high, built most solidly, and situated on the beach. They occur in
several places round the coast of Great Britain; but principally
opposite to the French coast, along the southern shore of Kent and
Sussex, where, for many miles, they are within easy range of each other.
They were mostly erected during the French war, as a defense against
invasion. Each had walls of 5¹⁄₂ feet thickness and was supposed to be
bomb-proof. The base formed the magazine; above were two rooms for the
garrison, and over the upper of these the flat roof, with a 4¹⁄₂ feet
brick parapet all round. On this roof a heavy swivel-gun was to be
placed to command shipping, while howitzers on each side were to form a
flanking defense in connection with the neighboring towers. Although the
cost of these little forts was very great, they are generally considered
to have been a failure. The name is said to be taken from Italian towers
built near the sea, during the period when piracy was common in the
Mediterranean, for the purpose of keeping watch and giving warning if a
pirate-ship was seen approaching. This warning was given by striking on
a bell with a hammer (Ital. _martello_), and hence these towers were
called _tarri da martello_.
=Martial.= Pertaining to war; suited to war; military, as, martial
music; a martial appearance; given to war; warlike; brave, as, a martial
nation or people; belonging to war, or to an army and navy; opposed to
civil; as, martial law; a court-martial.
=Martial Law.= An arbitrary law, proceeding directly from the military
power, and having no immediate constitutional or legislative sanction.
When it is imposed upon any specified district, all the inhabitants, and
all their actions, are brought within its dominion. It is founded on
paramount necessity, extends to matters of civil as well as of criminal
jurisdiction, and is proclaimed only in times of war, insurrection,
rebellion, or other great emergency. It is so far distinct from military
law, which affects only the troops and forces. Martial law may, in fact,
be termed a subjection to the Articles of War. In a hostile country it
consists in the suspension, by the occupying military authority, of the
civil and criminal law, and of the domestic administration and
government in the occupied place or territory, and in the substitution
of military rule and force for the same, as well as in the dictation of
general laws, as far as military necessity requires this suspension,
substitution, or dictation, and is simply military authority exercised
in accordance with the laws and usages of war. Military oppression is
not martial law, it is the abuse of the power which that law confers. As
martial law is executed by military force, it is incumbent upon those
who administer it to be strictly guided by the principles of justice,
honor, and humanity,--virtues adorning a soldier even more than other
men, for the very reason that he possesses the power or his arms against
the unarmed. Martial law affects chiefly the police and collection of
public revenue and taxes, whether imposed by the expelled government or
by the invader, and refers mainly to the support and efficiency of the
army, its safety, and the safety of its operations.
=Martialize.= To render warlike; as, to martialize a people.
=Martinet= (so called from an officer of that name in the French army
under Louis XIV.). A strict disciplinarian; one who lays stress on the
rigid adherence to the details of discipline, or to forms and fixed
methods.
=Martinetism.= Rigid adherence to discipline.
=Martini-Henry Rifle.= See SMALL-ARMS.
=Martinique.= An island in the West Indies, the most northern and one of
the largest of the Windward group. It was taken from the French by the
British in February, 1762; restored to France at the peace of the
following year; again taken March 16, 1794; restored at the peace of
Amiens in 1802; and was again captured February 23, 1809. It reverted to
its French masters in 1815.
=Martin’s Shell.= A hollow spherical projectile lined with loam and
filled with molten iron,--used for incendiary purposes.
=Martlet.= In heraldry, a bird resembling a swallow, with long wings,
very short beak and thighs, and no visible legs, borne on the shield as
a mark of cadency by the fourth son.
=Maryland.= One of the thirteen original States of the United States,
and one of the Central Atlantic States. Maryland was first settled in
1631, by a party from Virginia, and in 1632 by a colony of Roman
Catholic gentry from England, under a grant to the second Lord
Baltimore, when it received its present name in honor of the English
queen, Henrietta Maria. From 1642 to 1645 the Virginian and English
colonies were at perpetual warfare, and the governor of the English
colony, Philip Calvert, was obliged to leave, but in 1646 he returned,
the rebellion having ended. Maryland took a prominent part in the two
French wars, the Revolution, and the war of 1812-14, when it was twice
invaded by the British, who were gallantly repulsed from North Point,
near Baltimore, September 13, 1814, although they had gained a temporary
triumph a few weeks before at Bladensburg. In the war of 1861-66, its
sympathies were with the South, and the first blood of the war was shed
in Baltimore, several Massachusetts volunteers having been killed on
their way to Washington. The State was the scene of several battles
during the civil war, and suffered greatly from the contending armies.
Maryland was organized as a State in 1776.
=Masada.= A fortress on the shore of the Dead Sea, built by Jonathan
Maccabæus, and afterwards greatly strengthened by Herod, as a place of
refuge for himself. It fell into the hands of the Romans after the
capture of Jerusalem, the garrison having devoted themselves to
self-destruction.
=Mascara.= A town of Algeria, 48 miles southeast from Oran. The town was
taken and nearly destroyed by the French in 1835, and occupied a second
time by Gen. Bugeaud in 1841, since which time a garrison of French
troops has been constantly maintained there.
=Mascat=, or =Muscat=. A large seaport of Arabia, standing on a
peninsula on the northeast coast of the province of Oman. In 1507 it was
taken by Albuquerque. For nearly 150 years after, it continued in the
possession of the Portuguese. About the year 1648, however, it was
retaken by the natives, who have ever since retained it.
=Mascled Armor.= A kind of armor sometimes worn by the Norman soldiers,
composed of small lozenge-shaped plates of metal fastened on a leathern
or quilted under-coat.
=Mascoutins.= A tribe of Indians of Algonkin stock, who formerly
inhabited the region of the Upper Lakes. They afterwards moved to the
Wisconsin River, and subsequently settled on the Ohio. In 1765 they
fought against Col. Croghan on the Wabash River, and attacked Col.
Clarke in 1777. Their name is now lost among the numerous petty tribes
that reside in Kansas.
=Mask.= A military expression used in several senses. A _masked battery_
is one so constructed with grassy glacis, etc., as to be hidden from the
view of the enemy, until, to his surprise, it suddenly opens fire upon
him,--on his flank, perhaps. The fire of a battery is masked when some
other work, or body of friendly troops, intervenes in the line of fire,
and precludes the use of the guns. A fortress or an army is masked when
a superior force of the enemy holds it in check, while some hostile
evolution is being carried out.
=Mask.= A wire cage to protect the face in fencing.
=Mask Wall.= In permanent fortification, is the scarp wall of casemates.
=Mason and Dixon’s Line.= The line which divides Pennsylvania from
Maryland, running on the parallel of 39° 43′ 26″. The boundary between
the colonial possessions of the lords Baltimore and of the Penn family
had been a subject of almost continual dispute from the first settlement
of the country. At length, in 1760, the contending parties having agreed
upon a compromise, appointed commissioners to settle definitively the
limits between the two territories. Surveyors were employed by both
sides, but their progress appeared rather slow; the proprietors who
resided in England decided to send Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two
distinguished mathematicians and astronomers, to complete the work. They
arrived in Philadelphia in November, 1763, and by the autumn of 1767 had
carefully surveyed and marked a line of nearly 250 miles, extending for
the most part through a dense forest and passing over a number of
mountain ridges. This line, dividing as it does the free State of
Pennsylvania from Maryland, which was formerly a slave State, has been
often referred to, in popular language, as the boundary between freedom
and slavery in the United States.
=Mass.= In _statics_, is the amount of matter contained in a body. In
_dynamics_, is that measure of the matter in a body which determines its
relation to force. The accepted measure is the weight divided by the
force of gravity. See FORCE OF GRAVITY.
=Mass.= A word signifying the concentration of troops; the formation of
troops in column at less than half distance. To _mass troops_, is to
concentrate them by this arrangement on a certain point. A column _is
closed in mass_ when the sub-divisions have less than half distance.
=Massachusetts.= One of the thirteen original States of the American
Union, and oldest of the New England States. It was discovered by the
Cabots in 1497. In 1614 it was visited by Capt. John Smith. In 1620 the
“Mayflower” sailed from Southampton with 102 Puritan settlers, and
landed at Plymouth December 22. One half of them died from cold and
hardship the first year. In 1637, the colony suffered from Indian
massacres; and in King Philip’s war (1675) 12 towns and 600 houses were
burned. The war of the Revolution of 1776 began in Massachusetts with
the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. It adopted the Constitution of
the United States, 1788.
=Massachusetts Indians.= A general name given to all the tribes of
aborigines inhabiting the country in which the colonies of Plymouth and
Massachusetts Bay were founded. The five principal tribes were the
Nausets, Pokanokets, or Wampanoags, Massachusetts, Pennacooks, and
Nipmucks. They were nearly all exterminated in King Philip’s war (1675).
At present about 1500 Indians reside in Massachusetts.
=Massacre.= The killing of human beings by indiscriminate slaughter,
murder of numbers with cruelty or atrocity, or contrary to the usages of
civilized people; cold-blooded destruction of life; butchery; carnage.
The following are among the most remarkable:
_Before Christ._--Of all the Carthaginians in Sicily, 397; 2000 Tyrians
crucified and 8000 put to the sword for not surrendering Tyre to
Alexander, 331; 2000 Capuans, friends of Hannibal, by Gracchus, 211;
dreadful slaughter of the Teutones and Ambrones near Aix, by Marius, the
Roman general, 200,000 being left dead on the spot, 102; the Romans
throughout Asia, women and children not excepted, massacred in one day,
by order of Mithridates, king of Pontus, 88; great number of Roman
senators massacred by Cinna, Marius, and Sertorius, 87; again, under
Sylla and Catiline, his minister of vengeance, 82; at Perusia,
Octavianus Cæsar ordered 300 Roman senators and other persons of
distinction to be sacrificed to the manes of Julius Cæsar, 40.
_After Christ._--At the destruction of Jerusalem 1,100,000 Jews are said
to have been put to the sword, 70; the Jews, headed by one Andræ, put to
death many Greeks and Romans in and near Cyrene, 115; Cassius, a Roman
general under the emperor M. Aurelius, put to death 300,000 of the
inhabitants of Seleucia, 165; at Alexandria, many thousands of citizens
were massacred by order of Antoninus, 215; the emperor Probus is said to
have put to death 400,000 of the barbarian invaders of Gaul, 277;
massacre of the Gothic hostages by Valens, 378; of Thessalonica, when
7000 persons invited into the circus were put to the sword by order of
Theodosius, 390; of the circus factions at Constantinople, 532; massacre
of the Latins at Constantinople by order of Andronicus, 1184; of the
Albigenses and Waldenses, commenced at Toulouse, 1208; thousands
perished by the sword and gibbet of the French in Sicily, 1282 (see
SICILIAN VESPERS); at Paris, of the Armagnacs, at the instance of John,
duke of Burgundy, 1418; of the Swedish nobility at a feast, by order of
Christian II., 1520; of Protestants at Vassy, March 1, 1562; of 70,000
Huguenots, or French Protestants, in France, August 24, 1572 (see
BARTHOLOMEW, ST.); of the Christians in Croatia by the Turks, when
65,000 were slain, 1592; of the pretender Demetrius and his Polish
adherents, May 27, 1606; of the Protestants in the Valteline, Northern
Italy, July 19, 1620; of the Protestants at Thorn, put to death under a
pretended legal sentence of the chancellor of Poland for being concerned
in a tumult occasioned by a Roman Catholic procession, 1724; all the
Protestant powers in Europe interceded to have this unjust sentence
revoked, but unavailingly; at Batavia, 12,000 Chinese were massacred by
the natives, October, 1740, under the pretext of an intended
insurrection; at the taking of Ismail by the Russians, 30,000 old and
young were slain, December, 1790; of French royalists (see
SEPTEMBRIZERS), September 2, 1792; of Poles at Praga, 1794; in St.
Domingo, where Dessalines made proclamation for the massacre of all the
whites, March 29, 1804, and many thousands perished; insurrection at
Madrid, and massacre of the French, May 2, 1808; massacre of the
Mamelukes in the citadel of Cairo, March 1, 1811; massacre of
Protestants at Nismes, perpetrated by the Catholics, May, 1815; massacre
at Scio, April 22, 1822; destruction of the Janissaries at
Constantinople, June 14, 1826; above 500 Kabyles suffocated in a cave in
Algeria, June 18, 1845 (see DAHRA); massacre of Christians at Aleppo,
October 16, 1850; of Maronites by Druses in Lebanon, June, 1860; and of
Christians at Damascus, July 9-11, 1860. See DRUSES and DAMASCUS.
_In British History._--Of 300 English nobles on Salisbury Plain by
Hengist, about 450; of the monks of Bangor, to the number of 1200, by
Ethelfrid, king of Bernicia, 607 or 612; of the Danes in the southern
counties of England in the night of November 13, 1002, and the 23d, by
Ethelred II. At London it was most bloody, the churches being no
sanctuary. Among the rest was Gunilda, sister of Swein, king of Denmark,
left in hostage for the performance of a treaty but newly concluded. Of
the Jews in England; some few pressing into Westminster Hall at Richard
I.’s coronation, were put to death by the people, and a false alarm
being given that the king had ordered a general massacre of them, the
people in many parts of England slew all they met. In York, 500 who had
taken shelter in the castle killed themselves rather than fall into the
hands of the multitude, 1189. Of the Bristol colonists, at Cullen’s
Wood, Ireland (see CULLEN’S WOOD), 1209; of the English factory at
Amboyna, in order to dispossess its members of the Spice Islands,
February, 1624; massacre of the Protestants in Ireland, in O’Neill’s
rebellion, October 23, 1641. Upwards of 30,000 British were killed in
the commencement of this rebellion. In the first three or four days of
it, 40,000 or 50,000 of the Protestants were destroyed. Before the
rebellion was entirely suppressed, 154,000 Protestants were massacred;
of the Macdonalds of Glencoe (see GLENCOE), February 13, 1692; of 184
men, women, and children, chiefly Protestants, burnt, shot, or pierced
to death by pikes, perpetrated by the insurgent Irish, at the barn of
Scullabogue, Ireland, in 1798; of Europeans at Meerut, Delhi, etc., by
mutineers of the native Indian army, May and June, 1857; of Europeans at
Kalangan, on the south coast of Borneo, May 1, 1859; of the Europeans at
Morant Bay, Jamaica, by the infuriated negroes, October 11-12, 1865. See
JAMAICA.
_In American History._--Massacre of about 900 French Protestants
(soldiers, women, children, the aged and sick) in Florida, by the
Spaniards under Melendez de Aviles, on September 21, 1565; of about 347
English on March 22, 1622, and of 300 English on April 18, 1644, by
Indians in Virginia; of about 100 Algonkin Indians, in the neighborhood
of Manhattan, by the Dutch, on February 25-26, 1643; of 200 people at La
Chine, Isle of Montreal, by Iroquois, August 25, 1689; of a large number
of the inhabitants at Haverhill, Mass., by the French under Des
Chaillons and Hertel de Rouville, assisted by 100 picked Canadians and a
number of Algonkin Indians, August 29, 1708; of the English at
Pocotaligo, Carolina, by the Yamassees and their confederates, on April
15, 1715; of a colony of French, in the southwest, near the banks of the
Mississippi, by the Natchez Indians, November 28, 1729; of about 30
English soldiers, by Indians, allies of the French, after the
capitulation of Fort William Henry, August 19, 1757; of some 300
settlers, chiefly boys and old men, by British soldiers, Seneca Indians,
and Tories, in Wyoming Valley, Pa., on June 30, 1778 (see WYOMING
VALLEY); of a party of emigrants, by Indians in Mountain Meadows, Utah,
1857; of about 1000 settlers in Western Minnesota, by Sioux Indians in
1862; of the garrison of Fort Pillow, Tenn., by the Confederates, April
13, 1864; of part of the garrison of Fort Phil Kearney (near the fort),
by Indians, December, 1866; of five companies of the 7th U. S. Cavalry
under Gen. Custer, by Sioux Indians, June 25, 1876.
=Massacrer.= One who massacres.
=Massagetæ.= An ancient Scythian people (probably the ancestors of the
Goths), who invaded Asia about 635. In a conflict with them Cyrus the
Great was killed, 529 B.C.
=Massa-Lubrenze=, or =Massa-de-Sorrento=. A town of Naples, on the gulf
of the same name, 19 miles south of the city of Naples. It was sacked by
the Turks in 1558.
=Masse= (_Fr._). A species of stock-purse, which, during the French
monarchy, was lodged in the hands of the regimental treasurer or
paymaster, for every sergeant, corporal, drummer, and soldier. The
amount retained for each sergeant was _vingt deniers_ per day, and _dix
deniers_ for each of the other ranks, according to the establishment,
not the effective number of each battalion. Out of these stoppages a
settled and regular _masse_, or stock-purse, was made up, and at the end
of every month it was paid into the hands of the major or officer
intrusted with the interior management of the corps, and was then
appropriated to defray the expense of clothing the different regiments,
and lodged in the hands of the directors or inspector-general of
clothing.
=Masse d’Armes= (_Fr._). A warlike weapon, which was formerly used. It
consisted of a long pole with a large iron head.
=Masselotte= (_Fr._). A French term which is used in foundery,
signifying that superfluous metal which remains after a cannon or
mortar has been cast, and which is saved or filed off, to give the piece
its proper form.
=Massie= (_Fr._). A short stick or rod, used by artificers in making
cartridges.
=Master, Baggage-.= An inspector of roads, formerly an appointment in
the British service.
=Master, Barrack-.= See BARRACK-MASTER.
=Master-General.= See ORDNANCE BOARD.
=Master-General, Barrack-.= Formerly an officer with the rank of
major-general, in the British service, who was vested with considerable
powers. His duties consisted in keeping all barracks in repair, and all
supplies of barrack furniture, utensils, and other stores for the
troops, were furnished by him, as also a proper quantity of good and
sufficient firing, candles, and other stores. He also supplied forage to
the cavalry.
=Master-General, Scout-.= See SCOUT-MASTER-GENERAL.
=Master-Gunners.= In the British service are pensioned sergeants of
artillery, who are placed in charge of the stores in small towers or
forts; they are divided into three classes, of which those in the first
class receive 5 shillings, in the second, 3 shillings and 6 pence, and
in the third, 3 shillings per day. They are now borne in the Coast
Brigade of Royal Artillery, but the office has much degenerated in
importance since it was first created, at least as early as the time of
Henry VIII.
=Mastery.= Victory in war.
=Matafunda.= An ancient machine of war, which was used for throwing
stones, probably by means of a sling.
=Matagorda.= A small fort and military post in the south of Spain,
contiguous to Cadiz. On February 22, 1810, Capt. (afterwards Lieut.-Gen.
Sir Archibald) Maclaine was posted here with a force of about 140 men.
The French cannonaded the work with field artillery all the next day;
but the garrison were immovable. On March 21, the fire of 48 guns and
mortars was directed on the little fort for thirty hours; when 64 men
out of the 140 having fallen, Gen. Graham sent boats to carry off the
survivors, and the fort was surrendered.
=Matan.= One of the Philippine Islands, lying to the east of Zebu, where
Magellan was killed in a skirmish with the natives in 1520.
=Matarieh.= A village of Lower Egypt, in the province of Ghizeh, which
stands on the site of the ancient Heliopolis, 5 miles northeast from
Cairo. The Turks were defeated here by the French in 1800.
=Match.= A preparation invented to retain fire for the service of
artillery, mines, fireworks, etc. For different kinds in use and their
composition, see LABORATORY STORES.
=Match.= A bringing together of two parties suited to one another, as
for a trial of skill or force, a contest, or the like; as,
specifically, a contest to try strength or skill; an emulous struggle.
=Matchlock.= The lock of a musket containing a match for firing it;
hence, a musket fired by means of a match.
=Mate-griffon.= An ancient machine, the destroyer and terror of the
Greeks, which projected both stones and darts.
=Matériel.= All cannon, small-arms, carriages, implements, ammunition,
etc., necessary for war purposes, used in contradistinction to
_personnel_. See PERSONNEL.
=Mathematics.= That science, or class of sciences, which treats of the
exact relations existing between the quantities or magnitudes, and of
the methods by which, in accordance with these relations, quantities
sought are deducible from other quantities known or supposed. It is
usually divided into _pure_, which considers magnitude or quantity
abstractly, without relation to matter; and _mixed_, which treats of
magnitude as subsisting in material bodies, and is consequently
interwoven with physical considerations; and to this branch may be
referred astronomy, geography, hydrography, hydrostatics, mechanics,
fortification, gunnery, mining, and engineering. The knowledge of
military mathematics is applicable to all the operations of war, where
everything consists in proportion, measure, and motion, bringing into
play the several important sciences already enumerated, a certain
proficiency in most of which is absolutely requisite to the formation of
a good and skillful officer.
=Matras= (_Fr._). A sort of dart which was anciently used, and which was
not sufficiently pointed to occasion anything more than a bruise.
=Matron.= A woman, generally the wife of some well-behaved and good
soldier, who is employed to assist in the hospital, do the washing,
etc., and is under the direction of the surgeon, by whom she is
originally appointed to the situation.
=Matrosses.= Were soldiers in the royal regiment of artillery in the
British service, who assisted the gunners in loading, firing, and
sponging the great guns. The term is now obsolete in the service, and
the duty is done by the gunners.
=Matter.= That with regard to which anything takes place,--the subject
of action, complaint, discussion, legal action, or the like. A word used
in reference to courts-martial. The specific charges which are brought
against a prisoner, and to which the court must strictly confine itself.
Also applied to the evidence before a legal tribunal. _New matter_ is
new evidence not before considered.
=Mattiaci.= A people in Germany, who dwelt on the eastern bank of the
Rhine, between the Main and the Lahn, and were a branch of the Chatti.
They were subdued by the Romans, who, in the reign of Claudius, had
fortresses and silver mines in their country. After the death of Nero
they revolted against the Romans, and took part with the Chatti and
other German tribes in the siege of Moguntiacum. From this time they
disappear from history; and their country was subsequently inhabited by
the Alemanni.