every service, to maintain a reasonably low age among the persons
actively employed, it is essential that some scale should be fixed for
retirement of old and worn-out officers. In the British army, medical
officers are allowed to retire after twenty-five years full-pay service;
other officers after thirty years on full pay, or twenty-five years on
half-pay. In the navy, officers are placed on the retired list at sixty
years of age, with the rank they then hold. In most cases, in both
services, the retiring officer is allowed a step of honorary rank; but
this higher rank carries neither present nor prospective advantage.
Officers of the U. S. army may be retired on their own application after
thirty years’ service. If an officer has been borne on the army register
for forty-five years, or if he has attained the age of sixty-two years,
he may be retired at the discretion of the President. Officers retired
from active service receive 75 per cent. of the pay of the rank upon
which they were retired. Retired officers of the army may be assigned to
duty as professors of colleges and at the Soldier’s Home, and shall not
be assignable to any other duty. Any officer may be retired on account
of disability contracted in the line of duty. When an officer has served
forty years as a commissioned officer he shall, if he makes application
therefor, be placed on the retired list. Officers retired shall be
withdrawn from command and promotion. Officers may be wholly retired for
disability not incident to the service and dropped from the rolls of the
army with one year’s pay. Officers of the marine corps shall be retired
in the same manner and with the same relative conditions as are provided
for officers of the army.
=Retreat.= The retrograde movement of any army or body of men who retire
from the enemy. It signifies a more prolonged and systematic movement to
the rear than retire. _Full retreat_ is when an army retires with all
expedition before a conquering enemy. The retreat is also a beat of the
infantry drums, or sounding of the bugles or trumpets, which takes place
every day at sunset, and at which troops fall in and the roll is called;
the details for duty the following day, and orders, are published. _To
retreat_ is to make a retrograde movement. An army or body of men are
said to retreat when they turn their backs upon the enemy, or are
retiring from the ground they occupied; hence, every march in
withdrawing from an enemy is called a retreat.
=Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks.= The 10,000 Greeks who had joined
the army of the Younger Cyrus in his revolt against his brother,
Artaxerxes Mnemon, were victors, but Cyrus was defeated and slain at
Cunaxa, 401 B.C. Artaxerxes having enticed the Greek leaders into his
power and killed them, Xenophon was called to the command of his
countrymen. Under continual alarms from sudden attacks, he led them
across rapid rivers, through vast deserts, over the tops of mountains,
till he reached the sea. The Greeks returned home after a march of 1155
parasangs, or leagues (3465 miles), which was performed in 215 days,
after an absence of fifteen months.
=Retrench.= To furnish with a retrenchment; as, to retrench bastions.
=Retrenchment.= In fortification, is a defensive work, comprising at
least ditch and parapet, within some other work of a fortress, and
intended as a place of retreat for the defenders, whence they may
prolong the defense, or capitulate after the faces of the work itself
have fallen into the enemy’s hands. The retrenchment bears a
considerable resemblance to the _reduit_, except that it is almost
always of earth. Retrenchments are made in ravelins, and the re-entering
_place d’armes_ at the time of constructing the works. A retrenchment
is thrown across the gorge of a redan or bastion, or from shoulder to
shoulder, when it is apprehended that the salient angle will fall into
the possession of the besiegers; these retrenchments are usually made
when wanted. Such a retrenchment across the interior of the Redan at
Sebastopol caused the sanguinary repulse of the British on September 8,
1855.
=Return.= An official account, report, or statement, rendered to the
commander or other superior; as, the return of men fit for duty; the
return of the number of the sick; the return of provisions, etc. For
punishment of officers making false returns, see APPENDIX, ARTICLES OF
WAR, 8.
=Returns of a Mine.= Are the turnings and windings of the gallery
leading to the mine.
=Returns of a Trench.= Are the various turnings and windings which form
the lines of the trench, and are, as near as they can be, made parallel
to the place attacked, to avoid being enfiladed.
=Reveille.= The beat of the drum about break of day, to give notice that
it is time for the soldiers to rise, and for the sentinels to forbear
challenging.
=Reveil-matin= (_Fr._). A double cannon; an ancient 96-pounder.
=Revel=, or =Reval=. A strongly fortified seaport town of Russia,
government of Esthonia, on a small bay on the south side of the Gulf of
Finland, 200 miles west-southwest from St. Petersburg. It was long held
by the Teutonic Knights; was made over to Sweden in 1562; bombarded by
the Danish and Lübeck fleets in 1569; besieged by Peter the Great, and
annexed to the Russian empire in 1710. In 1713 a naval harbor, in
addition to the commercial harbor, was founded.
=Reverse.= A change for the worse, or partial defeat.
=Reverse Fire.= See FIRE, REVERSE.
=Reverse Flank.= See FLANK, OUTWARD.
=Reversed.= Upside down; as, arms reversed. Arms are said to be reversed
when the butts of the pieces are slung, or held upwards.
=Reversed.= In heraldry, a term applied to a charge turned upside down.
=Revet.= In fortification, to face with masonry, wood, or material, as
an embankment.
=Revetment.= In permanent fortification, is a retaining wall of masonry
built for the purpose of holding back the earth of which works are
composed. The most ordinary position of revetments is for the escarp and
counterscarp of the ditch. The most important of these two is the
escarp, which has to hold back the great mass of earth represented by
the rampart, parapet, banquette, etc. It is usually of solid brick-work
or stone, 5 feet thick at the top, and sloping outwards as it descends
(on the ditch side only) to the extent of 1 in 6. Prior to Vauban’s
time, the escarp revetment was commonly raised to the top of the
parapet; but as in this case the artillery of a besieger played on the
top of the wall, and ruined it soon after the siege commenced, that
engineer adopted the principle--thenceforth followed--of raising it no
higher than the crest of the glacis, or about 7 feet above the natural
ground, leaving the parapet above of sloped earth only. When the main
ditch is 24 feet deep, the scarp revetment will be about 30 feet high.
Additional strength is imparted to the revetment wall by massive
buttresses at every 15 feet, called _counter-forts_, and these again are
sometimes connected and strengthened by masonry arches outside the
revetment. The revetment forms a terrible barrier to an assaulting
party. In field-works temporary revetments may be made of timber, turf,
hurdles, or any other materials on hand.
=Review.= An examination or inspection of troops under arms, by a
general or commander, for the purpose of ascertaining the state of their
discipline, equipments, etc.
=Revision.= A re-examination for correction. Where an officer, who
orders a court-martial, does not approve their proceedings, he may, by
the custom of war, return them to the court for revision, and no
additional evidence can be taken on such revision.--_Hough._
=Revocable.= That may be recalled. Nominations for appointments in the
army are made by the President of the United States, subject to the
concurrence of the Senate, who, if they disagree, revoke the
appointment.
=Revolt.= To renounce allegiance or subjection; to rise against the
government in declared rebellion.
=Revolution.= In politics, any extensive change in the constitution of a
country suddenly brought about. The most important events in history
known under this name are: The destruction of the Assyrian empire, and
the foundation of that of the Medes and Persians by Cyrus the Great, 536
B.C.; the foundation of the Macedonian empire on the destruction of the
Persian, by the defeat of Darius Codomanus, by Alexander the Great, 331
B.C.; the establishment of the Roman empire on the ruins of the republic
by Julius Cæsar, 47 B.C.; the establishment of the empire of the Western
Franks under Charlemagne, 800; the revolution in Portugal, by which the
Portuguese threw off the Spanish yoke and placed John, duke of Braganza,
on the throne, 1640; the English revolution of the 17th century, which
began in the early part of the reign of Charles I., with the struggle
between that king and his Parliament. In 1642, the struggle became a
civil war, in which the Parliament obtained the ascendency, and brought
Charles to the block in 1649. A republic followed, under the
protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, which was succeeded in 1660 by the
restoration of monarchy in the person of Charles II.; but the arbitrary
rule of James II. brought the king and people again into antagonism, and
James having fled the country, William III. was called to the throne
under such conditions and safeguards as secured the balance of the
constitution. The revolutions in Russia, 1730 and 1762. The French
revolution was a violent reaction against that absolutism which had come
in the course of time to supplant the old feudal institutions of the
country. It began with an outbreak of insurrectionary movements at Paris
in July, 1789, including the destruction of the Bastile. On January 21,
1793, King Louis XVI. was beheaded. A disastrous reign of terror
followed (see REIGN OF TERROR), which was brought to an end in 1794. The
revolution in Sweden, 1772 and 1809; in Holland, 1795, and
counter-revolution in 1813; in Poland, 1704, 1795, and 1830. The
American Revolution of 1775, by which the United States threw off their
dependence on Great Britain. The French revolution of 1830, which drove
Charles X. into exile, and raised Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans, to
the throne by the will of the people; as also the revolution of 1848,
when France rose against Louis Philippe and adopted for a time a
republican form of government; which was followed by the revolution of
1851. The revolutions in the Netherlands, and in Brunswick, 1830; in
Brazil, 1831; in Hungary, 1848; in Rome, 1798 and 1848; in Italy,
1859-60, when the various minor sovereigns were driven into exile, and
the whole of the peninsula, with the exception of the Roman and Venetian
territory, became subject to the constitutional sway of Victor Emmanuel;
in the United States, 1860-65; in the Danubian principalities, 1869; and
the Papal States, suppressed, October, 1867.
=Revolutionary.= Tending or pertaining to a revolution in government;
as, a revolutionary war.
=Revolutionary Tribunal.= The name specially given to the infamous court
of judgment--the most extreme republican will scarcely affirm that it
was a court of justice--instituted by the French Convention in March,
1793, on a motion made by Danton, who considered that such a court had
become necessary, inasmuch as the recent disasters that had befallen the
national armies on the frontiers had led to dangerous conspiracies
against the revolutionary government. Its members were chosen from the
various departments, and their appointment was ratified by the
Convention. Their function was to sit in judgment on all persons accused
of crimes against the state, and from their sentence, delivered with
appalling promptitude, there was no appeal. During the “Reign of Terror”
(which see), when Fouquier-Tinville was “public accuser,” it acquired a
horrible notoriety, abolishing soon almost all forms of justice, neither
hearing witnesses on behalf of the accused, nor allowing him an
opportunity of defense, but blindly executing the orders of the
“Committee of Public Safety,” which was merely a tool in the hands of
Robespierre. In the provinces, similar tribunals, under the name of
“Revolutionary Committees,” were established, the commissaries-general
of which, as, for instance, Carrier, shot or drowned _suspects_ in
crowds.
=Revolvers.= See SMALL-ARMS, REVOLVER.
=Revolving Light.= A light or lamp in a light-house so arranged as to
appear and disappear at fixed intervals, either by being turned about an
axis so as to show light only at intervals, or by having its light
occasionally intercepted by a revolving screen.
=Reward.= A recompense given for the performance of a meritorious or
gallant act; as, the soldiers were rewarded with medals for their
gallantry. In the U. S. service a reward of $30 is paid for the
apprehension of a deserter.
=Rezonville.= See GRAVELOTTE.
=Rhagæ= (ruins at _Rai_, southeast of _Tehran_). The greatest city of
Media, lay in the extreme north of Great Media, at the southern foot of
the mountains (Caspius Mons) which border the southern shores of the
Caspian Sea. It was destroyed in the Parthian wars, but rebuilt by
Arsaces; it was finally destroyed by the Tartars in the 12th century.
=Rhegium= (now _Reggio_). A celebrated Greek town on the coast of
Bruttium, on the south of Italy, was situated on the straits which
separate Italy and Sicily. Rhegium was founded about the beginning of
the first Messenian war, 743 B.C., by Æolian Chalcidians from Eubœa, and
by Doric Messenians, who had quitted their native country on the
commencement of hostilities between Sparta and Messenia. Even before the
Persian war Rhegium was sufficiently powerful to send 3000 of its
citizens to the assistance of the Tarentines. Dionysius carried on war
against the city for a long time, and after two or three unsuccessful
attempts he at length took the place, which he treated with the greatest
severity. The Rhegians having applied to Rome for assistance when
Pyrrhus was in the south of Italy, the Romans placed in the town a
garrison of 4000 soldiers, who had been levied among the Latin colonies
in Campania. These troops seized the town in 279, killed or expelled the
male inhabitants, and took possession of their wives and children. When
Pyrrhus was driven out of Italy, the Romans took signal vengeance upon
these Campanians, and restored the surviving Rhegians to their city.
=Rheims=, or =Reims=. A town of France, in the department of Marne, 82
miles east-northeast from Paris. The town was taken by the Russians in
1814, but before they had been in possession many hours Napoleon came
down upon them, and gained here one of his last successes before victory
deserted his standards. Gen. MacMahon was at Rheims with his army,
including the remains of the corps of Failly and Canrobert, and marched
from here in hopes of joining Bazaine; the crown-prince of Prussia
started in pursuit, August 23, 1870. It was occupied by the Germans and
the king, September 5, 1870.
=Rhin, Bas= and =Haut= (Lower and Upper Rhine). Recently departments of
France, which formed the former French province of Alsace. See ELSASS.
=Rhine= (anc. _Rhenus_, Ger. _Rhein_). An important river in Germany,
and one of the most noted in Europe, takes its rise in the Swiss canton
of Grisons, and after a north-northwest course of about 800 miles, falls
in the German Ocean. Cæsar was the first Roman general who crossed the
Rhine; he threw a bridge of boats across it. It was fortified as the
frontier of the Roman empire 298 and 369, and became the boundary of the
French republic in 1776.
=Rhode Island.= One of the original thirteen United States of America,
and the smallest, on the southern coast of New England, is about 47
miles from north to south, and 37 miles from east to west. It is bounded
north and east by Massachusetts, south by the Atlantic, and west by
Connecticut. Rhode Island is believed to have been the Vineland of the
Norsemen, who are supposed by some antiquarians to have explored this
coast in the 10th century. It was settled in 1636 by Roger Williams and
his companions, Baptists, who were expelled for their religious opinions
from the Puritan colony of Plymouth. The colony suffered from the Indian
wars until the defeat and death of Philip, king of the Wampanoags. Rhode
Island took a prominent part in the Revolutionary war, and in the late
civil war (1861-65) she filled her quotas cheerfully for the cause of
the Union, her soldiers winning distinction and honor in the field.
=Rhodes= (Lat. _Rhodus_, Gr. _Rhodos_.). An island of Asiatic Turkey, in
the Mediterranean, off the southwest coast of Asia Minor, long an
important, wealthy, and independent state of ancient Greece. At the
beginning of the Peloponnesian war, Rhodes was one of those maritime
states which were subject to Athens; but in the twentieth year of the
war (412), it joined the Spartan alliance, and the oligarchal party,
which had been depressed, and their leaders, the Eratidæ, expelled,
recovered their former power under Dories. In 408 the capital, called
Rhodus, was built. The history of the island now presents a series of
conflicts between the democratical and oligarchal parties, and of
subjection to Athens and Sparta in turn, till the end of the Social war,
355, when its independence was acknowledged. Then followed a conflict
with the princes of Caria, during which the island was for a time
subject to Artemisia. At the Macedonian conquest, they submitted to
Alexander; but upon his death they expelled the Macedonian garrison. In
the ensuing wars they formed an alliance with Ptolemy, the son of Lagus,
and their city, Rhodus, endured a most famous siege by the forces of
Demetrius Poliorcetes, who at length, in admiration of the valor of the
besieged, presented them with the engines he had used against the city,
from the sale of which they defrayed the cost of the celebrated
Colossus. The state now for a long time flourished with great maritime
power. At length they came into connection with the Romans, whose
alliance they joined in the war against Philip III. of Macedon. In the
ensuing war with Antiochus, the Rhodians gave the Romans great aid with
their fleet. A temporary interruption of their alliance with Rome was
caused by their espousing the cause of Perseus, for which they were
severely punished, 168; but they recovered the favor of Rome by the
important naval aid they rendered in the Mithridatic war. In the civil
wars they took part with Cæsar, and suffered in consequence from
Cassius, 42. They were at length deprived of their independence by
Claudius. In 1309 the island came into the possession of the Knights of
St. John (see SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM), who baffled every effort made by
Mahomet II., the conqueror of Constantinople, to drive them from the
island, and held it until they were compelled to evacuate it by Solyman
the Great in 1522, after one of the most memorable sieges recorded in
history.
=Rhoxolani=, or =Roxolani=. A warlike people in European Sarmatia, on
the coast of the Palus Mæotis, and between the Borysthenes and the
Tanais, usually supposed to be the ancestors of the modern Russians.
They frequently attacked and plundered the Roman provinces south of the
Danube; and Hadrian was even obliged to pay them tribute. They are
mentioned as late as the 11th century. They fought with lances, and with
long swords wielded with both hands; and their armies were composed
chiefly of cavalry.
=Ribadoquin.= An ancient 1- or 1³⁄₄-pounder gun. Also, a powerful
cross-bow for throwing long darts.
=Ribaud= (_Fr._). A soldier of the foot-guards of Philip Augustus of
France; but afterwards this term was applied only to the most infamous
characters.
=Ribaudaille= (_Fr._). A term of reproach formerly applied to cowardly
soldiers. Philip of Valois thus called his Genoese mercenaries, who he
thought had betrayed him.
=Ribaudequin= (_Fr._). A warlike machine or instrument which the French
formerly used. It was made in the form of a bow, containing 12 or 15
feet in its curve, and was fixed upon the wall of a fortified town, for
the purpose of casting out a prodigious javelin, which sometimes killed
several men at once. According to Monstrelet, a French writer,
_ribaudequin_, or _ribauderin_, signified a sort of garment which was
worn by the soldiers when they took the field.
=Ribbon.= In heraldry, a diminutive of the ordinary called the _bend_,
of which it is one-eighth in width.
=Ribbon Cockades.= In the British service, the cockades which are given
to recruits, and are commonly called the _colors_.
=Richmond.= The capital of Virginia, on the left bank of the James
River, at the head of the tide-water, 150 miles from its mouth, and 100
miles south of Washington. In June, 1861, it was selected as the
Confederate capital, and from that period was the objective-point of a
series of formidable military expeditions for its capture, under Gens.
McDowell, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and Grant, and defended by
Gen. Lee with a large army and formidable lines of fortifications, until
the seizure of the lines of supply by Gens. Grant and Sheridan compelled
its evacuation after a series of sanguinary battles, April 3, 1865. A
considerable portion of the city was destroyed by the retreating
Confederates.
=Rickarees=, =Arickarees=, or =Rees=. A tribe of Indians of the Pawnee
stock living at Fort Berthold agency, on the Upper Missouri River; they
warred with the Dakota tribes for a number of years, and were hostile to
the whites; but were defeated and dispersed by U. S. troops in 1823;
made a treaty in 1825; were driven up the Platte Valley, 1831; returned
to the Missouri some years later. They numbered in 1876 about 700 souls.
=Ricochet.= In gunnery, the repeated rebounding of round-shot. By firing
at a slight elevation, with small charges, in a direction enfilading the
face of a work, shot are pitched over the parapet, and bound along the
rampart from end to end, with most destructive effect on the guns and
gunners occupying it.
=Ricochet Battery.= See BATTERY.
=Ricochet Firing.= See FIRE, RICOCHET.
=Rideau.= Is a rising ground, or eminence, commanding a plain, sometimes
almost parallel to the works of a place. It is a great disadvantage to
have rideaus near a fortification, which terminate on the counterscarp,
especially when the enemy fire from afar; they not only command the
place, but facilitate the enemy’s approaches.
=Rider.= In artillery carriages, a piece of wood, which has more height
than breadth; the length being equal to that of the body of the
axle-tree, upon which the side-pieces rest in a four-wheel carriage,
such as the ammunition-wagon, block-carriage, and sling-wagon.
=Ridge.= In fortification, is the highest part of the glacis proceeding
from the salient angle of the covered way.
=Riding-Master.= In the British service, in cavalry, artillery, and the
army service corps, is an officer whose duty it is to instruct the
officers and men in the management of their horses. He is most commonly
selected from the ranks. The riding-master has the relative rank of
lieutenant, and, after an aggregate service of thirty years, including
at least fifteen years as riding-master, he has the right to retire on
10 shillings a day, with the honorary rank of captain. He is assisted in
his duties by rough riders. (See ROUGH RIDER.)
=Riff, The.= A portion of the coast of Morocco which extends from
Tangier on the west, to near the western frontier of Algeria. The name
in the Berber language, which is that of the inhabitants, signifies a
mountainous and rugged coast. The inhabitants of the Riff were formerly
engaged in piracy. On account of the injuries inflicted by them on
merchant vessels, most of the maritime states of Europe agreed to pay an
annual sum of quit-money. However, in 1828, Austria declined further
payment of the tax. A Venetian vessel was seized by the pirates in the
harbor of Rabat, but the arrival of an Austrian fleet off the port
produced restitution of the ship and its cargo, as well as the formal
renunciation of all further claims. France followed the same course by
declaring war against the sultan of Morocco, and obtained compensation
in 1844, since which period piracy has much diminished. Its example was
followed by the Spaniards in 1859.