Part 111

Marine DISCIPLINE, is the training up soldiers for sea service, in such exercises and various positions as the musquet and body may require: teaching them likewise every manœuvre that can be performed on board ships of war at sea, &c.

DISCIPLINE militaire. See MILITARY DISCIPLINE.

DISCRETION, Fr. discretion. Se rendre à discrétion, to surrender at discretion, implies to throw one’s self upon the mercy of a victorious enemy. The French likewise say, les soldats vivent à discrétion dans un pays; which in familiar English signifies, soldiers live scot-free in a country.

To DISENGAGE, to clear a column or line, which may have lost its proper front by the overlapping of any particular division, company, or section when ordered to form up. To do this, ground must be taken to the right or left. It is however, a dangerous operation when the army or battalion gets into a line of fire. In that case the files that overlap must remain in the rear, and fill up the first openings.

To DISENGAGE, is also to extricate yourself and the men you command from a critical situation. A battalion, for instance, which may have advanced too far during an action, and got between two fires, may, by an able manœuvre, disengage itself.

To DISENGAGE the wings of a battalion. This is necessary when the battalion countermarches from its centre, and on its centre by files. The battalion having received the word “by wings, inward face,” is next ordered “by wings, three side steps to the right, march,” by which the wings are disengaged from each other, or this may be done by a quarter face to the right and left alter facing inward. In counter-marching, &c. the leading files must uniformly disengage themselves.

To DISENGAGE, in fencing, to quit that side of your adversary’s blade, on which you are opposed by his guard, in order to effect a cut or thrust where an opportunity may present.

DISMANTLE, to strip a town or fortress of its outworks.

To DISMANTLE a gun. To render it unfit for use. Guns are frequently dismantled and left upon the field of battle.

DISCOMFIT, defeat, rout, overthrow.

DISCOVERER, a scout; one who is set to descry the enemy.

DISEMBARK, to land from on board any vessel or craft, used to convey troops on the sea.

DISEMBODIED. See DISBANDED.

To DISEMBODY. To disband.

DISGARNISH, to take guns from a fortress.

DISLODGE, to drive an enemy from their post or station.

DISMISSED. An officer in the British service may be dismissed generally or specifically. When an officer is dismissed generally, it is signified to him, that there is not any further occasion for his services. When an officer is dismissed specifically, it is expressly notified, that he is rendered incapable of ever serving again. Sometimes, indeed this species of dismissal is attended with public marks of extreme disgrace and degradation. In the Austrian service a colonel has been dismissed at the head of his regiment, and has had his sword broken before him, &c. During the present war the colonel of a militia regiment has not only been rendered incapable of ever serving again, but has been expelled the house of commons for military misconduct. The charges against him, together with the circumstantial proofs of his guilt, and the king’s approbation of the sentence were read in the circle of every regiment throughout Great Britain, in 1795, and nothing but a plea of severe indisposition saved the culprit from having the minutes publicly communicated to him at the horse guards.

DISMOUNTING, in a military sense, is the act of unhorsing. Thus, to dismount the cavalry, &c. is to make them alight.

To DISMOUNT cannon, is to break their carriages, wheels, axle-trees, or any thing else, so as to render them unfit for service. It also implies dismounting by the gin, &c.

DISOBEDIENCE of orders. Any infraction, by neglect or wilful omission, of general or regimental orders. It is punishable by the articles of war.

DISPART, in gunnery, is to set a mark on the muzzle ring, so that it may be of an equal height with the base ring: hence a line drawn between them, will be parallel to the axis of the concave cylinder, for the gunner to take aim by it, to hit the mark he is to fire at; for the bore and this imaginary line being parallel, the aim so taken must be true. This exactness cannot be made use of in an engagement, and but very seldom at a siege; for in those cases practice and the eye must be the only guides.

DISPART. The dispart of a gun is the half difference between the diameter of the gun at the base ring, and at the swell of the muzzle. The general dispart of all guns is about the ¹⁄₅₆ part of their length. See the disparts of French and English guns under the word TANGENT SCALE.

DISPART-frontlet. See FRONTLET.

To DISPERSE. In a military sense, may be variously understood. In an active one, it signifies to disperse any body of men, armed or unarmed, who may have assembled in an illegal or hostile manner. The cavalry are generally employed on these occasions.

To DISPERSE, likewise means to break suddenly from any particular order, in line or column, and to repair to some rallying point. Hence to sound the disperse, is to give notice that the battalion or battalions are to retreat from their actual position, in a loose and desultory manner, and to reassemble according to the natural line of formation, taking the colors as their central points to dress by.

DISPLACED, officers in the British service are sometimes displaced from a particular regiment in consequence of misconduct proved upon the minutes of a general court martial; but they are at liberty to serve in any other corps.

To DISPLAY, in a military sense, is to extend the front of a column, and hereby bring it into line. See DEPLOY.

DISPOSE, to dispose cannon, is to place it in such a manner, that its discharge may do the greatest mischief. For instance, to dispose cannon along the front of the line.