Part 368

PLACE marécageuse, Fr. a marshy place. A place of this description may be easily fortified, and at little expence; nor does it require many troops for defence. Among other advantages, that of not being exposed to an enemy’s mines, is by no means the least considerable. On the other hand, piles must be sunk in almost every direction: and should it be invested, it is almost impossible to succour it. Add to these inconveniences, the danger to which the garrison must be constantly exposed of being visited by some contagious disorder.

PLACE elevée dans un plat pays, Fr. Places that are put in a state of defence in a flat open country. These places are almost always secured by regular fortifications: the soil is good, and there is always plenty of earth adapted to every species of military work: there is abundance of water; and should an enemy attempt to carry them by insuring the works, entrenchments may be easily thrown up to check him. Add to this, that it would require two or three armies, at least, to cut off the various supplies which can be procured from the country round. On the other hand, the goodness and abundance of the soil are equally beneficial to the besieging army. For the troops are thereby enabled to throw up entrenchments, to build redoubts, erect batteries, and by thus securing their approaches, to annoy the besieged at all hours, and in all ways.

PLACE située sur le penchant d’une montagne, Fr. a place situated or built upon the declivity of a hill. It is very difficult to fortify a spot of this sort. Whatever is erected upon it, must be commanded by the higher ground, and the body of the place be, of course, exposed to every attack.

PLACE située dans une vallée, Fr. a town, fortress, or hold that is built in a valley. Places so situated must be in constant jeopardy, as by getting possession of the heights, the enemy can always command them.

PLACE située sur les bords d’une grand riviére, Fr. a place, &c. built upon the banks, or borders of a large river. Places, constructed in a situation of this sort, are preferable to all others, provided they have a free and uninterrupted communication with the principal quarter from whence stores, provisions, and ammunition may be drawn. They may be regularly fortified towards the interior of the country, and it will require little or no artificial means to secure them on the side of the river.

PLACE de guerre, Fr. any town or place that is regularly, or irregularly fortified.

PLACE basse, Fr. In fortification the lower flanks according to certain systems are so called.

PLACE forte, Fr. a strong hold or place which presents at all points so many difficult obstacles against a besieging army, that it cannot be carried (except by surprize) unless the regular means of reducing it be resorted to.

PLACES contreminées, Fr. all fortresses, &c. are called places contreminées, or countermined, which, independent of their open and visible means of defence, &c. have subterraneous fortifications that are alongside the revetements of the works, under the glacis, or beneath the neighboring ground, to interrupt the approaches, and destroy the works of a besieging enemy.

PLACE haute, Fr. According to the systems of some engineers (which have not been followed of late years) the place haute, or high place, is that which stands the highest of three platforms that were constructed in the shape of an amphitheatre along the flanks of the bastions. Pagan, Blondel, and others, who have copied from these systems, did so from an idea, that considerable advantages might be derived from a powerful and concentrated discharge of artillery and musquetry. Not conceiving that it was possible to construct casemated flanks free of smoke, they built three or four open flanks one above the other. But they were soon rendered useless and untenable by the shells that fell, and the fragments that flew about in consequence of the demolition of the mason-work. Casemated ramparts, on the contrary, have been known to stand proof against the heaviest discharge of bombs, &c. to take up little room, and to afford ample space for a wide range of artillery, that is kept under cover.

PLACES non revêtues, Fr. all fortified towns or places are so called, when the ramparts that surround them are only lined with placage or simple turf. In this case the ramparts, so lined or covered, ought to be fraised and palisadoed above the berme or foot-path, to prevent surprizes. Hedges made of good quickset, well interwoven with other wood, and carefully attended to, will save the expence of palisadoes, which in marshy soils soon rot, and require to be replaced.

PLACES revêtues, Fr. All fortified towns or places are so called, whose ramparts are lined or covered with brick or stone. It frequently happens, that the revetement does not reach the terre-pleine of the rampart, especially when the parapets are thick and solid; in which case the revetement is more easily covered by the glacis. Parapets are no longer lined.

PLACE, Fr. This word is frequently used by the French, in a military sense, to signify ration, viz.

Une PLACE de bouche, Fr. one ration of provisions.

Deux PLACES de fourrage, Fr. Two rations of forage.

To be PLACED. This expression is frequently used in naval and military matters, to signify the appointment or reduction of officers. Hence to be placed upon full or half-pay. It is more generally applicable to the latter case.

PLACER, Fr. to fix, to settle. This word is used among the French, as with us, to express the act of providing for a person by appointing him to a desirable situation, viz. Placer un jeune homme dans un regiment; to get a young man a commission in a regiment.

Un cheval bien PLACE, Fr. A horse is said, among the French, to be well placed, when his forehead runs perpendicularly down between the nostrils.

PLAFOND, Fr. The ceiling.

PLAFONNER, Fr. to ceil or adorn the upper part of a room, &c.

PLAGE, Fr. flat shore, or extent of coast, where there are no creeks, &c. for vessels to ride in.

PLAIE, Fr. a wound or scar.

PLAN, ground plot, or ichnography, in fortification, is the representation of the first or fundamental tract of a work, showing the length of its lines, the quantity of its angles, the breadth of the ditches, thickness of the rampart, parapets, and the distance of one part from another: so that a plan represents a work, such as it would appear if cut equal with the level of the horizon, or cut off at the foundation: but it marks neither the heights nor depths of the several parts of the works: that is properly profile, which expresses only the heights, breadths, and depths, without taking notice of the lengths. As architects, before they lay the foundation of their edifice make their design on paper, by which means they find out their faults, so an engineer, before tracing his works on the ground, should make plans of his designs upon paper, that he may do nothing without serious deliberation.

Exact plans are very useful for generals or governors, in either attacking or defending a place, in chusing a camp, determining attacks, conducting the approaches, or in examining the strength and weakness of a place; especially such plans as represent a place with the country about it, shewing the rivers, fountains, marshes, ditches, valleys, mountains, woods, houses, churches, defiles, roads, and other particulars, which appertain to it.

PLAN of comparison, a geometrical sketch of any fortress and adjacent country within cannon shot, in which the different levels of every principal point are expressed.

PLAN, Fr. See PLAN.

Lever le PLAN de quelque place de guerre, Fr. to draw the plan of a fortified town or place.

PLANCHETTE, Fr. a small board or copper-plate, which is used in practical geometry.