Part 7

AGENT, a person in the civil department of the British army, between the paymaster-general and the paymaster of the regiment, through whom every regimental concern of a pecuniary nature must be transacted. He gives security to government for all monies which pass through his hands in the capacity of an Agent--and by the Mutiny Act, it was provided, That if an Agent shall withhold the Pay of Officers or Soldiers for the Space of one Month, he should be dismissed from his Office and forfeit 100l.

The army agency has since been incorporated with the British war office, and forms a special department.

Military AGENT in the United States is a civil officer whose duty is the transporting of clothing and other articles; and the expenditures for other services attached to the military department; they act under direct orders from the War Department.

AGGER, in ancient military writers, denotes the middle part of a military road, raised into a ridge, with a gentle slope on each side, to make a drain for the water, and keep the way dry.

AGGER is also used for the whole road, or military way. Where highways were to be made in low grounds, as between two hills, the Romans used to raise them above the adjacent land, so as to make them of a level with the hills. These banks they called aggeres. Bergier mentions several in the Gallia Belgica, which were thus raised 10, 15, or 20 feet above ground, and 5 or 6 leagues long. They are sometimes called aggeres calceati, or causeways.

AGGER, also, denotes a work of fortification, used both for the defence and the attack of towns, camps, &c. in which sense agger is the same with what was otherwise called vallum, and in later times, agestum: and among the moderns, lines; sometimes, cavaliers, terrasses, &c.

The agger was usually a bank, or elevation of earth, or other matter, bound and supported with timber; having sometimes turrets on the top, wherein the workmen, engineers, and soldiery, were placed. It had also a ditch, which served as its chief defence. The height of the agger was frequently equal to that of the wall of the place. Cæsar tells us of one he made, which was 30 feet high, and 330 feet broad. Besides the use of aggers before towns, they generally used to fortify their camps with them; for want of which precaution, divers armies have been surprised and ruined.

There were vast aggers made in towns and places on the sea-side, fortified with towers, castles, &c. Those made by Cæsar and Pompey, at Brundusium, are famous. Sometimes aggers were even built across arms of the sea, lakes, and morasses; as was done by Alexander before Tyre, and by M. Antony and Cassius.

The wall of Severus, in the north of England, may be considered as a grand agger, to which belong several lesser ones. Besides, the principal agger or vallum, on the brink of the ditch, Mr. Horsley describes another on the south side of the former, about 5 paces distant from it, which he calls the south agger; and another larger one, on the north side of the ditch, called the north agger. This latter he conjectures to have served as a military way; the former, probably, was made for the inner defence, in case the enemy should beat them from any part of the principal vallum, or to protect the soldiers against any sudden attack from the provincial Britons.

AGGER Tarquinii, was a famous fence built by Tarquinius Superbus, on the east side of Rome, to stop the incursions of the Latins, and other enemies, whereby the city might be invested.

AGGER is also used for the earth dug out of a ditch or trench, and thrown up on the brink of it: in which sense, the Chevalier Folard thinks the word to be understood, when used in the plural number, since we can hardly suppose they would raise a number of cavaliers, or terrasses.

AGGER is also used for a bank or wall, erected against the sea, or some great river, to confine or keep it within bounds; in which sense, agger amounts to the same with what the ancients called tumulus and moles; the Dutch, dyke; and we, dam, sea-wall; the Asiatics call them bunds, &c.

AGIADES, in the Turkish armies, are a kind of pioneers, or rather field engineers, employed in fortifying the camp, &c.

AGUERRI, Fr. an officer or soldier experienced in war; a veteran.

AIDE-DE-CAMP, an officer appointed to attend a general officer, in the field, in winter-quarters, and in garrison; he receives and carries the orders, as occasion requires. He is taken from the line, and all aids-de-camp have extra pay allowed for their duty. This employment is of greater importance than has been generally believed: it has been, however, too often entrusted to young officers of little experience, and of as little capacity; but in the French service they bestow great attention on this article. Marshal de Puysegur mentions the loss of a battle through the incapacity of an aide-de-camp. On the English establishment, generals, being field marshals, have four, lieutenant-generals two, and major-generals and brigadier-generals one.

In the United States the number is established by law; though on service the number must necessarily be equal to the exigency, or the various points to which orders must be sent. See American Mil. Lib. Article STAFF.

AIDE du Parc des Vivres, Fr. an officer in France, acting immediately under the commissary of stores and provisions.

AID-MAJOR. See ADJUTANT.

AIGREMORE, a term used by the artificers in the laboratory, to express the charcoal in a state fitted for the making of powder.

AIGUILLE, an instrument used by engineers to pierce a rock for the lodgement of powder, as in a mine; or to mine a rock, so as to excavate and make roads.

AILE, Fr. a wing or flank of an army or fortification.

AIM, the act of bringing the musquet, piece of ordnance, or any other missive weapon, to its proper line of direction with the object intended to be struck.

AIM FRONTLET, a piece of wood hollowed out to fit the muzzle of a gun, to make it of an equal height with the breech, formerly made use of by the gunners, to level and direct their pieces. It is not used at present.

AIR-GUN, a pneumatic machine for exploding bullets, &c. with great violence.

The common air-gun is made of brass, and has two barrels: the inside barrel is of a small bore, from whence the bullets are exploded; and a large barrel on the outside of it. There is likewise a syringe fixed in the stock of the gun by which the air is injected into the cavity between the two barrels through a valve. The ball is put down into its place in the small barrel with the rammer, as in any other gun. Another valve, being opened by the trigger, permits the air to come behind the bullet, so as to drive it out with great force. If this valve be opened and shut suddenly, one charge of condensed air may be sufficient for several discharges of bullets; but if the whole air be discharged on one single bullet, it will drive it out with uncommon force. This discharge is effected by means of a lock placed here, as usual in other guns; for the trigger being pulled, the cock will go down and drive the lever, which will open the valve, and let in the air upon the bullet: but as the expansive power of the condensed air diminishes at each discharge, its force is not determined with sufficient precision for the purposes of war. Hence it has been long out of use among military men.

In the air-gun, and all other cases where the air is required to be condensed to a very great degree, it will be necessary to have the syringe of a small bore, viz. not exceeding half an inch in diameter; because the pressure against every square inch is about 15 pounds, and therefore against every circular inch about 12 pounds. If therefore the syringe be one inch in diameter, when the atmosphere is injected, there will be a resistance of 12 pounds against the piston; and when 10 are injected, there will be a force of 120 pounds to be overcome; whereas 10 atmospheres act against the circular half-inch piston (whose area is only ¹⁄₄ part so large) with only a force equal to 30 pounds; or 40 atmospheres may be injected with such a syringe, as well as 10 with the other. In short, the facility of working will be inversely as the squares of the diameter of the syringe.

AIR-SHAFTS, in mining. See MINING.

ALARM, is a sudden apprehension upon some report, which makes men run to their arms to stand upon their guard; it implies either the apprehension of being suddenly attacked, or the notice given of such an attack being actually made; generally signified by the firing of a cannon, or rocket, the beat of a drum, &c.