Part 360

PESTLE, an instrument used in the fabrication of gunpowder. See GUNPOWDER MILL.

PETARDEAUX, Fr. Pieces of wood, covered with wool and pitch, which are used to stop the holes that are made in the sides of a ship by cannonball, during an engagement.

PETARD, or PETARDO, an engine to burst open the gates of small fortresses: it is made of gun-metal, fixed upon a board two inches thick, and about 2¹⁄₂ feet square, to which it is screwed, and holds from 9 to 20 pounds of powder, with a hole at the end opposite to the plank to fill it, into which the vent is screwed: the petard thus prepared is hung against the gate by means of a hook, or supported by three staves fastened to the plank: when fired it bursts open the gate. Its invention is ascribed to the French Huguenots in 1579, who, with them, took Cahors in the same year.

Petards are of four different sizes: the first contains 12lbs. 13oz. second 10lbs. 11oz. third 1lb. 10oz. fourth 1lb. The blind fuze composition for them is of mealed powder, 7lb. wood ashes 3oz.

Stores for one Petard.

Hooks to hang the petard 2 Gimblets 2 Brass fuze 1 Wrench to screw the fuze 1 Blue paper portfires 6 Slow match yards 4 Props or forks 2 Copper funnels 1 Tallow ounces 8 Cartridges 1

PETARDER, Fr.. to fire petards.

PETARDIER. The man who loads, fixes, and fires the petard. It likewise signifies among the French, the man who makes or throws a petard.

PETEL, Ind.. The head of a village.

PETER, Fr.. in a military sense, to explode, to make a loud noise.

PETEROLLES, Fr.. Squibs, such as children make and use in the streets for their diversion.

PETITE-Guerre, Fr. See GUERRE, for its definition.

PETITE-Guerre, is carried on by a light party, commanded by an expert partisan, and which should be from 1000 to 2000 men, separated from the army, to secure the camp or cover a march; to reconnoitre the enemy or the country; to seize their posts, convoys, and escorts; to plant ambuscades, and to put in practice every stratagem for surprising or disturbing the enemy; which is called carrying on the Petite-guerre. The genius of these days, and the operations of the American war, have placed the service of such a corps in a most respectable light, as it is more fatiguing, more dangerous, and more desultory than any other.

To form a corps capable of carrying on the Petite-guerre to advantage, prudence requires that it should consist of 1000 men at least, without which a partisan cannot expect to support the fatigues of a campaign, and seize the most important occasions that every where offer, and which a too great inferiority must make him forego.

It is no less important that this corps should be composed of light infantry and cavalry; and as it is most incontestible that the cavalry should be the most active in carrying on the Petite-guerre, it were to be wished that they were likewise the strongest, so as to have 600 cavalry and 400 infantry in a corps of 1000 men, making four companies of light infantry, and twelve troops of cavalry. Each company of infantry to consist of 1 captain, 1 first and 2 second lieutenants, 6 serjeants, and 100 men, including 6 corporals, 4 lance-corporals, and 2 drummers. Each troop of cavalry to consist of 1 captain, 1 first and 1 second lieutenant, 1 ensign, a quarter-master, 6 serjeants, and 100 horsemen; including 6 corporals, a trumpeter and 2 farriers.

The commanding officer should have the naming of the officers of this corps, or at least the liberty to reject such as he is convinced are not qualified for such service. To support the honor of this corps upon a solid and respectable footing, the strictest subordination must extend from the chief to all the officers, and the most rigid discipline, vigilance, patience, bravery, and love of glory, ought to pervade the whole corps.

PETITION. See MEMORIAL.

PETRE. See NITRE, SALTPETRE.

PETRINAL, or Poitrinal, Fr. a species of firearms between the arquebus and the pistol, which was used among the French, during the reign of Francis I. There is mention made of it in an account of the siege of Rouen, which was undertaken by Henry IV. in 1592. Being shorter than the musquet but of a heavier calibre, and not unlike our blunderbuss; it was slung in a cross belt, so as to rest upon the chest of the person who discharged it. From this circumstance it obtained the name of Poitrinal.

PETRONEL. See PISTOL.

PETTAH, Ind. the suburbs, or a town adjoining to a fort, which is in general surrounded by a stockade or fence of bamboos, a wall, and a ditch.

PEUPLER, Fr. literally means to people. This expression is used, in a military sense, by Belaire, author of Elémens de Fortification, in the following manner:--Il faut peupler la surface d’un glacis de Pierriers. The surface of a glacis ought to be well covered with pedereros. See page 388.

PHALANGE, Fr. See PHALANX.

PHALANX, a word taken from the Greek, signifying the same as legion. In antiquity, a huge, square, compact battalion, formed of infantry, set close with their shields joined, and pikes turned across. It consisted of 8000 men, and Livy says, it was invented by the Macedonians; and hence called the Macedonian phalanx.

PHAROS, (Phare, Fr.) a light-house or pile raised near a port, where a fire is kept burning in the night to direct vessels near at hand. The Pharos of Alexandria, built at the mouth of the Nile, was anciently very famous; whence the name was derived to all the rest. Ozanam says, Pharos anciently denoted a streight, as the Pharos or Pharo of Messina.

PHARSALIA, so called from Pharsalus, anciently a town in Thessaly, now Turkey in Europe, which lies a little to the south of Larissa. This spot was rendered memorable in history by the battle that was fought between Pompey and Cæsar, when they contended for the empire of the world. Plutarch has given the following account of the engagement:--

“Both armies were now arrived at the fields of Pharsalia, conducted by the two greatest generals alive; Pompey at the head of all the Roman nobility, the flower of Italy and Asia, all armed in the cause of liberty. Cæsar at the head of a body of troops firmly attached to his interests, men who had faced every appearance of danger, were long inured to hardships, and had grown from youth to age in the practice of arms. Both camps lay in sight of each other. In this manner they spent the night; when next morning, Cæsar’s army was going to decamp, word was brought him, that a tumult and murmur were heard in Pompey’s camp, as of men preparing for battle. Another messenger came soon after with tidings that the first ranks were already drawn out. Cæsar now seemed to enjoy the object of his wishes. Now, cried he to his soldiers, the wished for day is come, when you shall fight with men, not with want and hunger. His soldiers, with joy in their looks went each to his rank, like dancers on a stage; while Cæsar himself at the head of his tenth legion, a body of men that had never yet been broken, with silence and intrepidity waited for the onset. While Cæsar was thus employed, Pompey on horseback viewed both armies; and seeing the steady order of the enemy, with the impatience of his own soldiers, he gave strict orders, that the vanguard should make a stand, and keeping close in their ranks receive the enemy. Pompey’s army consisted of 45,000 men, Cæsar’s not quite half that number. And now the trumpet sounded the signal for battle on both sides, and both armies approached each other.

“While but yet a little space remained between either army, Caius Crastinus, a devoted Roman, issued from Cæsar’s army at the head of 120 men, and began the engagement. They cut through the opposite ranks with their swords, and made a great slaughter; but Crastinus still pressing forward, a soldier run him through the mouth, and the weapon came out at the back of his neck. In the mean time Pompey, designed to surround Cæsar, and to force his horse, which amounted to only one thousand, to fall back upon his infantry, gave orders that his own cavalry, consisting of 7000 men, should extend itself, and then attack the enemy. Cæsar expecting this, had placed 3000 foot in reserve, who rushed out fiercely, and attacked Pompey’s horse, letting fly their javelins in the faces of the young delicate Romans, who, careful of their beauty, turned their backs and were shamefully put to flight. Cæsar’s men, without pursuing them flanked the enemy, now unprotected by their horse, and soon a total rout began to ensue. Pompey, by the dust he saw flying in the air, quickly conjectured that his cavalry was overthrown, and overpowered by the event retired to his camp in agony and silence. In this condition he sat pondering in his tent, till roused by the shouts of the enemy breaking into his camp, he cried out: What, into the very camp! and without uttering any thing more, but putting on a mean habit, to disguise his flight, he departed secretly.” During the seven years war Frederick the great, king of Prussia, was much in the same situation. He had retired to his tent, and had given up every thing for lost, when the daring enterprise of Ziethen, who commanded the Death Hussars, turned the fortune of the day; and though he lost an incalculable number of Prussians, he secured the victory, and thereby restored to his master both his kingdom and his crown.