Bivouac (Fr., probably from Ger. bet and Wache*), an encamp- 
ment of troops by night in the open air, without tents, each soldier 
sleeping in his clothes, with his arms by his side. In the warfare of 
the ancients, the troops were protected by tents, as by movable 
cities. In mediaeval times, castles and abbeys were opened to 
feudal and princely armies as they marched by. The popular 
masses who, impelled by religious enthusiasm, precipitated them- 
selves in the crusades into Asia, formed rather a mob than an 
army, and all but the leading knights and princes and their 
immediate followers bivouacked upon the ground, like the wild 
nomadic tribes who roam the plains of Asia. With the return of 
regular warfare tented camps again reappeared, and were 
common in Europe during the last 2 centuries. But in the gigantic 
Napoleonic wars it was found that rapid movements were of more 
importance than the health of soldiers, and the luxury of tents 
disappeared from the fields of Europe, excepting sometimes in the 
case of the English armies. Entire armies bivouacked around fires, 
or, if the neighborhood of the enemy rendered it necessary, 
without fires, sleeping upon straw, or perhaps upon the naked 
ground, a part of the soldiers keeping guard. Among historical 
bivouacs none has been more celebrated by poetry and painting 
than that of the eve of the battle of Austerlitz.'© 

Written before September 29, 1857 Reproduced from The New Ameri- 

Cyclopaedi 

Cyclopaedia, Vol. III, 1858