Design and Contruction of Fortresses

Brief Analysis: Glossary

by John Grehan


ABATTIS: A barrier of felled trees, with their branches trimmed and sharpened, and placed facing the enemy.

ARROW: A small outwork placed in the salient angle of the glacis and connected to the covered way by a short passage.

BANQUElIE: A ledge upon which soldiers stood to enable them to fire over the parapet.

BASTION: A strongpoint, composed of two faces and two flanks forming part of the main work to allow flanking fire along it.

BONNETTE: A work placed before the salient angle of a ravelin.

CASEMATE: A vaulted chamber in the rampart with a port to allow artillery to be fired from it.

CITADEL: A fort, situated on commanding ground, forming part of the works of a fortress and fortified towards both the town and the country.

COMMAND: The vertical elevation above the surrounding country. The height of the crest of the parapet.

COUNTERGUARD: An earthwork with two faces forming a salient angle, to protect a bastion or curtain.

COUNTERSCARP: The outer wall of a ditch. COVERED WAY: A wide road, usually protected by a parapet, that runs around the outer edge of a ditch.

CROWNWORK: A work composed of a bastion between two curtains which are terminated by half-bastions.

CURTAIN: That part of the rampart lying between two bastions and joining their flanks.

ESCARP: The inner wall or face of the ditch, below the rampart.

GLACIS: The external slope of a fortress, stripped of all cover.

HORNWORK: A work composed of two half-bastions and a curtain.

LUNETTE: A work consisting of two faces and two flanks, used to defend a ravelin.

PARAPET: A blank of earth or wall over which troops can fire.

RAVELIN: A work constructed in front of the curtain and used to cover the flanks of a bastion.

RAMPART: A large bank of earth raised around a fortress. It is usually constructed from earth excavated from the digging of the defensive ditch.

REDOUBT: A closed, independent work of either square or polygonal trace, without bastions.

TENAILLE: A work consisting of two faces and a small curtain constructed between the flanks of a bastion.

TERREPLEIN: The flat surface of a rampart, usually with a parapet, on which the guns of the place are mounted.

Design and Contruction of Fortresses Brief Analysis by John Grehan


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