a competent tribunal; the mode of determining a question of fact in a
court of law; the examination, in legal form, of the facts in issue in a
cause pending before a competent tribunal, for the purpose of
determining such issue. Military trials shall be carried on only between
the hours of eight in the morning and three in the afternoon, except in
cases which, in the opinion of the officer ordering the court, require
immediate example (Art. 94). No officer, non-commissioned officer, or
soldier shall be tried a second time for the same offense (Art. 102);
and no person shall be liable to be tried and punished by a general
court-martial for any offense which shall appear to have been committed
more than two years before the issuing of the order for such trial,
unless the person, by reason of having absented himself, or some other
manifest impediment, shall not have been amenable to justice within that
period (Art. 103). All trials before courts-martial, like those in civil
courts, are conducted publicly; and in order that this publicity may in
no case be attended with tumult or indecorum of any kind, the court is
authorized, by the Rules and Articles of War, to punish, at its
discretion, all riotous and disorderly proceedings or menacing words,
signs, or gestures, used in its presence (Art. 86). The day and place of
meeting of a general court-martial having been published in orders, the
officers appointed as members, and parties and witnesses, must attend
accordingly. The judge-advocate, at the opening, calls over the names of
the members, who arrange themselves on the right or left of the
president, according to rank. The members of the court having taken
their seats and disposed of any preliminary matter, the prisoner,
prosecutor, and witnesses are called into court. The prisoner is
attended by a guard, or by an officer, as his rank or the nature of the
charge may dictate; but during the trial should be unfettered and free
from any bonds or shackles, unless there be danger of escape or rescue.
Accommodation is usually afforded at detached tables for the prosecutor
and prisoner; also for any friend or legal adviser of the prisoner or
prosecutor, whose assistance has been desired during the trial; but the
prisoner only can address the court, it being an admitted maxim, that
counsel are not to interfere in the proceedings, or to offer the
slightest remark, much less to plead or argue. The judge-advocate, by
direction of the president, first reads, in an audible voice, the order
for holding the court. He then calls over the names of the members,
commencing with the president, who is always the highest in rank. He
then demands of the prisoner whether he has any exception or cause of
challenge against any of the members present, and if he have, he is
required to state his cause of challenge, confining his challenge to one
member at a time (Art. 88). After hearing the prisoner’s objections, the
president must order the court to be cleared, when the members will
deliberate on and determine the relevancy or validity of the objection;
the member challenged retiring during the discussion. When the prisoner
and prosecutor decline to challenge any of the members, or where the
causes of challenge have been disallowed, the judge-advocate proceeds to
administer to the members of the court the oath prescribed by the 84th
Article of War. The oath is taken by each member holding up his right
hand and repeating the words after the judge-advocate. After the oath
has been administered to all the members, the president administers to
the judge-advocate the particular oath of secrecy to be observed by
him, as prescribed by the 85th Article of War. No sentence of a general
court-martial is complete or final until it has been duly approved.
Until that period it is, strictly speaking, no more than an opinion,
which is subject to alteration or revisal. In this interval, the
communication of that opinion could answer no ends of justice, but
might, in many cases, tend to frustrate them. The obligation to
perpetual secrecy, with regard to the votes or opinions of the
particular members of the court, is likewise founded on the
wisest policy. The officers who compose a military tribunal are,
in a great degree, dependent for their preferment on the President.
They are even, in some measure, under the influence of their
commander-in-chief,--considerations which might impair justice. This
danger is, therefore, best obviated by the confidence and security which
every member possesses, that his particular opinion is never to be
divulged. Another reason is, that the individual members of the court
may not be exposed to the resentment of parties and their connections,
which can hardly fail to be excited by these sentences which
courts-martial are obliged to award. It may be necessary for officers,
in the course of their duty, daily, to associate and frequently to be
sent on the same command or service, with a person against whom they
have given an unfavorable vote or opinion on a court-martial. The
publicity of these votes or opinions would create the most dangerous
animosities, equally fatal to the peace and security of individuals, and
prejudicial to the public service. The court being regularly
constituted, and every preliminary form gone through, the
judge-advocate, as prosecutor for the United States, desires the
prisoner to listen to the charge or charges brought against him, which
he reads with an audible voice, and then the prisoner is asked whether
he is guilty or not guilty of the matter of accusation. The charge being
sufficient, or not objected to, the prisoner must plead either: (1st)
Guilty; or (2d) Specially to the jurisdiction, or in bar; or (3d) The
general plea of _not guilty_, which is the usual course where the
prisoner makes a defense. If from obstinacy and design the prisoner
stands mute, or answer foreign to the purpose, the court may proceed to
trial and judgment, as if the prisoner had regularly pleaded _not
guilty_ (Art. 89); but if the prisoner plead _guilty_, the court will
proceed to determine what punishment shall be awarded, and to pronounce
sentence thereon. Preparatory to this, in all cases where the punishment
of the offense charged is discretionary, and especially where the
discretion includes a wide range and great variety of punishment, and
the specifications do not show all the circumstances attending the
offense, the court should receive and report, in its proceedings, any
evidence the judge-advocate may offer, for the purpose of illustrating
the actual character of the offense, notwithstanding the party accused
may have pleaded guilty; such evidence being necessary to an enlightened
exercise of the discretion of the court, in measuring the punishment, as
well as for the approving authority. If there be any exception to this
rule, it is where the specification is so full and precise as to
disclose all the circumstances of mitigation or aggravation which
accompany the offense. When that is the case, or when the punishment is
fixed, and no discretion is allowed, explanatory testimony cannot be
needed. Special pleas are either to the jurisdiction of the court or in
bar of the charge. If an officer or soldier be arraigned by a court not
legally constituted, either as to the authority by which it is
assembled, or as to the number and rank of its members, or other similar
causes, a prisoner may except to the jurisdiction of the court-martial.
Special pleas in bar go to the merits of the case, and set forth a
reason why, even admitting the charge to be true, it should be
dismissed, and the prisoner discharged. A former acquittal or conviction
of the same offense would obviously be a valid bar, except in case of
appeal from a regimental to a general court-martial. Though the facts in
issue should be charged to have happened more than two years prior to
the date of the order for the assembling of the court-martial, yet it is
not the province of the court, unless objection be made, to inquire into
the cause of the impediment in the outset. It would be to presume the
illegality of the court, whereas the court should assume that manifest
impediment to earlier trial did exist, and leave the facts to be
developed by witnesses in the ordinary course. A pardon may be pleaded
in bar. If full, it at once destroys the end and purpose of the charge,
by remitting that punishment which the prosecution seeks to inflict; if
conditional, the performance of the condition must be known; thus a
soldier arraigned for desertion, must plead a general pardon, and prove
that he surrendered himself within the stipulated period. No officer or
soldier, being acquitted or convicted of an offense, is liable to be
tried a second time for the same. But this provision applies solely to
trials for the same incidental act and crime, and to such persons as
have, in the first instance, been legally tried. If any irregularity
take place on the trial rendering it illegal and void, the prisoner must
be discharged, and be regarded as standing in the same situation as
before the commencement of these illegal proceedings. The same charge
may, therefore, be again preferred against the prisoner who cannot plead
the previous illegal trial in bar. A prisoner cannot plead in bar that
he has not been furnished with a copy of the charges, or that the copy
furnished him differed from that on which he had been arraigned. It is
customary and proper to furnish him with a correct copy, but the
omission shall not make void, though it may postpone the trial. If the
special plea in bar be such that, if true, the charge should be
dismissed and the prisoner discharged, the judge-advocate should be
called on to answer it. If he does not admit it to be true, the prisoner
must produce evidence to the points alleged therein; and if, on
deliberation, the plea be found true, the facts being recorded, the
court will adjourn and the president submit the proceedings to the
officer by whose order the court was convened, with a view to the
immediate discharge of the prisoner. The ordinary plea is _not guilty_,
in which case the trial proceeds. The judge-advocate cautions all
witnesses on the trial to withdraw, and to return to court only on being
called. He then proceeds to the examination of witnesses, and to the
reading and proof of any written evidence he may have to bring forward.
After a prisoner has been arraigned on specific charges, it is irregular
for a court-martial to admit any additional charge against him, even
though he may not have entered on his defense. The trial on the charges
first preferred must be regularly concluded, when, if necessary, the
prisoner may be tried on any further accusation brought against him. On
the trial of cases not capital, before courts-martial, the deposition of
witnesses not in the line or staff of the army may be taken before some
justice of the peace, and read in evidence, provided the prosecutor and
person accused are present at the same, or are duly notified thereof.
The examination of witnesses is invariably in the presence of the court;
because the countenance, looks, and gestures of a witness add to, or
take away from, the weight of his testimony. It is usually by
interrogation, sometimes by narration; in either case, the
judge-advocate records the evidence, as nearly as possible, in the
express words of the witness. All evidence, whatever, should be recorded
on the proceedings, in the order in which it is received by the court. A
question to a witness is registered before enunciation; when once
entered, it cannot be expunged, except by the consent of the parties
before the court; if not permitted to be put to the witness, it still
appears on the proceedings accompanied by the decision of the court. The
examination-in-chief of each particular witness being ended, the
cross-examination usually follows, though it is optional with the
prisoner to defer it to the final close of the examination-in-chief. The
re-examination by the prosecutor, on such new points as the prisoner may
have made, succeeds the cross-examination, and finally, the court puts
such questions as in its judgment may tend to elicit the truth. It is
customary, when deemed necessary by the court, or desired by a witness,
to read over to him, immediately before he leaves the court, the record
of his evidence, which he is desired to correct if erroneous, and, with
this view, any remark or explanation is entered upon the proceedings. No
erasure or obliteration is, however, admitted, as it is essentially
necessary that the authority which has to review the sentence should
have the most ample means of judging, not only of any discrepancy in the
statements of a witness, but of any incident which may be made the
subject of remark, by either party in addressing the court. Although a
list of witnesses, summoned by the judge-advocate, is furnished to the
court on assembling, it is not held imperative on the prosecutor to
examine such witnesses; if he should not do so, however, the prisoner
has a right to call any of them. Should the prisoner, having closed his
cross-examination, think proper subsequently to recall a prosecutor’s
witness in his defense, the examination is held to be in chief, and the
witness is subject to cross-examination by the prosecutor. Although
either party may have concluded his case, or the regular examination of
a witness, yet should a material question have been omitted, it is
usually submitted by the party to the president, for the consideration
of the court, which generally permits it to be put. The prisoner being
placed on his defense, may proceed at once to the examination of
witnesses: firstly, to meet the charge; and, secondly, to speak as to
character, reserving his address to the court until the conclusion of
such examination. The prisoner having finished the examination-in-chief
of each witness, the prosecution cross-examines; the prisoner
re-examines to the extent allowed to the prosecutor, that is, on such
new points as the cross-examination may have touched on, and the court
puts any questions deemed necessary. The prisoner having finally closed
his examination of witnesses, and selecting this period to address the
court, offers such statement or argument as he may deem conducive to
weaken the force of the prosecution, by placing his conduct in the most
favorable light, accounting for or palliating facts, confuting or
removing any imputation as to motives; answering the arguments of the
prosecutor, contrasting, comparing, and commenting on any contradictory
evidence; summing up the evidence on both sides where the result
promises to favor the defense, and finally, presenting his deductions
therefrom. The utmost liberty consistent with the interest of parties
not before the court and with the respect due to the court itself
should, at all times, be allowed a prisoner. As he has an undoubted
right to impeach, by evidence, the character of the witnesses brought
against him, so he is justified in contrasting and remarking on their
testimony, and on the motives by which they, or the prosecutor, may have
been influenced. All coarse and insulting language is, however, to be
avoided, nor ought invective to be indulged in, as the most pointed
evidence may be couched in the most decorous language. The court will
prevent the prisoner from adverting to parties not before the court, or
only alluded to in evidence, further than may be actually necessary to
his own exculpation. It may sometimes happen that the party accused may
find it absolutely necessary, in defense of himself, to throw blame and
even criminality on others, who are no parties to the trial; nor can a
prisoner be refused that liberty, which is essential to his own
justification. It is sufficient for the party aggrieved that the law can
furnish ample redress against all calumnious or unjust accusations. The
court is bound to hear whatever address, in his defense, the accused may
think fit to offer, not being in itself contemptuous or disrespectful.
It is competent to a court, if it think proper, to caution the prisoner
as he proceeds, that, in its opinion, such a line of defense as he may
be pursuing would probably not weigh with the court, nor operate in his
favor; but, to decide against hearing him state arguments, which,
notwithstanding such caution, he might persist in putting forward, as
grounds of justification, or extenuation (such arguments not being
illegal in themselves), is going beyond what any court would be
warranted in doing. It occasionally happens that, on presenting to the
court a written address, the prisoner is unequal to the task of reading
it, from indisposition or nervous excitement; on such occasions, the
judge-advocate is sometimes requested by the president to read it; but,
as the impression which might be anticipated to be made by it may, in
the judgment of the prisoner, be effected more or less by the manner of
its delivery, courts-martial generally feel disposed to concede to the
accused the indulgence of permitting it to be read by any friend named
by him, particularly if that friend be a military man, or if the
judge-advocate be the actual prosecutor. Courts-martial are particularly
guarded in adhering to the custom of resisting every attempt on the part
of counsel to address them. A lawyer is not recognized by a
court-martial, though his presence is tolerated, as a friend of the
prisoner, to assist him by advice in preparing questions for witnesses,
in taking notes and shaping his defense. The prisoner having closed his
defense, the prosecutor is entitled to reply, when witnesses have been
examined on the defense, or where new facts are opened in the address.
Thus, though no evidence may be brought forward by the prisoner, yet
should he advert to any case, and, by drawing a parallel, attempt to
draw his justification from it, the prosecutor will be permitted to
observe on the case so cited. When the court allows the prosecutor to
reply, it generally grants him a reasonable time to prepare it; and,
upon his reading it, the trial ceases. Should the prisoner have examined
witnesses to points not touched on in the prosecution, or should he have
entered on an examination impeaching the credibility of the prosecutor’s
evidence, the prosecutor is allowed to examine witnesses to the new
matter; the court being careful to confine him within the limits of this
rule, which extends to the re-establishing the character of his
witnesses, to impeaching those of the defense, and to rebutting the new
matter brought forward by the prisoner, supported by evidence. He cannot
be allowed to examine on any points which, in their nature, he might
have foreseen previously to the defense of the prisoner. The prosecutor
will not be permitted to bring forward evidence to rebut or counteract
the effect of matter elicited by his own cross-examination; but is
strictly confined to new matter introduced by the prisoner, and
supported by his examination-in-chief. A defense resting on motives, or
qualifying the imputation attaching to facts, generally lets in evidence
in reply; as, in such cases, the prisoner usually adverts, by evidence,
to matter which it would have been impossible for the prosecutor to
anticipate. The admissibility of evidence, in reply, may generally be
determined by the answer to the questions: Could the prosecutor have
foreseen this? Is it evidently new matter? Is the object of the further
inquiry to re-establish the character of the witnesses impeached by
evidence (not by declamation) in the course of the defense, or is it to
impeach the character of the prisoner’s witnesses? Cross-examination of
such new witnesses, to an extent limited by the examination-in-chief,
that is, confined to such points or matter as the prosecutor shall have
examined on, is allowed on the part of the prisoner.
=Triangles.= A wooden instrument consisting of three poles so fastened
at the top that they may spread at bottom in a triangular form, and by
means of spikes affixed to each pole, remain firm in the earth. An iron
bar, breast-high, goes across one side of the triangle. The triangles
were used in some regiments for the purpose of inflicting military
punishment when corporeal chastisement was much in vogue.
=Triarii.= In the Roman legions, consisted of veteran soldiers, who
formed the third line in the order of battle.
=Triballi.= A powerful people in Thrace, a branch of the Getæ dwelling
along the Danube, who were defeated by Alexander the Great in 335 B.C.,
and obliged to sue for peace.
=Tribune.= In Roman antiquity, an officer or magistrate chosen by the
people, to protect them from the oppression of the patricians or nobles,
and to defend their liberties against any attempts that might be made
upon them by the senate and consuls. The tribunes were at first two, but
their number was increased ultimately to ten. There were also military
tribunes, officers of the army, of whom there were from four to six in
each legion.
=Tribute.= An annual or stated sum of money or other valuable thing,
paid by one prince or nation to another, either as an acknowledgment of
submission, or as the price of peace and protection, or by virtue of
some treaty; as the Romans made their conquered countries pay tribute.
=Trichinopoly.= Capital of the district of the same name, of British
India; in the presidency of Madras. It is pretty strongly fortified by
walls about 2 miles in circuit, lofty, thick, and in some places double.
There is also a fort built on a sienite rock about 600 feet high. Two or
3 miles southwest of the town is a large cantonment, containing barracks
for a large number of troops. Trichinopoly was subject to a Hindoo rajah
until 1732, when the nabob of Arcot gained possession of it; and in 1741
he was in turn dispossessed by the Mahrattas. During the wars between
the French and English, the place was much contested; and in 1757, when
besieged by the former, it was relieved by the rapid march of an English
force under Capt. Calliaud.
=Trick.= A term used in heraldry to denote a mode of representing arms
by sketching them in outline, and appending letters to express the
tinctures, and sometimes numerals to indicate the repetition of changes.
=Trident.= In Roman antiquity, a three-pronged spear used in the
contests of gladiators by the retiarius.
=Triest=, or =Trieste= (anc. _Tergeste_, or _Tergestum_). The principal
seaport city of the Austrian empire, in Illyria, on the Gulf of Triest
at the northeast extremity of the Adriatic Sea, 73 miles east-northeast
of Venice. The ancient _Tergeste_ first received historical mention in
51 B.C., when it was overrun and plundered by neighboring tribes. It
owes its prosperity chiefly to the emperor Charles VI., who constituted
it a free port, and to Maria Theresa. In 1797 and in 1805, it was taken
by the French.
=Trigger.= A steel catch, which being pulled disengages the
cock of a gunlock, and causes the hammer to strike the nipple in
percussion-muskets, and the firing-pin in breech-loaders. The difference
between a hair and common trigger is this: the hair-trigger, when set,
lets off the cock at the slightest touch, whereas the common trigger
requires a greater degree of force, and consequently its operation is
retarded.
=Trim.= The chief town of the county of Meath, Ireland, on the Boyne, 27
miles northwest from Dublin. It was taken by Cromwell in 1649.
=Trincomalee.= A seaport town and magnificent harbor on the northeast
coast of Ceylon. It is a place of great antiquity; it was here that the
Malabar invaders of Ceylon built one of their most sacred shrines,--the
“Temple of a Thousand Columns,” which was demolished by the Portuguese,
who fortified the heights with the materials derived from its
destruction, 1622. It was next held by the Dutch; but in 1672, during
the rupture between Louis XIV. and the United Provinces, the French took
Trincomalee, which was abandoned by the Dutch in a panic. In 1782, the
French admiral Suffrein, in the absence of the British commander, took
possession of the fort, and the English garrison retired to Madras. It
was restored to the Dutch in the following year, and they retained it
till the capture of Ceylon by the British in 1795. It was finally ceded
to Great Britain, by the treaty of Amiens, in 1802.
=Trinidad.= An island belonging to Great Britain, and the most southerly
of the West India Islands. It is separated from the mainland (Venezuela)
by the Gulf of Paria. Trinidad was discovered by Columbus in 1498; and
first colonized by the Spaniards, in 1588. In 1676, the French possessed
it for a short time, but it was speedily restored to Spain; and in 1797,
it was captured by the British, who have retained it ever since.
=Trinobantes.= A British tribe, which occupied Middlesex and Essex, and
joined in opposing the invasion of Julius Cæsar, 54 B.C.; but they soon
came to terms with the Romans.
=Trinomalee.= A town and fortress of India, in the Carnatic, where Col.
Smith greatly distinguished himself against the united forces of Hyder
Ali and Nizam Ali, subahdars of the Deccan, with an army of 43,000 horse
and 28,000 foot; while the British commander had only 10,000 foot and
1000 horse. The result of this victory was that the Nizam detached
himself from Hyder, and in February, 1768, concluded a treaty with the
British.
=Triparted.= In heraldry, parted in three pieces; having three parts or
pieces; as, a cross triparted.
=Tripartite.= Being of three parts, or three parties being concerned;
hence, tripartite alliance, or treaty.
=Triple Alliance.= The name by which two different treaties are known in
history, viz.: (1) A treaty concluded in 1668 at the Hague, between
England, Holland, and Sweden, having for its object the protection of
the Spanish Netherlands, and the checking of the conquests of Louis XIV.
(2) An alliance concluded in 1717 between Britain, France, and Holland,
against Spain, which included among its stipulations that the Pretender
should quit France, and that the treaty of Utrecht should be carried
into effect as regards the demolition of Dunkirk. The Protestant
succession was guaranteed by this treaty in England, and that of the
Duke of Orleans in France.
=Tripoli=, or =Tripolis= (in its modern Arabic form, _Tarabulus_). A
seaport and one of the chief commercial towns of Syria, near the coast
of the Mediterranean, on both sides of the river Kadisha. On the left
side stands the castle built by Count Raymond of Toulouse, in the 12th
century, when the city was taken by the Crusaders. It was conquered by
the Egyptians in 1832; restored to the Porte, 1835, and it surrendered
to the British in 1841.
=Tripoli.= A regency of the Ottoman empire, and the most easterly of the
Barbary States, North Africa. The governor-general has the title, rank,
and authority of a pasha of the Ottoman empire. The military force of
the country consists of a body of Turkish soldiers, some 10,000 in
number, whose business is to keep down insurrections, but who were
formerly wont to vary it by creating them. In ancient times, Tripoli
seems to have been tributary to the Cyrenæans, from whom, however, it
was wrested by the Carthaginians. It next passed to the Romans. Like the
rest of Northern Africa, it was conquered by the Arabs, and the feeble
Christianity of the natives was supplanted by a vigorous and fanatical
Mohammedanism. In 1552 (1551), the Turks got possession of it, and have
ever since been the rulers of the country, though the authority of the
sultan, up till 1835, had been virtually at zero for more than a
century. In that year, however, an expedition was dispatched from
Constantinople; the ruling dey, Karamanli, was overthrown and
imprisoned; a new Turkish pasha, with viceregal powers, was appointed,
and the state made an eyalet of the Ottoman empire. Several rebellions
have since taken place (notably in 1842 and 1844), but they have always
been suppressed.
=Tripolitza= (“three cities”). A town of Greece under the Turkish rule,
39 miles southwest from Corinth. In 1821 it was stormed by the Greek
insurgents; and in 1828 razed to the ground by the troops of Ibrahim
Pasha; it has since, however, been rebuilt.
=Tripping.= In heraldry, having the right fore foot lifted, the others
remaining on the ground, as if he were trotting;--said of an animal, as
a hart, buck, and the like, represented in an escutcheon.
=Triumph= (Lat. _triumphus_). Was the name given in ancient Rome to the
public honor bestowed on a general who had been successful in war. It
consisted in a solemn procession along the _Via Sacra_ up to the
Capitol, where sacrifice was offered Jupiter. The victor sat in a
chariot, drawn by four horses,--his captives marching before, his troops
following behind. Certain conditions had to be fulfilled before a
triumph could be enjoyed, and it was the business of the senate to see
that these were enforced. Under the empire, generals serving abroad were
considered to be the emperor’s lieutenants, and therefore, however
successful in their wars, they had no claim to a triumph. They received
instead _triumphal decorations_, and other rewards. The oration, or
lesser triumph, differs from the greater chiefly in these respects; that
the imperator entered the city on foot, clad in the simple _toga
prætexta_ of a magistrate, that he bore no sceptre, was not preceded by
the senate and a flourish of trumpets, nor followed by victorious
troops, but only by the equites and the populace, and that the
ceremonies were concluded by the sacrifice of a sheep instead of a bull.
The _ovation_, it is scarcely necessary to add, was granted when the
success, though considerable, did not fulfill the conditions specified
for a triumph.
=Triumph.= To obtain victory; to meet with success.
=Triumphal.= Of or pertaining to triumph; used in triumph; indicating,
or in honor of, a triumph or victory; as, a triumphal crown; a triumphal
arch.
=Triumphal Column.= See COLUMN, TRIUMPHAL.
=Triumphal Crown.= See CROWN, TRIUMPHAL.
=Triumphant.= Celebrating victory; expressive of joy for success; as, a
triumphant song.
=Triumpher.= One who was honored with a triumph in ancient Rome. One who
triumphs or rejoices for victory; one who vanquishes.
=Trojæ Ludus.= Among the Romans was a species of mock fight, similar to
the tournaments of the Middle Ages, performed by young noblemen on
horseback, who were furnished with arms suitable to their age.
=Trojan War.= In classical history, a celebrated epoch, which occurred
nearly thirteen centuries before the Christian era, and which has formed
the subject of the two finest poems in the world,--Homer’s “Iliad” and
Virgil’s “Æneid.” This war was undertaken by the states of Greece to
recover Helen, whom Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy, had carried
away from the house of Menelaus. (See TROY.)
=Tromblon.= A fire-arm which was formerly fired from a rest, and from
which several balls and slugs were discharged. An ancient wall-piece.
=Trombone.= Formerly a species of blunderbuss for boat-service, taking
its name from its unseemly trumpet mouth.
=Troop.= A company of cavalry. It is the same, with respect to
formation, as a company in the infantry.
=Troop Corporal-Major.= The chief non-commissioned officer of a troop in
the British Household Cavalry.
=Troop Sergeant-Major.= In the British service, is the chief sergeant of
a troop.
=Trooper.= A private or soldier in a body of cavalry; a horse-soldier.
=Trooping the Colors.= Is a ceremony performed in the British service,
at the public mounting of garrison guards.
=Troop-ship.= A merchant ship “taken up,” as it is called, for the
conveyance of soldiers by sea.
=Trophy.= Was a memorial of victory erected on the spot where the enemy
had turned to flight. Among the Greeks (with the exception of the
Macedonians, who erected no trophies) one or two shields and helmets of
the routed enemy placed upon the trunk of a tree served as the sign and
memorial of victory. After a sea-fight the trophy consisted of the beaks
and stern-ornaments of the captured vessels, set up on the nearest
coast. It was considered wrong to destroy such a trophy, and equally
wrong to repair it when it had fallen down through time, for animosity
ought not to be perpetual. In early times the Romans never erected
trophies on the field, but decorated the buildings at Rome with the
spoils of the vanquished. In later times pillars and triumphal arches
were employed to commemorate victories. Besides these, in modern times,
the humiliation of an enemy is rendered lasting by such devices as the
bridge of Jena, of Waterloo, and by the distribution of captured cannon.
Morally considered, this practice is no improvement upon the simple and
perishable trophies of the ancient Greeks.
=Trophy-money.= Was certain money formerly raised in the several
counties of the kingdom of Great Britain, towards providing harness and
maintaining the militia.
=Trossulum= (now _Trusso_). A town in Etruria, 9 miles from Volsinii,
which is said to have been taken by some Roman equites without the aid
of foot-soldiers; whence the Roman equites obtained the name of
Trossuli. Some writers identify this town with Troilium, which was taken
by the Romans 293 B.C.; but they appear to have been different places.