were the first Saxons who landed on the Sussex coast, 477. They
assaulted and captured Wittering, near Chichester, spreading afterwards
through the vast _Andredsleas_ with fire and sword, and finally
establishing the South-Sexe, or Sussex kingdom. The sea-board of Sussex
suffered terribly from the ravages of the Danish jarls. Within its
limits was fought (October 14, 1066) the memorable battle which
overthrew the Saxon dynasty, and eventually resulted in that union of
Saxon solidity and Norman enterprise now recognized as distinctive of
the English character. See LEWES for important battle in 1264. The
French fleet, under D’Annebaut, made an attack on Brighton in 1545, and
landed a body of troops, who were stoutly resisted by the natives, and
compelled to retire. In 1643, the Parliamentarian forces, under Sir
William Waller, besieged Chichester, which after ten days surrendered.
The same leader, later in the year, beleaguered Arundel Castle for
seventeen days, and reduced it to a heap of ruins. For naval combat off
the Sussex coast, see BEACHY HEAD.
=Sustain.= To sustain is to aid, succor, or support, any body of men in
action or defense.
=Sutherland.= A county in the extreme north of Scotland. Sutherland
received its name from the Northmen, who frequently descended upon and
pillaged it prior to the 12th century, and called it the Southern Land,
as being the limit on the south of their settlements.
=Sutler.= A camp-follower, who sells drink and provisions to the troops.
See CANTEEN, and POST-TRADER.
=Swad=, or =Swadkin=. A newly-raised soldier.
=Swaddie.= A discharged soldier.
=Swallow’s-tail.= In fortification, an outwork, differing from a single
tenaille, as its sides are not parallel, like those of a tenaille; but
if prolonged, would meet and form an angle on the middle of the curtain;
and its head, or front, composed of faces, forming a re-entering angle.
=Sway.= The swing or sweep of a weapon. “To strike with huge two-handed
sway.”
=Sweaborg=, or =Sveaborg=. A great Russian fortress and seaport, in
Finland, government of Viborg, sometimes called “the Gibraltar of the
North.” In 1789 it was taken from Sweden by Russia. During the Crimean
war it was bombarded by the Anglo-French fleet in the Baltic (on August
9-10, 1855). Twenty-one mortar-vessels were towed to within about 2
miles (3400 metres) of the centre of the Russian arsenal, while the
gunboats of the squadron, keeping in constant motion, approached to a
distance of 2000 or 3000 metres. The fire was maintained forty-five
hours, during which 4150 projectiles (2828 of which were mortar-shells)
were thrown into the place, killing and wounding 2000 men, and
destroying magazines, supplies, and shipping.
=Sweden.= A kingdom in the north of Europe, and forming with Norway
(with which it is now united under one monarchy), the whole of the
peninsula known by the name of Scandinavia. The earliest traditions of
Sweden, like those of most other countries, present only a mass of
fables. The dawn of Swedish history (properly so called) now begins, and
we find the Swedes constantly at war with their neighbors of Norway and
Denmark, and busily engaged in piratical enterprises against the eastern
shores of the Baltic. In 1155, Eric, surnamed the Saint, undertook a
crusade against the pagan Finns, compelled them to submit, established
Swedish settlements among them, and laid the foundation of the closer
union of Finland with Sweden. Eric’s defeat and murder, in 1161, by the
ambitious young Danish prince Magnus Henriksen, who had made an
unprovoked attack upon the Swedish king, was the beginning of a long
series of troubles, and during the following 200 years, one short and
stormy reign was brought to a violent end by murder or civil war, only
to be succeeded by another equally short and disturbed; until, at
length, the throne was offered by the Swedish nobles to Margaret, queen
of Denmark and Norway, who threw an army into Sweden, defeated the
Swedish king, Albert of Mecklenburg, and by the union of Calmar, in
1397, brought Sweden under one joint sceptre with Denmark and Norway.
Sweden emancipated itself from the union with Denmark in 1523. Gustavus
I. (Gustaf Vasa) on his death, in 1560, left to his successor a
hereditary and well-organized kingdom, a full exchequer, a standing
army, and a well-appointed navy. John, brother of Eric XIV., ascended
the throne in 1568, which he occupied for nearly a quarter of a century,
dying in 1592, after a stormy reign, stained by the cruel murder of his
unfortunate brother Eric, and distracted by the internal dissensions
arising from his attempts to force Catholicism on the people, and the
disastrous wars with the Danes, Poles, and Russians. John’s son and
successor, Sigismund, after a stormy reign of eight years, was compelled
to resign the throne. The deposition of Sigismund gave rise to the
Swedo-Polish war of succession, which continued from 1604 to 1660; and
on the death of Charles IX. in 1611, his son and successor, the great
Gustavus Adolphus, found himself involved in hostilities with Russia,
Poland, and Denmark. With Charles XII. the male line of the Vasas
expired, and his sister and her husband, Frederick of Hesse-Cassel, were
called to the throne by election, but were the mere puppets of the
nobles, whose rivalries and party dissensions plunged the country into
calamitous wars and almost equally disastrous treaties of peace.
Gustavus IV. lacked the ability to cope with the difficulties of the
times, and after suffering in turn for his alliance with France,
England, and Russia, was forcibly deposed in 1809, and his successor,
Charles XIII., saw himself compelled at once to conclude a humiliating
peace with Russia by a cession of nearly a fourth part of the Swedish
territories, with 1,500,000 inhabitants; Gen. Bernadotte was elected to
the rank of crown-prince, and he assumed the reins of the government,
and by his steady support of the allies against the French emperor,
secured to Sweden, at the congress of Vienna, the possession of Norway,
when that country was separated from Denmark. Under the able
administration of Bernadotte, who, in 1818, succeeded to the throne as
Charles XIV., the united kingdoms of Sweden and Norway made great
advances in material prosperity and political and intellectual
progress.
=Sweep.= To clear or brush away; as, the cannon swept everything before
it.
=Swell of the Muzzle.= In gunnery, is the largest part of the gun in
front of the neck. See ORDNANCE, CONSTRUCTION OF, MOLDING.
=Swiss Guards.= See GARDES SUISSES.
=Switzerland.= A federal republic in Central Europe; bounded on the
north by Baden, northeast by Würtemberg and Bavaria, east by the
principality of Liechtenstein and the Tyrol, south by Piedmont and
Savoy, and west and northwest by France. Switzerland was in Roman times
inhabited by two races,--the Helvetii on the northwest, and the Rhætians
on the southeast. When the invasions took place, the Burgundians settled
in Western Switzerland, while the Alemanni took possession of the
country east of the Aar. The Goths entered the country from Italy, and
took possession of the country of the Rhætians. Switzerland in the early
part of the Middle Ages formed part of the German empire, and feudalism
sprang up in the Swiss highlands even more vigorously than elsewhere.
During the 11th and 12th centuries, the greater part of Switzerland was
ruled on behalf of the emperors by the lords of Zahringen, who did much
to check civil wars. They, however, became extinct in 1218, and then the
country was distracted by wars, which broke out among the leading
families. The great towns united in self-defense, and many of them
obtained imperial charters. Rudolph of Habsburg, who became emperor in
1273, favored the independence of the towns; but his son Albert I. took
another course. He attacked the great towns, and was defeated. The
leading men of the Forest Cantons met on the Rütli meadow, on November
7, 1307, and resolved to expel the Austrian bailiffs or landvögte. A war
ensued which terminated in favor of the Swiss at Morgarten (which see)
in 1315. Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, with Lucerne, Zürich, Glarus,
Zug, and Bern, eight cantons in all, in 1352, entered into a perpetual
league, which was the foundation of the Swiss Confederation. Other wars
with Austria followed, which terminated favorably for the confederates
at Nafels (which see) and Sempach (which see). In 1415, the people of
the cantons became the aggressors. They invaded Aargau and Thurgau,
parts of the Austrian territory, and annexed them; three years later,
they crossed the Alps, and annexed Ticino, and constituted all three
subject states. The Swiss were next engaged in a struggle on the French
frontier with Charles the Bold of Burgundy. They entered the field with
34,000 men, to oppose an army of 60,000, and yet they were successful,
gaining the famous battles of Granson and Morat (see MORAT) in 1476. In
1499, the emperor Maximilian I. made a final attempt to bring
Switzerland once more within the bounds of the empire. He sought to draw
men and supplies from the inhabitants for his Turkish war, but in vain.
He was defeated in six desperate engagements. Basel and Schaffhausen
(1501), and Appenzell (1513), were then received into the confederation,
and its true independence began. New troubles sprang up with the
Reformation. War broke out in 1531 between the Catholics and
Protestants, and the former were successful at Cappel (which see), where
Zwingli was slain. This victory to some extent settled the boundaries of
the two creeds; in 1536, however, Bern wrested the Pays de Vaud from the
dukes of Savoy. During the Thirty Years’ War, Bern and Zürich contrived
to maintain with great skill the neutrality of Switzerland, and in the
treaty of Westphalia, in 1648, it was acknowledged by the great powers
as a separate and independent state. At this period, the Swiss, in
immense numbers, were employed as soldiers in foreign service, and the
record of their exploits gives ample evidence of their courage and
hardihood. In 1798, Switzerland was seized by the French. At the peace
of 1815, its independence was again acknowledged. In 1839, at Zürich, a
mob of peasants, headed by the Protestant clergy, overturned the
government. In Valais, where universal suffrage had put power into the
hands of the reactionary party, a war took place in which the latter
were victorious. In 1844, a proposal was made in the Diet to expel the
Jesuits; but that body declined to act. The radical party then organized
bodies of armed men, called the Free Corps, which invaded the Catholic
cantons; but they were defeated. The Catholic cantons then formed a
league, named the Sonderbund, for defense against the Free Corps. A
majority in the Diet, in 1847, declared the illegality of the
Sonderbund, and decreed the expulsion of the Jesuits. In the war which
ensued between the federal army and the forces of the Sonderbund, the
former were victorious at Freiburg and Lucerne. The leagued cantons were
made liable in all the expenses of the war, the Jesuits were expelled,
and the monasteries were suppressed. Since then, the most important
event which has occurred was a rebellion against the king of Prussia, as
prince of Neufchâtel. The canton was declared a republic, with a
constitution similar to that of the other Swiss states.
=Swivel.= A small piece of ordnance, turning on a point or swivel.
=Sword.= A well-known weapon of war, the introduction of which dates
beyond the ken of history. It may be defined as a blade of steel, having
one or two edges, set in a hilt, and used with a motion of the whole
arm. Damascus and Toledo blades have been brought to such perfection,
that the point can be made to touch the hilt and to fly back to its
former position. In the last century every gentleman wore a sword; now
the use of the weapon is almost confined to purposes of war. Among the
forms of the sword are the rapier, cutlass, broadsword, scimiter, sabre,
etc.
=Sword Law.= When a thing is enforced, without a due regard being paid
to established rules and regulations, it is said to be carried by sword
law, or by the will of the strongest.
=Sword, Order of the.= A Swedish military order of knighthood,
instituted by Gustavus Vasa.
=Sword-arm.= The right arm.
=Sword-bayonet.= Short arms, as carbines, are sometimes furnished with a
bayonet made in the form of a sword. The back of the handle has a
groove, which fits upon a stud upon the barrel, and the cross-piece has
a hole which fits the barrel. The bayonet is prevented from slipping off
by a spring-catch. The sword-bayonet is ordinarily carried as a
side-arm, for which purpose it is well adapted, having a curved cutting
edge as well as sharp point.
=Sword-bearer.= In monarchical countries, is the title given to the
public officer who bears the sword of state.
=Sword-bearers, Knights.= A community similar to, though much less
distinguished than, the Teutonic Knights.
=Sword-belt.= A belt made of leather, that hung over the right shoulder
of an officer, by which his sword was suspended on the left side. This
belt is no longer used, as the sword is now suspended from the
waist-belt.
=Sword-blade.= The blade or cutting part of a sword.
=Sword-cane.= A cane containing a sword.
=Sword-cutler.= One who makes swords.
=Sworded.= Girded with a sword.
=Sword-fight.= Fencing; a combat or trial of skill with swords.
=Sword-knot.= A ribbon tied to the hilt of a sword. In the United
States, all general officers wear a gold cord with acorn ends, and all
other officers, a gold lace strap, with gold bullion tassel; the
enlisted men of cavalry wear a leathern strap with a bullion tassel of
the same material.
=Sword-player.= A fencer; a gladiator; one who exhibits his skill in the
use of the sword.
=Swordsman.= A soldier; a fighting man. One skilled in the use of the
sword; a professor of the science of fencing.
=Swordsmanship.= The state of being a swordsman; skilled in the use of
the sword.
=Sybaris.= A celebrated Greek town in Lucania, was situated between the
rivers Sybaris and Crathis, and a short distance from the Tarentine
Gulf, and near the confines of Bruttium. It was founded by Achæans and
Trœzenians in 720 B.C., and soon attained an extraordinary degree of
prosperity and wealth, exercising dominion over twenty-five towns, and,
it is said, was able to bring 300,000 men into the field. But its
prosperity was of short duration. The Achæans having expelled the
Trœzenian part of the population, the latter took refuge at the
neighboring city of Croton, the inhabitants of which espoused their
cause. In the war which ensued between the two states, the Sybarites
were completely conquered by the Crotoniats, who followed up their
victory by the capture of Sybaris, which they destroyed by turning the
waters of the river Crathis against the town, 510 B.C.
=Syef= (_Ind._). A long sword.
=Syef-ul Mulk= (_Ind._). The sword of the kingdom.
=Sygambri=, =Sugambri=, =Sigambri=, =Sycambri=, or =Sicambri=. One of
the most powerful tribes of Germany at an early time, belonged to the
Istævones, and dwelt originally north of the Ubii on the Rhine, whence
they spread toward the north as far as the Lippe. The territory of the
Sygambri was invaded by Cæsar. They were conquered by Tiberius in the
reign of Augustus, and a large number of them were transplanted to Gaul,
where they received settlements between the Maas and the Rhine as Roman
subjects. At a later period we find them forming an important part of
the confederacy known under the name of Franci.
=Symbol.= In a military sense, a badge. Every regiment in the British
service has its badge.
=Syracuse= (It. _Siracusa_). Anciently the most famous and powerful city
of Sicily, situated on the southeast coast of the island, 80 miles
south-southwest from Messina; was founded by a body of Corinthian
settlers under Archias, one of the Bacchiadæ, 734 B.C. In 486 a
revolution took place and the oligarchic families--_Geomori_, or
_Gamori_, “land-owners”--were expelled, and the sovereign power was
transferred to the citizens at large. Before a year passed, however,
Gelon, “despot” of Gela, had restored the exiles, and at the same time
made himself master of Syracuse. Hieron, brother of Gelon, raised
Syracuse to an unexampled degree of prosperity. Hieron died in 467, and
was succeeded by his brother Thrasybulus; but the rapacity and cruelty
of the latter soon provoked a revolt among his subjects, which led to
his deposition and the establishment of a democratical form of
government. The next most important event in the history of Syracuse was
the siege of the city by the Athenians, which ended in the total
destruction of the great Athenian armament in 413; and Syracuse’s renown
at once spread over the whole Greek world. Dionysius restored the
“tyranny” of Gelon, and his fierce and victorious war with Carthage (397
B.C.) raised the renown of Syracuse still higher. On the death of Hieron
II., his grandson Hieronymus, who succeeded him, espoused the side of
the Carthaginians. A Roman army under Marcellus was sent against
Syracuse, and after a siege of two years, during which Archimedes
assisted his fellow-citizens by the construction of various engines of
war, the city was taken by Marcellus in 212. Under the Romans, Syracuse
slowly but surely declined. Captured, pillaged, and burned by the
Saracens (878) it sunk into complete decay, so that very few traces of
its ancient grandeur are now to be seen. It was taken by Count Roger,
the Norman, 1088; in the insurrection, Syracuse surrendered to the
Neapolitan troops, April 8, 1849.
=Syria.= At present, forming together with Palestine, a division of
Asiatic Turkey; extends between lat. 31° and 37° 20′ N. along the
Mediterranean from the Gulf of Iskanderoon to the Isthmus of Suez. The
oldest inhabitants of Syria were all of Shemitic descent; the
Canaanites, like the Jews themselves, and the Phœnicians (who inhabited
the coast-regions) were Shemites. So were also the Aramæans, who
occupied Damascus and extended eastward towards the Euphrates. This
territory, Syria proper, became subject to the Hebrew monarchy in the
time of David; but after Solomon’s death Rezin made himself independent
in Damascus, and while the Jewish empire was divided into two kingdoms,
the Aramæan kings of Damascus conquered and incorporated the whole
northern and central part of the country. In 740 B.C. the Assyrian king,
Tiglath-Pileser, conquered Damascus, and in 720 B.C. the kingdom of
Israel. In 587 B.C. the kingdom of Judah was conquered by
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and Syria, with Palestine, was now
successively handed over from the Assyrians to the Babylonians, from the
Babylonians to the Medes, and from the Medes to the Persians. After the
battle of the Issus (333 B.C.) Alexander the Great conquered the
country, and with him came the Greeks. After his death they formed here
a flourishing empire under the Seleucidæ, who reigned from 312 to 64
B.C. After the victories over Antigonus at Ipsus in 301 B.C., and over
Lysimachus at Cyropedion in 282 B.C., the empire of Seleucus I. actually
comprised the whole empire of Alexander with the exception of Egypt. But
his son, Antiochus I., Soter (281-260), lost Pergamum, and failed in his
attempts against the Gauls who invaded Asia Minor, and Antiochus II.,
Theos (260-247), lost Parthia and Bactria. Antiochus the Great (223-187)
conquered Palestine, which by the division of Alexander’s empire had
fallen to the Ptolemies of Egypt; but under Antiochus Epiphanes
(174-164) the Jews revolted, and after a contest of twenty-five years
they made themselves independent. Under Antiochus XIII. (69-64) Pompey
conquered the country and made it a Roman province, governed by a Roman
proconsul. After the conquest of Jerusalem (70) Palestine was added to
this province. By the division of the Roman empire Syria fell to the
Eastern or Byzantine part. In 638 the country was conquered by the
Saracens. In 654 Damascus was made the capital of Syria, and in 661 of
the whole Mohammedan empire. When the Abbassides removed their residence
to Bagdad, Syria sank into a mere province. In the 11th century the
Seljuk Turks conquered the country. The establishment of the Latin
kingdom by the Crusaders in 1099 was of short duration and of little
advantage. They held Jerusalem till 1187, Acre till 1291, but they
proved more rapacious and more cruel than the Turks. When in 1291 the
Mameluke rulers of Egypt finally drove the Christian knights out of the
country, its cities were in ruins, its fields devastated, and its
population degraded. Still worse things were in waiting,--the invasion
of Tamerlane and his successors, which actually transformed large
regions into deserts and the inhabitants into savages. In 1517, Sultan
Selim I. conquered the country, and since that time it has formed part
of the Turkish empire, with the exception of the short period from 1832
to 1841, when Ibrahim Pasha (who defeated the army of the grand seignior
at Konieh, December 21, 1832) governed it under the authority of his
father, Mehemet Ali (who had captured Acre, and overrun the whole of
Syria). The Druses are said to have destroyed 151 Christian villages and
killed 1000 persons, May 29 to July 1, 1860. The Mahommedans massacred
Christians at Damascus; about 3300 were slain, but many were saved by
Abd-el-Kader, July, 1860; the French and English governments intervened;
4000 French soldiers under Gen. Hautpoul landed at Beyrout, August 22,
1860. The French and Turks advanced against Lebanon, and fourteen emirs
surrendered, October, 1860. The pacification of the country was
effected, November, 1860; and the French occupation ceased June 5, 1861.
The insurrection of Joseph Karaman, a Maronite, in Lebanon, was
suppressed, March, 1866; another was suppressed, and Karaman fled to
Algeria, January 31, 1867.
=System.= In fortification, is a particular arrangement and mode of
constructing the different works surrounding a fortified place. The
principal systems now studied are those of Marshal Vauban, and the
improved method invented by Cormontaigne, the celebrated French
engineer.
=System.= A scheme which reduces many things to regular dependence or
co-operation. This word is frequently applied to some particular mode of
drilling and exercising men to fit them for manœuvres and evolutions.
Hence, the Prussian system, the Austrian system, etc.
=System, Military.= Specific rules and regulations for the government of
an army in the field or in quarters, etc.