Blockade. In international law, is the means in time of war of rendering intercourse with an enemy’s port unlawful on the part of neutrals; and it is carried into effect by an armed force (ships of war), which blocks up and bars export or import to or from the place blockaded. To be valid, a blockade must be accompanied by actual investment of the place, and it may be more or less rigorous, either for the purpose of watching the operations of the enemy, or to cut off all excess of neutral vessels to that interdicted place. To be binding on neutrals, it ought to be shown that they have knowledge, or may be presumed to know of the blockade, for which reason a formal notification of the fact is usually made by the blockading power. The breach of blockade, which may be effected by coming out of a blockaded port, or going in, subjects the property so employed to confiscation. On the proclamation of peace, or from any political or belligerent cause, the continuance of the investment may cease to be necessary, and the blockade is then said to be raised. The blockading force then retires, and the port is open as before to all other nations. In the present century recourse has been had to this means of cutting off supplies from the enemy on several occasions. The Elbe was blockaded by Great Britain, 1803; the Baltic, by Denmark, 1848–49 and 1864; the Gulf of Finland by the allies, 1854; and the ports of the Southern States by President Lincoln, April 19, 1861.
Blockader. One who blockades.
Block Battery. In gunnery, a wooden battery for two or more small pieces, mounted on wheels, and movable from place to place; very ready to fire en barbette, in the galleries and casements, etc., where room is wanted.
Block-house. An edifice or structure of heavy timber or logs for military defense, having its sides loop-holed for musketry, and often an upper story projecting over the lower, or placed upon it diagonally, with projecting corners, to facilitate a firing downward, and in all directions; the sides and ends are sometimes much like a stockade, and the top covered with earth; there may also be a ditch around it. Formerly much used in Germany and America, and used extensively in the United States as a defense against Indians, and during the civil war, 1861–65, for the protection of important places on railroads, such as bridges, etc. If exposed to the fire of artillery, block-houses should be formed of double rows of logs 3 feet apart, with well-rammed earth between them.
Bloodhound. A name given to certain species of the dog, distinguished for their keenness of scent, and the persistency with which they follow the track of game. They have been frequently employed during wars to track partisans, and even in the American civil war, 1861–65, were employed by the Confederates to track Union prisoners who escaped from their prisons. In time of peace they are sometimes employed to hunt felons, fugitive slaves, etc. When they are thus employed they acquire a peculiarly bloodthirsty and ferocious character.
Bloreheath. In Staffordshire, England; here on September 23, 1459, the Earl of Salisbury and the Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians, whose leader, Lord Audley, was slain with many Cheshire gentlemen. A cross commemorates this conflict.
Bludgeon. A short stick, with one end loaded, or thicker and heavier than the other, used as an offensive weapon.
Blue-light. A composition, burning with a blue flame, used as a night signal in ships, or for military purposes. See Pyrotechny.
Blunderbuss. A short gun or fire-arm, with a large bore, capable of holding a number of balls, and intended to do execution without exact aim.
Blyde, Bly, or Blude (Ger.). A kind of a war machine which was used in ancient times to throw stones; some authors compare it to the catapult. In the year 1585, at the siege of the castle of Rucklingen, Albert, duke of Saxony and Lüneburg, was killed by a stone thrown by a blyde.
Board of Officers. A number of officers assembled by military authority for the transaction of business.
Board of Ordnance. A government department, which formerly had the management of all affairs relating to the artillery and engineering corps of the British army. This board was abolished after the Crimean war.
Board, Pointing. In gunnery, this is a piece of wood 1 foot long, 2 or 3 inches wide, and 1 inch thick, having a notch cut in the middle of one side to fit on the stake, and graduated into equal divisions from its middle. When not in use the pointing cord may be wound on it. This board is used for directing mortars.
Boards of Examination. In the army, are instituted to determine upon appointments in regiments, and for appointments and promotion in the medical staff, engineer corps, and ordnance department. They are composed of army officers.
Boards of Survey. In the army, are convened for the purpose of fixing the responsibility for public property lost, damaged, or destroyed, of ascertaining what articles of public property may have been lost or abstracted whenever a soldier deserts, and of taking an inventory of the public property in charge of a deceased officer.
Boats, Blanket-. See Blanket-boats.
Bobruisk. A fortified town of Russia, in the government of Minsk. It is situated on the right bank of the Beresina, and is a station for the steam-packets navigating the Dnieper and Beresina. It was besieged ineffectually by the French in 1812.
Boccacci. The Italians have a peculiar kind of fire-arm which they call by this name; it is enlarged towards the muzzle in the shape of a trumpet. This gun is principally used by the Calabrians.
Bocchetta. A celebrated pass of the Apennines, the key of the route from Novi to Genoa. Redoubts were constructed here by the Imperialists in 1746 for the defense of the pass. The French traversed this pass when they entered Italy in 1796.
Bodegraven. A fortified town of Holland. On November 28, 1672, it was captured by the Duke of Luxemburg, who tarnished his victory by authorizing the town to be pillaged.
Bodkin. A dirk or dagger; a word still in use, though Johnson says it is the oldest acceptation of it.
Body. In the nomenclature of modern ordnance, is the part of the piece in rear of the trunnions.
Body. In the art of war, is a number of forces, horse or foot, united and marching under one commander. Main body of an army, sometimes means the troops encamped in the centre between the two wings, and generally consists of infantry. The main body on a march, signifies the whole of the army exclusive of the van- and rear-guards.
Body of the Place. The enceinte of a fortress, or main line of bastions and curtains, as distinguished from outworks.
Body-guard. A guard to protect or defend the person; a life-guard.
Bœotia. One of the political divisions of ancient Greece, lying between Attica and Megaris on the south, and Locris and Phocis on the north, and bounded on the other side by the Eubœan Sea and the Corinthian Gulf. The tribes of greatest importance who appear as rulers of Bœotia in the heroic age were the Minyæ and the Cadmeans, or Cadmeones—the former dwelling at Orchomenus, and the latter at Thebes. About 60 years after the Trojan war the Bœotians, an Æolian people who had hitherto dwelt in Thessaly, having been expelled from that country, took possession of the land then called Cadmeis, to which they gave their own name of Bœotia. At the commencement of the historic period all the ancient tribes had disappeared, and all the cities were inhabited by Bœotians, the most important forming a political confederacy under the presidency of Thebes. After the battle of Chæronea (338 B.C.) and the destruction of Thebes by Alexander three years after, Bœotia rapidly declined, and so low had it sunk in the time of the Romans, that of all its great cities there remained only two, which had dwindled into insignificant towns; of the other great cities nothing remained but their ruins and their names. The people are represented