practiced murder not by open assault, but by stealthy approaches, and
from religious motives. They have been nearly exterminated by the
British government.
=Thumb-stall.= See IMPLEMENTS.
=Thunderbolt.= In heraldry, a bearing borrowed from classical mythology,
which may be described as a twisted bar in pale inflamed at each end
surmounting two jagged darts in saltire between two wings displayed with
streams of fire.
=Thundering Legion.= During a contest with the invading Marcomanni, the
prayers of some Christians in a Roman legion are said to have been
followed by a storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, which tended
greatly to discomfit the enemy; and hence the legion received the name
in 174.
=Thurii=, or =Thurium=. A Greek city in the south of Italy, on the north
shore of the Tarentine Gulf, was founded in 452 B.C., by a body of
Sybarite exiles, near the spot where their ancient city had stood till
it was destroyed by the Crotonians fifty-eight years before. The rise of
a new colony re-awakened the anger of the Crotonians, and after five
years they expelled the Sybarites. These after an unsuccessful appeal to
Sparta for assistance, applied to the Athenians, who resolved to send
out a colony along with the persecuted Sybarites. The leaders of this
colony were Lampon and Xenocritus. A war subsequently occurred between
Thurii and Tarentum, but was terminated by a compromise. In 390 B.C. the
city received a severe blow from a total defeat of their army by the
Lucanians. From this period it began to decline, and was at length
obliged to submit to the Roman power, in order to escape the continued
attacks of the Lucanians.
=Thuringia.= An early Gothic kingdom in Central Germany, was overrun by
Attila and the Huns, 451; the last king, Hermanfried, was defeated and
slain by Thierry, king of the Franks, who annexed it to his dominions,
530. It was after various changes and many conflicts, absorbed in Saxony
in the 15th century. In 1815 it was surrendered to Prussia.
=Thyatira.= In Asia Minor; was the place assigned for the battle at
which the rebel Procopius was defeated by the army of the emperor Valens
in 366.
=Thymbra.= In Asia Minor, where Cyrus the Great defeated the confederate
army aiding Crœsus, and obtained supremacy in Asia, 548.
=Tiberias.= A city in Palestine, built by Herod Antipas, and named after
the emperor Tiberias in 39. Near it Guy de Lusignan, king of Jerusalem,
and the Crusaders, were defeated by Saladin; and Jerusalem fell into his
hands, 1187.
=Ticino=, or =Tessin=. A Swiss canton south of the Alps; it was
conquered by the Swiss early in the 16th century, and made a separate
canton in 1815. It suffered by internal disputes in 1839 and 1841.
=Ticinus= (now _Tessino_). An important river in Northern Italy. It was
upon the bank of this river that Hannibal gained his first victory over
the Romans by the defeat of P. Scipio, 218 B.C.
=Ticonderoga.= A town in Essex Co., N. Y., 95 miles north by east of
Albany. Two or three miles below this village are the ruins of old Fort
Ticonderoga, on the west shore of Lake Champlain. The fort was surprised
by Col. Ethan Allen in the Revolutionary war.
=Tien Tsin.= A city of China, situated 70 miles southeast from Pekin. A
treaty of amity and commerce was signed here between the French and
English on the one hand, and the Chinese on the other, in 1858. The
violation of this treaty, which was favorable to British interests in
China, by the Chinese, was the cause of the subsequent Chinese war.
=Tierce.= A thrust in fencing, delivered at the outside of the body over
the arm.
=Tierce=, =Tiercé=. In heraldry, a term of blazon used to indicate that
the field is divided by lines into three equal parts. A shield may be
tierce in pale, in fess, in bend, in bend sinister, or in pall; all
which, with other arrangements in tierce, are common in French heraldry.
Tierce in pale, in English heraldry, is an occasional mode of marshaling
three coats in one escutcheon under special circumstances.
=Tier-shot.= Grape-shot is sometimes so called.
=Tiflis.= See TEFLIS.
=Tige-arms.= Sometimes called pillar breech-arms. Arms with a stem of
steel, screwed into the middle of the breech-pin, around which the
charge of powder is placed. The ball enters free and rests upon the top
of the pin, which is tempered, and a few blows with a heavy ramrod force
the ball to fill the grooves of the rifled arm. This invention was an
improvement by Capt. Thouvenin on Delvignes’ plan of having a chamber
for the powder smaller than the bore. Capt. Minié’s invention superseded
the tige-arms, by means of a bullet which is forced to fill the grooves
by the action of the charge itself at the instant of the explosion.
=Tigranocerta= (ruins at _Sert_). The later capital of Armenia, built by
Tigranes. It was taken by Lucullus and the Romans, after a great victory
over Tigranes, in 69 B.C.
=Tigurini.= A tribe of the Helvetii, who joined the Cimbri in invading
the country of the Allobroges in Gaul, where they defeated the consul L.
Cassius Longinus, 107 B.C. They formed in the time of Cæsar the most
important of the four cantons into which the Helvetii were divided.
=Tilsit.= A town of East Prussia, on the left bank of the Niemen, or
Memel, 60 miles northeast from Königsberg. Tilsit will be ever memorable
in history for the treaties which were there signed between France and
Russia on July 7, and France and Prussia on July 9, 1807. By the former
of these Napoleon agreed to restore to the king of Prussia a great
portion of his dominions, his Polish acquisitions being joined to
Saxony, and his possessions west of the Elbe formed into the nucleus of
the new kingdom of Westphalia; Danzig was declared an independent city;
the Prussian province of Bialystock was ceded to Russia; the dukes of
Oldenberg and Mecklenburg, the czar’s relatives, were reinstated by
Napoleon, and in return the Bonapartist kings of Naples and Holland were
recognized by the czar, etc. By the latter, the king of Prussia
recognized the kings of Holland, Naples, and Westphalia, and the
Confederation of the Rhine; agreed to the cessions laid down in the
Russian treaty, and to other minor alienations and concessions to
Saxony, amounting in all to nearly one-half of his dominions; to the
exclusion from his harbors of the commerce of Great Britain, and to the
occupation of the Prussian fortresses by the French, till the payment of
an enormous ransom. The weighty importance of the alterations effected
by this treaty is, however, dwarfed before the startling magnitude of
the _secret provisions_ signed between France and Russia. By these were
arranged the resignation of the empire of the East to Russia, Roumelia
and Constantinople being specially excepted by Napoleon, and the
acquisition of the Spanish peninsula by France; the two powers were to
make common cause against Great Britain, and were to force the three
courts of Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Lisbon to join them; and Napoleon
agreed to increase no further the power of the duchy of Warsaw, and to
do nothing which might lead to the re-establishment of the Polish
monarchy. By a further agreement, not put formally into writing, the
mouths of the Cattaro, the Ionian Isles, Sicily, Malta, Egypt, and the
papal dominions were to be taken by France; and Greece, Macedonia,
Dalmatia, and the Adriatic coasts, as the portion of Turkey; while on
the other hand, Russia was to obtain the rest of Turkey, and was allowed
to seize Finland. These secret articles are given on most excellent
authority, and their correctness is further vouched for by the conduct
of France and Russia for the next few years.
=Tilt.= A thrust, or fight with rapiers; also, an old military game.
=Tilted Steel.= See ORDNANCE, METALS FOR, STEEL.
=Tilter.= One who fights or contests in a tournament.
=Tilting-helmet.= A helmet of large size often worn over another at
tilts.
=Tilt-yard.= Formerly a place or yard for tilting.
=Timariot.= A Turkish cavalry soldier who has a certain allowance made
him, for which he is not only obliged to arm, clothe, and accoutre
himself, but he must likewise provide a certain number of militia-men.
The allowance is called _timar_.
=Timars.= Certain revenues, in Turkey, growing out of lands which
originally belonged to Christian clergy and nobility, and which the
sultans seized when they conquered the countries they inhabited. By this
means the sultan is enabled to support the _timariots_.
=Timber.= In heraldry, a rank or row, as of ermine, in a nobleman’s
coat; also a crest. This word is also written _timbre_.
=Timber Rafts.= See RAFTS, TIMBER.
=Timbuctoo.= A celebrated city in the interior of Africa, on the slope
of a hill about 8 miles south of the Niger. It is said to have been
built by Mansa Suleiman, a Mohammedan, about 1214, and was frequently
subjugated by the sovereigns of Morocco. Since 1727 it has been
partially independent.
=Time.= The measure of duration by which soldiers regulate the cadence
of the march. _Common time_, the ordinary time of marching, in which 90
steps, each 28 inches in length, are taken in one minute. See
DOUBLE-QUICK, and QUICK TIME.
=Time.= That necessary interval between each motion in the manual
exercise, as well as in every movement the army or any body of men may
make. In fencing there are three kinds of time: that of the sword, that
of the foot, and that of the whole body.
=Time.= A particular period or part of duration, whether past, present,
or future.
_Apparent time_, the time of day reckoned by the sun, or so that 12
o’clock at the place is the instant of the transit of the sun’s centre
over the meridian.
_Mean solar time_, or _mean time_, time regulated by the average, or
mean, instead of the unequal or apparent, motion of the sun; time as
indicated by a uniformly-going clock, once rightly adjusted, and
differing from apparent time at any instant by a small quantity called
the _equation of time_.
_Sidereal time_, time regulated by the transit, over the meridian of a
place, of the first point of Aries, or vernal equinox, and chiefly used
in astronomical observations.
_Solar time._ See MEAN SOLAR TIME.
=Time of Flight.= See FLIGHT.
=Time Thrust.= In fencing, a thrust given upon any opening which may
occur by an inaccurate or wide motion of your adversary, when changing
his guard, etc.
=Time-fuze.= See FUZE, TIME-.
=Timing.= In fencing, is the accurate and critical throwing in of a cut
or thrust upon any opening that may occur as your adversary changes his
position.
=Tin-case Shot.= See CANISTER-SHOT.
=Tinchebrai.= A town of France, department of the Arne, 34 miles
northwest from Alençon. Here Robert of Normandy was finally defeated by
his brother, Henry I. of England, on September 28, 1106, and Normandy
was annexed to the crown of England.
=Tincture.= In heraldry, one of the metals, colors, or furs used in
armory.
=Tindal.= An attendant on the army in India.
=Tinker.= A small mortar formerly used on the end of a staff, now
superseded by the Coehorn.
=Tippecanoe.= A river of Indiana, United States, which rises in a lake
of the same name in the northern part of the State. It is famous for the
battle fought on its banks, November 5, 1811, in which the Indians,
under Tecumseh’s brother, the Prophet, were defeated by Gen. Harrison.
=Tipperary.= An inland county in the province of Munster, Ireland.
Subsequently to the year 1172, Henry II. obtained possession of it after
several sanguinary contests. The county suffered greatly during the
civil wars of 1641, in the course of which the town of Clonmel, after a
gallant resistance, obtained honorable terms from Cromwell, who
conducted the siege in person.
=Tipperary.= A town of the county of the same name, on the river Arra,
111 miles southwest from Dublin. The town is of very ancient foundation,
and soon after the invasion was occupied as a strong place by the
English, who built a castle in it during the Irish expedition of King
John. This castle, however, fell soon afterward into the hands of the
Irish under the Prince of Thomond.
=Tippermuir=, or =Tibbermore=. A town of Scotland, near Perth. Here the
Marquis of Montrose defeated the Covenanters under Lord Elcho, September
1, 1644.
=Tirailleur.= A skirmisher, often put in front of the line to annoy the
enemy, and draw off his attention; or they are left behind to amuse and
stop his progress in the pursuit; a rifleman.
=Tire.= Are great guns, shot, shells, etc., placed in a regular form.
=Tirlemont.= A town of Belgium, province of Brabant, 25 miles east of
Brussels. It was taken by the French in 1635; was ravaged by Marlborough
in 1705; taken by the French in 1792; here the French, under Dumouriez,
defeated the Austrians in 1793; taken by the French in 1794. Its
fortifications were dismantled in 1804.
=Tiryns.= An ancient town of Argolis, southeast of Argos, and one of the
most ancient in all Greece. Homer represents Tiryns as subject to Argos;
the town was at a later time destroyed by the Argives, and most of the
inhabitants were removed to Argos.
=Titles, Military.= See military titles under appropriate headings
throughout this volume.
=Tivoli.= A town of Central Italy, on the left bank of the Teverone, 18
miles east-northeast from Rome. In the Middle Ages, Tivoli was an
imperial city, independent of Rome, and was the occasion of many
contentions between the emperors and the popes; in the course of which
it was frequently taken and retaken as either party gained the
ascendant.
=Tlemsen=, or =Tlemecen=. A town of Algeria, in the province of Oran, 67
miles southwest from Oran. It was once an important place; but in
consequence of a revolt of the inhabitants against his authority,
Hassan, the dey of Algiers, laid it in ruins. It was occupied by the
French in 1836 and 1842.
=Tobago.= One of the British islands in the West Indies, belonging to
the Windward group. This island was first colonized by the Dutch, who
were expelled by the Spaniards. It was then settled by the English, to
whom it was ceded by the peace of 1763. In 1781 it was taken by the
French, and in 1793 was retaken by the British, by whom it was retained
at the peace of Amiens.
=Tobitschau= (Moravia). In a sharp action, on July 15, 1866, the
Austrians were defeated by the army of the crown-prince of Prussia, with
the loss of 500 killed and wounded, and 500 prisoners and 17 guns.
=Tocsin.= An alarm-drum; a bell. It was formerly used in an army as a
signal for charging, on the approach of an enemy.
=Toga Picta.= Was an outer garment, worn by Roman generals in triumphs,
by consuls under the empire, and by prætors when they celebrated games;
and was embellished with Phrygian embroidery. In war the toga was laid
aside for the _sagum_ or _paludatogatus_, or some less cumbrous style of
attire.
=Toggle and Chain.= See ORDNANCE.
=Toise.= A measure derived from the French, containing 6 feet, and a
term of frequent use in fortification and military surveying.
=Toison d’Or= (_Fr._). See GOLDEN FLEECE.
=Toledo= (anc. _Toletum_). A city of Spain, capital of the province of
the same name, on the north bank of the Tagus, 55 miles south-southwest
from Madrid. It was conquered by the Romans under M. Fulvius, 192 B.C.
(193 B.C.); was captured by the Goths, 467; possessed by the Moors from
714 to 1085. Alfonso VI. of Castile and Leon recovered it from the
Moors.
=Toledo.= An esteemed Spanish sword, so called from the place of
manufacture.
=Tolenon= (_Fr._). An ancient machine of war, having a long lever moving
on a pivot, suspended from an upright higher than the rampart, having at
one end a box to contain 20 men, who, by drawing down the other end,
might be raised high enough to fire into the loop-holes, or even to get
upon the wall.
=Tolentino.= A town of Italy, province of Macerata, 12 miles from
Macerata. It was here, in February, 1797, that the pope ceded the
Romagna to the French republic by treaty, and in May, 1815, Murat
retired to this place with his troops before the Austrians, and was
defeated.
=Tolosa.= A town of Spain, province of Guipuzcoa, on the Oria, 35 miles
southwest from Bayonne. Near here, Alfonso, king of Castile, aided by
the kings of Aragon and Navarre, gained a great victory over the Moors,
July 16, 1212. This conflict is sometimes termed the battle of Muradal.
It was occupied by the French from 1808 till 1813.
=Tomahawk.= A light war-hatchet of the North American Indians. The early
ones were rudely made of stone, ingeniously fastened to their handles by
animal sinews, or cords of skin. Traders supplied hatchets of steel, the
heads of which were made hollow, for a tobacco-pipe; the handle of ash,
with the pith removed, being the stem. These hatchets are used in the
chase and in battle, not only in close combat, but by being thrown with
a wonderful skill, so as always to strike the object aimed at with the
edge of the instrument. The handles are curiously ornamented. In the
figurative language of the Indians, to make peace, is to bury the
tomahawk; to make war, is to dig it up.
=Toman.= In the East Indies, signifies 10,000 men.
=Tom-tom.= A large, flat drum, used by the Hindoos; a tam-tam.
=Tongue.= The pole of an ox-cart (local).
=Tongue of a Sword.= That part of the blade on which the gripe, shell,
and pummel are fixed. The bayonet is figuratively called a triangular
tongue, from its shape.
=Tonnelon= (_Fr._). An ancient drawbridge, used nearly in the same
manner and for similar purposes as the _harpe_ and _exostre_.
=Tonquin=, or =Tonkin=. The northernmost province of Anam, Southeast
Asia. Tonquin was conquered by the Chinese in 1406, and by the Anamese
in 1790.
=Tooksowars= (_Ind._). The vizier’s body of cavalry.
=Topekhana= (_Ind._). The place where guns are kept; the arsenal.
=Topeys=, or =Topgis=. Turkish artillerymen or gunners.
=Topgi-Bachi.= Master-general of the Turkish artillery.
=Topikhannah= (_Ind._). A house for keeping guns; an arsenal; an armory.
=Töplitz.= A town of Bohemia. Here were signed, in 1813, two
treaties,--one between Austria, Russia, and Prussia, September 9; and
one between Great Britain and Austria, October 3.
=Topographical Engineers.= The duties of this corps consist in surveys
for the defense of the frontiers and of positions for fortifications; in
reconnoissances of the country through which an army has to pass, or in
which it has to operate; in the examination of all routes of
communication by land or by water, both for supplies and military
movements; in the construction of military roads and permanent bridges
connected with them; and the charge of the construction of all civil
works authorized by acts of Congress, not specially assigned by law to
some other branch of the service. The U. S. Corps of Topographical
Engineers was merged into the Corps of Engineers in 1863.
=Topography.= Is the art of representing and describing in all its
details the physical constitution, natural or artificial, of any
determined portion of a country; in making maps and giving a descriptive
memoir. Military topography differs from geography in seeking to imitate
sinuosities of ground: it represents graphically and describes
technically commanding heights, water-courses, preferable sites for
camps, different kinds of roads, the position of fords, and extent of
woods. It enumerates the resources that a country offers to troops and
the difficulties which are interposed. By means of colored maps and
other conventional signs, military topography presents before the eyes
of a general much that is necessary to guide his operations.
=Torce=, or =Wreath=. In heraldry, a garland of twisted silk, by which
the crest is joined to the helmet. A crest is always understood to be
placed on a torce, unless where it is expressly stated to issue out of a
coronet or chapeau.
=Torches.= See PYROTECHNY.
=Tordesillas.= A town of Spain, province of Valladolid. Here was signed,
in 1494, a treaty modifying the boundary-line which Pope Alexander VI.
had assigned, in 1493, in his division of the New World between Spain
and Portugal.
=Torgau.= A fortified town of Prussian Saxony, on the left hank of the
Elbe, 70 miles south-southwest from Berlin. Here a battle was fought
between Frederick II. of Prussia and the Austrians, in which the former
obtained a signal victory, the Austrian general, Count Daun, a renowned
warrior, being wounded, November 3, 1760. It was besieged and taken by
the allied Prussians and Saxons in January, 1814; the besieged lost
about 30,000 men.
=Tormentum.= A pistol; a gun; a piece of ordnance.
=Tormes.= A river of Spain, falls into the Douro, on the borders of
Portugal. Its banks were the scene of many conflicts between the French
and Spaniards during the Peninsular war, from 1808 to 1814.
=Toro.= A city of Spain, province of Leon, on the Douro, 20 miles east
from Zamora. Ferdinand the Catholic defeated Alonzo V. of Portugal near
this place in 1476, and gained the kingdom of Castile for himself and
his wife Isabella.
=Toronto.= The capital of the province of Ontario, Canada, on the north
shore of Lake Ontario, 165 miles from Kingston, and 323 miles from
Montreal. Its harbor or bay is capable of accommodating the largest
vessels that navigate the lakes, and is defended at the entrance by a
fort, which was thoroughly repaired in 1864 by the imperial government,
and mounted with the most efficient modern ordnance. The town was
founded in 1794, by Gov. Simcoe. It was burned by the Americans in 1813,
and suffered severely in the insurrection of 1837, on which occasion it
was the headquarters of the rebellion.
=Torpedo.= During the war between Great Britain and the United States
in 1812-14, this name was applied to certain mysterious boats invented
by Fulton and other Americans for the purpose of navigating beneath the
surface of the water, and injuring the bottom of hostile vessels. In
those days of hand-to-hand naval war, these designs (which, by the way,
were failures) were looked upon as little less than diabolical. The
progress of destructive weapons during half a century has removed this
aversion, and nations do not scruple now to employ similar unseen agents
for offense and defense. The modern torpedo is really a stationary
bomb-shell, intended to explode under the bottom of an enemy’s ship. The
weapon was first used by the Russians in the Baltic in 1854; and in the
American war of Secession, 1861-65, it was employed extensively, and
often successfully. The damage effected by a torpedo exploding beneath a
ship is very great; and although the failures are frequent by the
explosion happening at a wrong moment, the danger from torpedoes is
considerable in fact, and far more in apprehension, for sailors
naturally dread navigating waters where destruction lurks at unknown
points concealed from view. There are several varieties of torpedoes,
but they may be divided into two classes,--those which are
self-explosive on a ship touching them, and those which are dependent on
an electric current supplied from the shore. The second are the safest
for friendly vessels; but they are rather uncertain in action, and can
only be employed at a moderate distance from the shore. The first are
more certain in action, as they can only explode on a ship, being
somewhere in contact, but they attack indiscriminately friend and foe.
=Torque= (_Fr._). A metal collar formerly bestowed upon a Roman soldier
who had killed his adversary in a single combat.
=Torqued.= In heraldry, twisted; bent;--said of a dolphin haurient,
which forms a figure like the letter _S_.
=Torre di Mare.= A village of Naples, at the mouth of the Bassento, in
the Gulf of Taranto. Its prosperity received a fearful blow when, after
the battle of the Metaurus (207 B.C.), Hannibal was compelled to give up
this part of Italy, and carried with him all the citizens of Megapontum,
in order to defend them from the vengeance of the Romans. In the time of
Cicero the city still existed, but in a state of rapid decay.