. Chamilly's garrison had been so much reduced in the sorties it had made, that the place soon surrendered, although its defences were not much injured. The terms granted to the garrison were such as were due to brave men who had done their duty in chastising, with vigor and spirit, a rash attempt made upon their fortress, but who surrendered to a force which made any further resistance vain and hopeless.

We now proceed with the attack. Batteries 17 and 18 are constructed to countcrbatter the faces of the collateral bastions; 16 and 19, against the faces of the bastion attacked: batteries 20 and 21 counterbatter the acting faces of the cavaliers, which it must be recollected have already been ricoched by batteries 13 and

14.

the trenches and epaulements are made across the ditch. These trenches should be fitted as places of arms to oppose sorties. The progress of the attack is not marked on the plan, further than the occupation of the counterguard and the passage of the ditch, not to deface the fortifications.

A mine will then be made in the saliant of the counterguard. If it be countermined, as M. Carnot suggests, then 'a war of mines' will ensue; but the result will be, that the saliant of the work will be demolished by one, or other, or both parties; and thus the main obstacle removed which M. Carnot admits, page 480, 'is so indispensable to cover the escarpe-wall of the bastion." If a war of mines should not be resorted to, the besiegers should drive a gallery perpendicularly through one of the faces of the counterguard, on a level with the ditch, as soon as a lodgment is made on the crest of the work. The labor attending this operation is much less than in making the usual galleries of descent into a ditch. The length of a gallery through M. Carnot's counterguard is about ten toises: the galleries of descent into the ditch of an or dinary place are about eighteen toises each.

When the counterbatteries and epaulements in the ditches are finished, the position of the besiegers on the crest of the glacis en contrepente would be so formidable, that we do not see how it is possible for the besieged to make sorties. The only debouches from which they can issue to attack, directly, the works of the besiegers, are exposed to two double tiers of enfilade and flank fire: for batteries 20 and 21 look directly into the spaces between the ends of the demi-lunes and the faces of the counterguard; and the countersloped glacis enables these batteries to fire over the epaulements in the ditch, and to combine their fire with that of the troops lodged in these works; for a shot fired from battery 20 to the bottom of the exterior slope of the cavalier, passes eight feet over the crest of the epaulement. A sortie issuing from either of these debouches would also be exposed to batteries 16 or 19, and to the epaulements in front of them, as soon as the enemy's troops appear; so that no sortie can come forth from these debouches without being exposed to a quadruple line of fire, under a continuation of which they would then have a very formidable line of connected places of arms, to attack.

Without ascribing any superior degree of fficacy to the fire of the batteries by which the aces of the demi-lunes will have been ricoched, here can be no doubt that they may easily be iken by assault. We have, indeed, the admison of the author for asserting that troops ocipying them would suffer so dreadfully as to be capable of defending them.-He admits, exessly, page 492, 'that the demi-lunes are so uch exposed to stones and ricochets, that troops nnot remain in them.' The form given to the valiers for the purpose of strengthening their liants, shows that they are designed to prevent 1gments from being established on the demies; but the batteries 13 and 14 countertter these saliants, whilst 20 and 21 take em in flank and in reverse; and, as the nmand of the cavalier prevents the salients the demi-lunes from being seen from the incepted parts of the retrenchment and fausseye, we may assert that the besiegers will experience much difficulty in establishing Inselves on the saliants of the demi-lunes, as wn in plate VII.

is in error 281

Te having her

OF OCHET EXTETA

du Corps In

114, that attacked, fa

hed and re

of magazines

hese lodgments should not be much extended resent;--it will be sufficient to occupy the int of the rampart with a good, solid, lodgt, commanding the interior of the work; particularly observing the spaces between ends of counterguards, and the faces of avaliers, by which only the troops for the irs offensifs can come forth.

The debouches from the other sides of the demi-lunes are under fire of the batteries 17 and 18, and the corresponding epaulements respectively; and the position of the besiegers opposite to these outlets is no less formidable than the other.