In field artillery, this expression means a number of guns, from 
4 to 12, with the necessary horses, gunners, and equipments, and 
destined generally to act together in battle. The British and 
French have 6, the Prussians and Austrians 8, the Russians 8 or 
12, guns to a battery. Field batteries are divided into light, heavy, 
and howitzer batteries; in some countries, there are, beside, 
mountain batteries. In describing a position for battle, the word 
battery is also used to indicate any spot where guns are placed. In 
siege artillery, battery means either any one of the lines of the 
fortress which is armed with guns, or else, and especially, a 
number of guns placed in line for the attack of a fortress, and 
covered by a parapet. The construction of this parapet, and the 
emplacements for the guns, are what is understood by the 
construction of a battery. With respect to their profiles, batteries 
are either elevated, half sunken, or sunken; with respect to their 
armament, guns, howitzer, mortar batteries; with respect to the 
shelter afforded, batteries with embrasures, barbette batteries 
(without embrasures), casemated batteries (covered in bomb 
proof). With respect to the purpose aimed at, there are 
dismounting batteries, to dismount the guns in one of the lines of 
the fortress, parallel to which they are constructed; ricochetting 
batteries, constructed in the prolongation of a line, and destined to 
enfilade it, the balls and shells just passing over the parapet and 
hopping along the line in low jumps; mortar batteries, to bombard 
the interior of the bastions and the buildings in the fortress; 
breaching batteries, to bring down the revetement walls of the 
scarp of the rampart; counter batteries, erected on the crown of 
the glacis opposite the flanks, to silence the fire of a flank which 

protects the ditch in front of the breach. Strand batteries are 
intrenchments thrown up on particular points of a sea shore to act 
against hostile men-of-war; they are either permanent, in which 
case they are generally constructed of masonry, and often 
casemated, with several tiers of guns, or temporary earthworks, 
mostly barbette batteries to insure a wider sweep; in either case 
they are generally closed to the rear against a sudden attack by 
landed infantry. 

To construct an earthwork battery, the principal dimensions are 
traced, and the earth procured from a ditch in front or rear of the 
intended parapet. The outer slope of the parapet is left without 
revetement, but the interior slope and the cheeks or interior sides 
of the embrasures are revetted with fascines, gabions, hurdles, 
casks filled with earth, sandbags, or sods of turf, so as to retain the 
earth in its position, even with a steep slope. A berme, or level 
space, is generally left standing between the outer slope of the 
parapet and the ditch in front, to strengthen the parapet. A 
banquette is constructed inside the battery, between the embra- 
sures, high enough for a man to stand on and look over the 
parapet. An epaulment of parapet forming an obtuse angle with 
that of the battery is often constructed on one or both flanks, to 
protect it against flanking fire. Where the battery can be 
enfiladed, traverses or epaulments between the guns become 
necessary. In barbette batteries, this protection is strengthened by 
a further elevation of the traverses several feet above the height of 
the parapet, which elevation is continued across the parapet to its 
outer crest, and called a bonnet. The guns are placed on platforms 
constructed of planks and sleepers, or other timbers, to insure 
permanency of emplacement. The ammunition is kept partly in 
recesses under the parapet, partly in a sunken building of timber 
covered in bomb proof with earth. To shelter the gunners from 
rifle firing, the embrasures are often closed by blindages of strong 
planks, to open to either side when the gun is run out, or 
provided with a hole for the muzzle to pass through. The fire of 
the enemy is rendered innocuous by blindages of timbers laid with 
one end on the inner crest of the parapet, and sloping to the 
ground behind. In batteries where howitzers are used, the soles of 
the embrasures slope upward instead of downward; in mortar 
batteries, there are no embrasures at all, the high elevation taken 
insuring the passage of the shell over the crest of the parapet. To 
give effective protection against the fire of heavy guns, the 
parapet should be at least 17 or 18 feet thick; but if the calibre of 
the enemy is very heavy, and the ground bad, a thickness of 24 

Battery 129 

feet may be required. A height of 7 or 8 feet gives sufficient 
protection. The guns should have a clear distance of from 10 to 
14 feet; if traverses are necessary, the parapet will have to be 
lengthened accordingly. 

Written between September 18 and 29, Reproduced from The New Ameri- 
1857 can Cyclopaedia 

Cyclopaedia, Vol. II, 1858