Equipments, Signal. The flags, staffs, flying torches, fort torches, flame shades, haversacks, telescopes, etc., used in signaling. A set of equipments for one man is called a signal kit.
Equites. An order of equestrian knights introduced among the Romans by Romulus.
Eretria. One of the most celebrated of ancient cities, and, next to Chalcis, one of the most powerful in Eubœa. After the Peloponnesian war, the city was governed by tyrants.
Erfurt. A town of Prussian Saxony, on the river Gera; it was founded in 476. Erfurt was ceded to Prussia in 1802. It capitulated to Murat, when 14,000 troops surrendered, October 16, 1806. In this city Napoleon and Alexander met, and offered peace to England, September 27, 1808. The French retreated from Leipsic to Erfurt, October 18, 1813. This place was restored to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna.
Ericius. In Roman antiquity, a military engine, so named from its resemblance to a hedge-hog. It was a kind of chevaux-de-frise, placed as a defense at the gate of the camp.
Erie, Fort. A strong fortification in Upper Canada, on the northern shore of Lake Erie. Here the British were defeated by the Americans, August 15, 1814.
Erlau. A fortified town of Hungary, the old castle of which was frequently besieged during the Turkish wars, both by Moslem and Christian.
Eryx. A city and mountain in the west of Sicily, 6 miles from Drepana, and a short distance from the sea-shore. The possession of the town of Eryx was contested by the Syracusans and Carthaginians. A great battle was fought off the town between the fleets of the two nations, in which the Syracusans were victorious. The town subsequently changed hands more than once, but it seems to have owned the Carthaginian supremacy at the time of the expedition of Pyrrhus, 278 B.C. Though taken by that monarch, it once more fell into the hands of its original conquerors, who retained it till the close of the first Punic war.
Erzroom, Erzroum, or Erzrum. A fortified town of Armenia (Asiatic Turkey), on the river Kara-Soo, a branch of the Euphrates. Its position renders it an important military post. In 1210 it was taken by the Seljooks, who are said to have destroyed here 100 churches; taken by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. It was taken by the Russians in 1829, but was restored to Turkey in the following year.
Escadron (Fr.). Squadron. Froissart was the first French writer who made use of the word escadron to signify a troop of horse drawn out in order of battle. The term escadron is more ancient than the word battalion.
Escalade. From the Latin scala, a ladder. In siege operations, a mode of gaining admission within the enemy’s works. It consists in advancing over the glacis and the covert way, descending, if necessary, into the ditch by means of ladders, and ascending to the parapet of the curtain and bastions, and are either procured on the spot, or are sent out with the siege army. The leaders constitute a forlorn hope.
Escale (Fr.). A machine used to ply the petard.
Escape of Gas. See Gas-check and Breech Mechanism.
Escarp. In fortification, the surface of the ditch next the rampart, the surface next the enemy being termed the counterscarp. Called also scarp.
Escarp Galleries. Galleries constructed in the escarp for the purpose of flanking the ditch caponnière.
Escarpment. Ground cut away nearly vertically about a position, in order to render it inaccessible to the enemy.
Escort. A body of troops attending an individual as a guard. The term is also applied to a guard placed over prisoners on a march, to prevent their escape, and to the guard of a convoy of stores.
Escort, Funeral. See Funeral Escort.
Escort of Honor. A body of troops attending a personage of rank by way of military compliment.
Escort of the Color. The military ceremony of sending for and receiving the colors of a battalion.
Escouade (Fr.). In the old French service generally meant the third part of a company of foot or a detachment. Companies were divided in this manner for the purpose of more conveniently keeping the tour of duty among the men. We have corrupted the term, and called it squad.
Escuage. An ancient feudal tenure by which the tenant was bound to follow his lord to war or to defend his castle.
Espadon. In old military works, a kind of two-handed sword, having two edges, of a great length and breadth; formerly used by the Spanish.
Espauliere (Fr.). A defense for the shoulder, composed of flexible, overlapping plates of metal, used in the 15th century; the origin of the modern epaulette.
Espiere. A town of Belgium, 8 miles from Courtrai, where the allied Austrian and English army defeated the French, May 22, 1794.
Espingard, or Epingare (Fr.). An ancient name for a small gun under a 1-pounder. They were used as early as the 14th century.
Espingole, or Spingole (Fr.). A blunderbuss; a kind of blunderbuss which, in early times, was loaded with several balls; the charges were separated from each other by tampions in which a hole was made, and thus the balls were fired in succession.
Espinosa de la Monteros. A town of Spain, on the Trueba, 50 miles from Burgos. The French defeated the Spaniards here in 1808.
Esplanade. In fortification, is the open space intentionally left between the houses of a city and the glacis of its citadel, so that the enemy may not be able to erect breaching batteries under cover of the houses. In old works on fortification, the term is often applied to the glacis of the counterscarp, or the slope of the parapet of the covered way towards the country.
Espontoon (Fr.). A sort of half pike, about 3 feet in length, used in the 17th century. The colonels of corps as well as the captains of companies always used them in action. This weapon was also used by officers in the British army.
Espringal. In the ancient art of war, a machine for throwing large darts, generally called muchettæ.
Esprit de Corps (Fr.). This term is generally used among all military men in Europe. It may not improperly be defined a laudable spirit of ambition which produces a peculiar attachment to any particular corps, company, or service. Officers without descending to mean and pitiful sensations of selfish envy, under the influence of a true esprit de corps rise into an emulous thirst after military glory. The good are excited to peculiar feats of valor by the sentiments it engenders, and the bad are deterred from ever hazarding a disgraceful action by a secret consciousness of the duties it prescribes.
Esquimaux. The tribes inhabiting Greenland and Arctic America. Those inhabiting the continent are found in sparse settlements from Behring Strait to Labrador. They are generally peaceable. Some of these in Greenland have been civilized by the influence of the Danes.
Esquire. In chivalry, was the shield-bearer or armor-bearer to the