Asylum, Military. See Soldiers’ Homes.
As You Were. A word of command corresponding to the French remettez vous, frequently used by drill instructors to cause a resumption of the previous position, when any motion of the musket or movement of the body has been improperly made.
Atabal. A kettle-drum; a kind of tabor, used by the Moors.
Ataghan. See Yataghan.
Ataman. A hetman, or chief of the Cossacks.
Atchevement. In heraldry, is a term nearly equivalent to arms, or armorial bearings, and is often used in its abbreviated form of hatchment when speaking of the arms of a deceased person as displayed at his funeral or elsewhere.
Ategar. The old English hand-dart, named from the Saxon aeton, “to fling,” and gar, “a weapon.”
Ategna. An important city of ancient Italy. It was taken from the Republicans by Julius Cæsar, in 45 B.C.
Atella (now San Arpino). A place in Italy, where the French under the Duke of Montpensier, general of Charles VIII., had to capitulate and surrender to Ferdinand II. of Naples, in 1496. The prisoners were transported to the island of Procida, where the majority of them, including the Duke of Montpensier, perished by contracting an infectious disease.
Ath. A fortified town in Belgium; it was ceded to France in 1668; fortified by Vauban; restored to the Spaniards in 1678; captured by the French under Marshal Catinat in 1697, but was restored in the same year by the peace of Ryswick. The allies under Field-Marshal d’Auvergne took it October 1, 1706. It remained in the possession of the Dutch till 1716, when it was given up to the emperor of Austria, with the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands. Louis XV. of France captured it in 1745. France lost it by the treaties of 1814–15.
Athanati. A corps of picked soldiers belonging to the ancient Persian army, 10,000 strong, which were called the “Immortals,” for the reason that, as soon as one of the corps died, another was put in his place.
Athenry. A town in Galway, Ireland; near here the Irish were totally defeated, and a gallant young chief, Feidlim O’Connor, slain in 1316.
Athens. A celebrated city, the capital of the modern kingdom of Greece, situated in the plain of Attica, about 4 miles northeast of the Gulf of Ægina. It was for several ages the centre of European civilization. The city is said to have been founded by Cecrops, and afterwards enlarged by Theseus, who made it the capital of the new state which he formed by uniting into one political body the 12 independent states into which Attica had previously been divided. A new era in the history of the city commences with its capture by Xerxes, who reduced it almost to a heap of ashes, 480 B.C. This event was followed by the rapid development of the maritime power of the city and the establishment of her empire over the islands of the Ægean Sea. Her increasing wealth afforded her ample means for the embellishment of the city, and during the half century which elapsed between the battle of Salamis and the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians erected those masterpieces of architecture which have been the wonder of succeeding ages. The city was captured by the Lacedæmonians in 404 B.C., and was conquered by Sulla, the Roman general, 86 B.C., after which it dwindled into insignificance as a maritime city. Its prosperity continued, however, under the Roman sway, and it continued to be famous as the centre of philosophy, literature, and art, many famous buildings having been erected there by foreign rulers after the decline of its power. During the Middle Ages it sunk into insignificance. It has successively belonged to the Goths, Byzantines, Bergundians, Franks, Catalans, Florentines, Venetians, and Turks. In 1687 the buildings of the Acropolis suffered severe injury in the siege of Athens by the Venetians under Morosini. In 1834 Athens was declared the capital of the kingdom of Greece.
Athlone. A town in Roscommon, Ireland, which was burnt during the civil war in 1641. After the battle of the Boyne, Col. R. Grace held Athlone for James II. against a besieging army, but fell when it was taken by assault by Ginkel, June 30, 1691. See Aughrim.
Atilt. In the manner of a tilter; in the position or with the action of a man making a thrust. “To run a tilt at men.”
Atlanta. A city of Fulton Co., Ga., and the capital of the State. In its vicinity a battle was fought between the Federal forces under Gen. Sherman and the Confederates under Gen. Hood, July 22, 1864. The city was taken by Gen. Sherman on September 2, and held by him until November 15, when he set out on his famous “march to the sea.”
Atmidometer, or Admometer. An instrument for measuring the rate of evaporation, used in English medical corps.
Atrebates. A Belgic people subdued by Cæsar, 57 B.C.
Attach. To place, to appoint. Officers and non-commissioned officers are said to be attached to the respective army, regiment, battalion, troop, or company with which they are appointed to act.
Attache (Fr.). The seal and signature of the colonel-general in the old French service, which were affixed to commissions of officers after they had been duly examined.
Attack. Any general assault or onset that is given to gain a post or break a body of troops. False attack, a feigned or secondary movement in the arrangements of an assault, intended to divert the attention of an enemy from the real or principal attack. Such a movement has been sometimes converted into a real attack, and succeeded when the main assault, to which it was intended to be subsidiary, had failed. Attack of a siege is a furious attack made by the besiegers by means of trenches, galleries, saps, breaches, or mines, etc., by storming any part of the front attack. To attack in front or flank, in fortifications, means to attack the salient angle, or both sides of the bastion.
Attack and Defense. A part of the sword exercise drill.
Attacking. The act of making a general assault or onset for the capture of a post, fort, etc., or the breaking of a body of troops. Previous to an assault on a fortified position, the artillery ought to support the other troops by a combined fire of guns, howitzers, and small mortars, so that, if possible, the fire may be simultaneous, as such diversity of projectiles would tend to distract the defenders, and prevent them from extinguishing any fires among buildings, besides throwing them into confusion at the moment of assault. In cases of surprise, when immediate action is required, this method cannot, of course, be practicable.
Attention. A cautionary command addressed to troops preparatory to a particular exercise or manœuvre. Gare-a-vous has the same signification in the French service.
Attestation. In the English service, is a certificate which is granted by a justice of the peace within four days after the enlistment of a recruit. This certificate bears testimony that the recruit has been brought before the justice in conformity to the Mutiny Act, and has declared his assent or dissent to such enlistment, and that (if according to the said act he shall have been duly enlisted) the proper oaths have been administered to him by the magistrate, and the sections of the articles of war against mutiny and desertion read to the said recruit.
Audenarde. See Oudenarde.
Auditor, Second. An official connected with the Treasury Department, whose duties consist in examining all accounts relating to the pay and clothing of the army, the subsistence of officers,