Part 202

Among sailors the hammock is about six feet long and three feet broad, and drawn together at the two ends, and hung horizontally under the deck for the sailors to repose in. In time of battle, the hammocks are strongly fastened and laid above the rails on the quarter-deck and forecastle, to barricade, and to prevent the execution of small shot.

HAMPE, ou HANTE, Fr. a shaft; a long stick to which any thing else is attached; as a sharp blade to form a halbert or pike.

HANCES, the ends of elliptical arches.

HAND. Among the Mysoreans the print of a hand is reckoned a form equivalent to an oath. The hand is one of their military ensigns, and always carried by their princes to war.

HAND, a measure of four inches, or of a clinched fist by which the height of a horse is computed. Thus horses are said to be so many hands high.

The sizes of military horses should run from 15 hands and 1 inch to 16 hands high, and the age 4 or 5 off, if possible.

Hand is also used for the division of a horse into the fore and hind parts. The parts of the fore-hand are the head, neck, and fore-quarters; and those of the hind-hand include all the other parts of his body.

HAND is likewise used for the horseman’s hand. Thus spear-hand, or sword-hand, is the horseman’s right hand, and bridle-hand is his left hand.

HAND-BARROW, a machine made of light wood, of great use in fortification for carrying earth from one place to another; or in a siege, for carrying shells or shot along the trenches.

HAND-BARROW. Weight 13 pounds, length 5 feet 4 inches.

HAND-BREADTH, a measure of three inches, or a space equal to the breadth of the hand, the palm.

HAND-GALLOP, a slow and easy gallop, in which the hand presses the bridle to hinder increase of speed.

HAND-GRENADES, small iron shells, from 2 to 3 inches diameter, filled with powder which being lighted by means of a fuse, are thrown by the grenadiers amongst the enemy; until lately out of use. See GRENADES.

HAND-GUN, a gun held in the hand.

HAND-MALLET, a wooden hammer with a handle, to drive fuses, or pickets, &c. in making fascines or gabion batteries.

HAND-SCREW, is composed of a toothed iron bar, which has a claw at the lower end and a fork at the upper: the bar is fixed in a stock of wood, about 2.5 feet high, and 6 inches thick, moved by a rack-work, so that this claw or fork being placed under a weight raises it as far as the bar can go.

HAND-SPIKE, in gunnery, a wooden lever 5 or 6 feet long, flattened at the lower end, and tapering towards the other, useful in moving guns to their places after being fired and loaded again, or for moving other heavy weights.

HAND-SPIKES. Common, weight 10 pounds, length 6 feet.

HAND-TO-HAND, close fight; the situation of two persons closely opposed to each other.

HANDFUL, used figuratively, in a military sense, to denote a small quantity or number, as a handful of men.

To HANDLE, to manage, to wield.

HANDLE arms, a word of command (when the men are at ordered arms) by which the soldier is directed to bring his right hand briskly up to the muzzle of his musquet, with his fingers bent inwards. This word of command is frequently used at the private inspection of companies, and always precedes--Ease arms.

This term was formerly used in the manual from the support to the carry. It is now however used only in the instance just mentioned.

To HANG-FIRE. Fire-arms are said to hang-fire when the flame is not speedy in communicating from the pan to the charge. This defect may arise from the powder being damp or the touch-hole foul.

To HANG upon. To hover, to impede.

To HANG upon the rear of a retreating enemy. To follow the movements of any body of men so closely as to be a constant annoyance to them.

It requires both judgment and activity in the commanding officer of a pursuing army to execute this business without endangering his troops. For it might happen that the retreating enemy, seeing an opportunity to make a retrograde flank movement from its front, would practice a feint in its rear, and suddenly appear upon the right or left of his pursuers. To prevent a surprize of this sort, constant vedettes and side-patroles must be detached, and the pursuer must never attempt to follow through any considerable length of defile, or cross rivers, without having secured the neighboring eminences, and been well informed as to the nature of the stream, for some extent on his right and left. Without these precautions he might himself be taken in flank and rear.

To HANG upon the flanks of an enemy, is to harass and perplex him in a more desultory manner than what is generally practised when you press upon his rear.