elevation, and then the direction necessary to attain the object.
Mortars are generally fired from behind epaulements, which screen the
object from the eye of the gunner. The elevation is first given by a
gunner’s quadrant, and the direction is given by moving the mortar-bed
with a handspike, so as to bring the line of metal into the plane of
sight, which passes through the object and the centre of the platform.
The plane of sight may be determined in several ways; the method
prescribed is to plant two stakes, one on the crest of the epaulement,
and the other a little in advance of the first, so that the two shall be
in a line with the object, and the gunner standing in the middle of the
rear edge of the platform; a cord is attached to the second stake and
held so as to touch the first stake; a third stake is driven in a line
with the cord, in rear of the platform, and a plummet is attached to
this cord so as to fall a little in rear of the mortar. The cord and
plummet determine the required plane of sight into which the line of
metal of the mortar must be brought. With the 13-inch mortar mounted
upon centre-pintle chassis, the plane of sight must be so determined as
to pass through the pintle to obtain perfect accuracy. One of the best
methods of pointing mortars so mounted, is to place on the crest of the
parapet in line with the axis of the platform a goniometer, the alidade
of which can be directed upon the object,--the angle is read from the
vertical plane containing the axis of the platform. The traverse circle
is similarly graduated from the axis of the platform. A pointer attached
to the chassis enables the gunner to lay the mortar very nearly in the
vertical plane passing through the object,--the error being the
perpendicular distance from the pintle to the plane of sight. This is
the method of Lieut. A. B. Dyer, 4th U. S. Artillery. Gen. Abbot of the
U. S. Engineer Corps used a similar principle during the late war,
1861-65. The usual angle of fire of mortars is 45°, which corresponds
nearly with the maximum range. The advantages of the angle of greatest
range are: (1) Economy of powder; (2) Diminished recoil, and strain on
the piece, bed, and platform; (3) More uniform ranges. When the distance
is not great, and the object is to penetrate the roofs of magazines,
buildings, etc., the force of fall may be increased by firing under an
angle of 60°. The ranges obtained under an angle of 60° are about
_one-tenth_ less than those obtained with an angle of 45°. If the object
be to produce effect by the bursting of the projectile, the penetration
should be diminished by firing under an angle of 30°. When the object is
not on a level with the piece, the angle of greatest range is considered
in practice to be 45° increased or diminished by one-half the angle of
elevation or depression of the object. The angle of fire being fixed at
45° for objects on the same level with the piece, the range is varied by
varying the charge of powder. Stone-mortars are pointed in the same
manner as common mortars; the angle of fire for stones is from 60° to
72°, in order that they may have great force in falling; the angle for
grenades is about 33°, in order that their bursting effect may not be
destroyed by their penetration into the earth.
_Night-firing._--Cannon are pointed at night by means of certain marks,
or measurements, on the carriage and platform, which are accurately
determined during the day.
_Pointing Small-arms._--The rear-sights of small-arms are graduated with
elevation marks for certain distances, generally every hundred yards; in
aiming with these as with all other arms, it is first necessary to know
the distance of the object. This being known and the slider being placed
opposite the mark corresponding to this distance, the bottom of the
rear-sight notch, and the top of the front-sight, are brought into a
line joining the object and the eye of the marksman. The term
_coarse-sight_ is used when a considerable portion of the front-sight is
seen above the bottom of the rear-sight notch; and the term
_fine-sight_, when but a small portion of it is seen. The graduation
marks being determined for a fine-sight, the effect of a coarse-sight is
to increase the true range of the projectile.
_Graduation of Rear-sights._--If the form of the trajectory be known,
the rear-sight of a fire-arm can be graduated by calculation; the more
accurate and reliable method, however, is by trial.
_Distance of Objects._--Various instruments have been devised to
determine the distance of objects, based on the measurement of the
visual angles subtended by a foot or cavalry soldier, of mean height, at
different distances, and upon other principles. (See RANGE-FINDER.) The
range being known, the proper elevation (or charge of powder in mortars)
and length of fuze is given by tables of fire obtained from calculation
or experiment. The ranges for guns of position are determined by
thorough surveys of the surrounding country or harbor channels, by which
the distances of all prominent points in the route of an approaching
enemy are fixed beforehand. The ranges in field artillery are usually
obtained by trial shots at the enemy. For small-arm and field-gun
firing, the importance of at once getting the range cannot be
overvalued; hence the importance of _estimating distances_ without
instrumental aid. The soldier is guided by his experience of aerial
perspective, by the apparent size of known objects, and numerous other
aids too delicate for enunciation. The art can be acquired to a high
degree of perfection by _practice_, which now forms a very important
part of the soldier’s training.
=Pointing-board.= See BOARD, POINTING.
=Pointing-cord.= Cord used in pointing mortars (which see). See
POINTING-STAKES.
=Pointing-rings.= See ORDNANCE.
=Pointing-stakes.= Are used in pointing mortars, and by them one of the
fixed points is established upon the crest of the parapet or at the foot
of the interior slope, and another in rear of the piece. Then by a cord
called the _pointing-cord_, stretched between these two points, with
the plummet suspended from it, a vertical plane is determined with which
the line of metal is made to coincide. Mortars are also pointed by means
of _pointing-wires_.
=Pointing-wires.= Are wires which are used in directing mortars. The two
fixed points required in directing a mortar are determined by planting
two wires upon the epaulement, one upon its crest, and the other about a
yard in advance of it, both as nearly as possible in the vertical plane
passing through the centre of the platform and the object. The points
being thus established, the direction is thus given to the mortar, by
causing a plummet held in rear of it to cover the wires and the line of
metal. This method is defective both in accuracy of aim and the
liability of the wires being deranged by the shots of the enemy or by
other causes.
=Points of Passing.= The ground on which one or more bodies of armed men
march by a reviewing general.
=Points of the Escutcheon.= In heraldry, in order to facilitate the
description of a coat of arms, it is the practice to suppose the shield
to be divided into nine points, which are known by the following names:
The dexter chief point, the middle chief, the sinister chief, the
collar, or honor point, the fess point, the nombril, or navel point, the
dexter base point, the middle base point, and the sinister base point.
The dexter and sinister sides of the shield are so called, not in
relation to the eye of the spectator, but from the right and left sides
of the supposed bearer of the shield.
=Poitiers=, or =Poictiers=. A town of France, capital of the department
of Vienne, on the Clain, 58 miles south-southwest of Tours. In the
vicinity of Poitiers, Alaric II., the Visigoth, was defeated and slain
by Clovis in 507. Somewhere between Poitiers and Tours a great battle
took place on October 10, 732, between the Franks under Charles Martel
and the Saracens under Abder-Rahman. The Saracens were routed with
enormous slaughter,--357,000 of them (according to one old chronicler,
and supposed to be exaggerated) being left dead on the field. Near here
was fought the battle between Edward the Black Prince and John, king of
France, September 19, 1356, in which Edward, with some 12,000 or 14,000
Englishmen and Gascons, defeated 60,000 of the troops of King John, and
took the monarch himself and one of his sons prisoners. See TOURS.
=Poitou.= A former province of Western France, now mainly comprised in
the departments of Deux Sèvres, Vendée, and Vienne. It became an English
possession in 1152. In 1204, Philip Augustus regained it by conquest
from England, and in 1295 it was formally ceded to France. It again
reverted to England in 1360 by the peace of Bretigny, but was retaken by
Charles V., and incorporated with the French crown.
=Poitrel= (_Fr._). Armor for the breast of a horse.
=Pokanokets.= See MASSACHUSETTS INDIANS.
=Poland.= Called by the natives _Polska_, “a plain,” a former kingdom of
Europe,--renowned, in mediæval history, as the sole champion of
Christendom against the Turks, and more recently, and at present, an
object of general and profound sympathy throughout Western Europe, from
its unprecedented misfortunes. The natives belong to the great Slavonic
family. The word Pole is not older than the 10th century. Poland first
took rank as one of the political powers of Europe, when Micislas I.
(962-992) occupied the throne and became a convert to Christianity.
Boleslas I. (992-1025) surnamed “the Great,” reunited the separate
portions of the kingdom (which had been divided by Micislas among his
sons) and extended it beyond the Oder, the Carpathians, and the
Dniester, and sustained a successful war with the emperor Henry II. of
Germany, conquering Cracovia, Moravia, Lusatia, and Misnia. He also took
part in the dissensions among the petty Russian princes. Boleslas was
recognized as “king” by the German emperors. After a period of anarchy
he was succeeded by his son, Casimir (1040-1058), whose reign, and that
of his warlike son, Boleslas II. (1058-1081), though brilliant, were of
little real profit to the country. Boleslas III. (1102-1139), an
energetic monarch, annexed Pomerania, defeated the pagan Prussians, and
defended Silesia against the German emperors. A division of the kingdom
among his sons was productive of much internal dissensions, under cover
of which Silesia was severed from Poland; ultimately, Casimir II.
(1177-1194) reunited the severed portions, with the exception of
Silesia. His death was the signal for a contest among the various
claimants for the throne, which was speedily followed, as usual, by a
division of the country, and during this disturbance Pomerania
emancipated itself from Polish rule. About the same time the Teutonic
Knights were summoned by the Duke of Masovia to aid him against the
pagan Prussians, but they soon became as formidable enemies to Poland as
the Prussians; and conquered a great part of Podlachia and Lithuania.
The Mongols swept over the country in 1241, reducing it to the verge of
ruin, and defeating the Poles in a great battle near Wahlstatt. From
this time Poland began to decline; various districts were ceded to the
markgrafs of Brandenburg, while many districts began to be colonized by
Germans. Ladislaus (1305-1333), surnamed _Lokietek_, “the Short,” again
restored unity to the country. In conjunction with Gedymin, grand duke
of Lithuania, a vigorous war was carried on against the Teutonic
Knights, on returning from which the aged monarch (he was now seventy
years old) experienced a triumphant reception from his subjects, who
hailed him as the “father of his country.” His son, Casimir III. the
Great (1333-1370), greatly increased the power and prosperity of Poland.
In the latter part of his reign he was compelled to defend sundry new
acquisitions against the Tartars, Lithuanians, and Wallachians, which he
did successfully. With Casimir, the Piast dynasty became extinct.
Jagello (Ladislaus IV.), grand duke of Lithuania, the son-in-law of
Louis the Great, king of Hungary, founded the dynasty of the Jagellons
(1386-1572), and for the first time united Lithuania and Poland. Casimir
IV. (1444-1492) recovered West Prussia from the Teutonic Knights. The
Wallachian invaders carried off 100,000 Poles, and sold them to the
Turks as slaves, 1498. Sigismund I. (1506-1548) surnamed “the Great,”
raised the country to the utmost pitch of prosperity; he was forced into
a war with Russia, in which he lost Smolensk. Sigismund II., Augustus,
was a successor worthy of him; Lithuania was finally joined indissolubly
to Poland. Livonia was conquered from the Knights Sword-bearers. (See
SWORD-BEARERS, KNIGHTS.) Stephen Battory (1575-1586), voivode of
Transylvania, the second elective monarch, a man of energy and talent,
carried on war successfully against the Russians, pursued them into the
very heart of their own country, and compelled the czar to sue for
peace; he also subdued the semi-independent Cossacks of the Ukraine. His
successor, Sigismund III. (1586-1632), who was succeeded by his sons,
Ladislaus VI. (1632-1648) and John Casimir (1648-1672), was of the Vasa
family, and was the crown prince of Sweden. These three monarchs were
most unworthy successors of Poland’s ablest king. They were always
quarreling with their neighbors, declaring war with Russia, Sweden, or
Turkey, in the most imprudent and reckless manner, and often without
valid pretext. But the Polish armies, though as little fostered and
cared for as the other portion of the nation, were everywhere
victorious; the Swedish and Muscovite armies were successively
annihilated; Moscow was taken, and the Russians reduced to such an
abject condition that they offered to make Sigismund’s son, Ladislaus,
their czar. Sweden made a similar offer to another son of the Polish
monarch; but the latter’s absurd behavior lost for Poland this rich
result of her great victories; and the foolish policy of the whole three
not only rendered fruitless all the lavish expenditure of Polish blood
and treasure, but lost the country many of her richest provinces, and
left her without a single ally. During the reign of this dynasty
Wallachia and Moldavia were snatched by the Turks from under the Polish
protectorate; Livonia with Riga was conquered (1605-1621), along with a
part of Prussia (1629) by Sweden; and Brandenburg established itself in
complete independence. The Cossacks rose in rebellion to a man, put
themselves under the protection of Russia, and ever afterwards proved
themselves the most inveterate enemies of the Poles. In the reign of
John Casimir, Poland was attacked simultaneously by Russia, Sweden,
Brandenburg, the Transylvanians and the Cossacks; the country was
entirely overrun; Warsaw, Wilna, and Lemburg taken; but Czarniecki,
after defeating Poland’s enemies in detail, ignominiously expelled them
from the country. But in subsequent treaties Ducal or East Prussia was
given up to Brandenburg; almost all Livonia to Sweden, and Smolensk,
Severia, or Tchernigov, and the Ukraine beyond the Dnieper were given to
Russia. During the reign of Michael Wisniowiecki (1668-1674) a war with
Turkey, concluded by an ignominious peace, was the chief event. But the
senate rejected the shameful treaty, the Polish army was reinforced, the
Polish monarch resigned the command to John Sobieski, and the Turks were
routed with great slaughter at Choczim (1673). After the reign of
Sobieski, Augustus II. of Saxony entered Poland at the head of a Saxon
army, and succeeded in obtaining the throne. His war with the Turks
restored to Poland part of the Ukraine and the fortress of Kaminiec; but
that with Charles XII. brought nothing but misfortune. Augustus returned
after the battle of Poltava; his rival retired without a contest; a
close alliance was formed with Russia, and the Russian troops which had
campaigned in Poland against the Swedes were, along with his Saxon army,
retained. The Poles demanded their extradition, but in vain; and the
Russian cabinet interfered (1717) between the king and his subjects,
compelling both parties to sign a treaty of peace. This was the
commencement of Poland’s dependence on Russia and her consequent
decline. By the instigation of Peter the Great, the Polish army was
reduced from 80,000 to 18,000. For the massacre of Protestants at Thorn
see MASSACRE. Civil war so weakened the kingdom that it fell an easy
prey to Russia, Austria, and Prussia, in 1772, when the first partition
was effected. Catherine II. of Russia, on various pretexts, advanced her
army into Poland (1792), and the fruitless resistance to the united
Prussians and Russians, headed by Joseph Antony Poniatowski and
Kosciusko, was followed by a second partition (1793) between Russia and
Prussia, which the diet were forced to sanction at the point of the
bayonet. A general rising took place (1794); the Prussians were
compelled to retreat to their own country; the Russians were several
times routed; but an Austrian army advanced, compelling the Poles to
retreat; and fresh hordes of the Russians arriving, Kosciusko at the
head of the last patriot army, was defeated; and the sack of Praga,
followed by the capture of Warsaw, finally annihilated the Polish
monarchy. The third and last partition (1795) distributed the remainder
of the country between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. King Stanislaus
resigned the crown, and died broken-hearted at St. Petersburg in 1798.
Napoleon I. established the duchy of Warsaw (1807), chiefly out of the
Prussian share of Poland, with the elector of Saxony at its head. The
division of Poland was re-arranged by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On
November 30, 1830, Constantine (brother of the czar and military
governor) and his Russians were driven out of Warsaw, and a general
insurrection of the people, headed by the aristocracy, took place; and
military leaders, as Radzivil, Dembinski, Bem, etc., were soon found.
From January, 1831, till September 8 of the same year, a series of
bloody conflicts were fought, in which the Prussians and Austrians, with
pitiable subservience, aided the czar. At first, the Poles were
successful; but the taking of the capital by Paskievitch soon ended the
war, which was followed, as a matter of course, by imprisonment,
banishment, confiscation, and enforced service in the Russian army. From
this time, the independence of Poland was suppressed, and in 1832 it was
declared to be an integral part of the Russian empire, and the most
severe and arbitrary measures taken to Russianize the people. The
outbreaks of 1833 and 1846 were punished by the gallows. Simultaneous
disturbances (1846) in the Prussian and Austrian portions of Poland were
summarily suppressed; their leaders in Prussia were imprisoned, and only
saved from death by the revolution of March, 1848, at Berlin; and those
in Austria were butchered by the peasantry, who preferred the Austrian
to a national government. On November 6, 1846, the republic of Cracow
was incorporated with Austria. In 1861 another insurrection broke out,
and Poland was declared (in October) in a state of siege; the country
continued in a state of commotion without any very decided outbreak; and
on January 13, 1863, Lithuania and Volhynia were also put in a state of
siege. In February, 1863, Mieroslavski raised the standard of
insurrection in the northwest, on the Posen frontier, and many districts
of Augustovo, Radom, Lublin, Volhynia, and Lithuania, were speedily in
insurrection. It was a mere guerrilla war, and no great or decisive
conflicts took place, but the whole populations of villages were put to
the sword by the Russians; while murders and assassinations marked the
reign of terror of the National Committee. At last, with the officious
assistance of Prussia, and the secret sympathy and support of Austria,
the czar’s troops succeeded in trampling out (1864) the last embers of
insurrection. In 1868 the government of Poland was absolutely
incorporated with that of Russia.
=Polans.= Knee-pieces in armor.
=Pole.= See ORDNANCE, CARRIAGES FOR, NOMENCLATURE OF ARTILLERY CARRIAGE.
=Poleaxe.= An axe fixed to a pole or handle; or rather, a sort of
hatchet with a handle about 15 inches in length, and often a point or
claw bending downward, or projecting from the back of its head. It was
formerly used by mounted soldiers.
=Polemarch.= In Grecian antiquity, was originally the
commander-in-chief, but afterwards, a civil magistrate who had under his
care all strangers and sojourners in the city.
=Pole-pad.= A pad placed on the end of the pole in field-gun carriages
to prevent injury to the horses.
=Pole-prop.= A short stick attached to the under side of the pole in
field-gun carriages.
=Pole-strap.= See ORDNANCE, LIMBER.
=Pole-yoke.= See ORDNANCE, LIMBER.
=Pole-yoke Branches.= See ORDNANCE, LIMBER.
=Polibole=, or =Palintonne= (_Fr._). A ballista which was capable of
throwing both arrows and stones.
=Police.= The cleaning of a camp or garrison; the state of a camp in
regard to cleanliness.
=Police Guard.= An interior guard having care of the arms, property, and
prisoners of the regiment; also charged with the regulation of the camp
in regard to order and cleanliness. A guard for prisoners occupied in
cleaning the camp.
=Police, Military.= This word has two significations: (1) The organized
body employed within an army to preserve civil order, as distinct from
military discipline. (2) A civil police with a military organization.
The police of an army commonly consists of steady intelligent soldiers,
who act under the orders of the provost-marshal, and arrest all persons
out of bounds, civilians not authorized to pass the lines, disorderly
soldiers, etc.; they also attend to sanitary arrangements. As in all
military matters, the police of an army possess summary powers, and a
sentence of the provost-marshal is carried out immediately after it is
pronounced. Of civil police with military organization may be instanced,
as specimens, the gendarmerie of France, the sbirri of Italy, and, in an
eminent degree, the Irish constabulary.
=Police Party.= A working party engaged in cleaning the camp or
garrison.
=Police Sergeant.= A sergeant specially charged with cleaning the camp.
=Polkownick.= Colonel of a Polish regiment.
=Pollentia= (now _Polenza_, Northern Italy). A town of the Statielli in
Liguria, at the continence of the Sturia and the Tanarus, and
subsequently a Roman municipum. In its neighborhood Stilicho, the
imperial general, defeated Alaric the Goth, March 29, 403.
=Polotzk=, =Polotsk=, or =Polock=. A town of Russian Poland, 60 miles
west-northwest of Vitebsk, at the continence of the Dwina and the
Polota. It was taken by the Russians from the Poles in 1579, and again
in 1655. The French under Marshal Oudinot were here defeated by the
Russians under Gen. Wittgenstein, July 30-31, 1812, the next day the
Russians were defeated. After several smaller actions with various
results, Polotzk was stormed by the Russians, and retaken October, 1812.
=Polron.= That part of the armor which covered the neck and shoulders.
=Poltava=, or =Pultowa=. A town of Russia, capital of the government of
the same name, situated on the Vorskla, about 934 miles south-southeast
from St. Petersburg. Here Charles XII. of Sweden was defeated by Peter
the Great of Russia, July 8, 1709.
=Polygars=, or =Paleagas=. Chiefs of mountainous and woody districts in
the peninsula of India, who pay only a temporary homage.
=Polygon.= The name applied to the many-angled forms in which the outer
walls of all fortified places are built.
=Polygon.= A school of practice for artillery is so called in Japan.
=Polyorcetes.= Taker of cities; a name applied by the Greeks to a very
successful general.
=Polytechnic School.= See MILITARY ACADEMIES.
=Pomada.= An exercise of vaulting the wooden horse, by laying one hand
over the pommel of the saddle.
=Pomerania.= A province of Prussia, bounded north by the Baltic, east by
West Prussia, south by Brandenburg, and west by the Mecklenburg duchies.
It was held by the Poles, 980, and by Denmark, 1210; made an independent
duchy, 1479; occupied by the Swedes in the Thirty Years’ War, and
divided between Sweden and Brandenburg, 1648. The Swedish part, awarded
to Denmark in 1814, was given up to Prussia for Lauenburg, 1815.
=Pomerium.= In ancient architecture, that space of ground which lay
between the walls of a fortified town and the inhabitants’ houses. The
term is still used among modern architects, particularly by the
Italians, to describe the breadth of the terre-plein of the rampart, its
inward talus, and the vacant space which is usually left between this
talus and the houses of the town.
=Pomfret.= See PONTEFRACT.
=Pomme.= In heraldry, a bearing or device representing, or in the form
of, an apple.
=Pommee.= In heraldry, having the ends terminating in rounded
protuberances resembling apples;--said of crosses.
=Pommel.= The knob on the hilt of a sword. Also the protuberant part of
a saddle-bow.
=Pommeled=, or =Pommelled=. In heraldry, furnished or mounted, with one
or more pommels, as a sword, dagger, or the like.
=Pommelion.= The cascabel, or hindmost knob of a cannon.
=Pompon.= A tuft of wool, sometimes worn by soldiers on the top of the
hat in front, instead of a feather.
=Poncho.= A Spanish-American garment, consisting of a piece of woolen
cloth, 5 to 7 feet long, 3 to 4 feet broad, having in the middle a slit
through which the wearer passes his head, so that the poncho rests upon
the shoulders and hangs down before and behind. In the U. S. army
mounted troops are issued a waterproof poncho, consisting of painted
cotton or rubber cloth.