Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/486

 456 FORTIFICATION as necessary as the gun and the mortar to the success of a ] b?sieger. To render this intelligible to the general reader, a descriptive sketch of the progress of a modern attack, from the excellent work of Sir John Jones already referred to, is introduced here. &quot; The first operation of a besieger,&quot; says that able and experienced engineer, &quot;is to establish a force able to cope with the garrison of the town to be attacked, at the distance of some hundreds of yards from its ramparts. This is effected by approaching the place secretly in the night with a body of men, part carrying entrenching tools, and the remainder armed. The former dig a trench in the ground parallel to the front to be attacked, and with the earth that comes out of the trench raise a bank on the side next to the enemy, whilst the latter remain formed in a recumbent posture, in readi ness to protect those at work, should the garrison sally out. During the night this trench and bank are made of sufficient depth and extent to cover from the missiles of the place the number of men requisite to cope with the garrison, and the besiegers remain in the trench during the following day, in despite of the tire or sorties of the besieged. This trench is afterwards widened and deepened, and the bank of earth raised, forming a covered road, called a parallel, which embraces all the fortifications to be attacked ; and along this road, guns, waggons, and men securely and conveniently move, sheltered from the view and the missiles of the garrison. Batteries of guns and mortars are then constructed on the side of the road, to oppose the guns of the place, and in a short time, by superiority of fire, principally arising from situation, silence all those guns which buar on the works of the attack. After this ascendency is attained, the same species of covered road is, by certain rules of art, carried forward, till it passes over all the exterior defences of the place, and touches the main rampart wall at a spot where it has been previously beaten down by the fire of the batteries erected expressly for the purpose in the more advanced parts of the road. The besiegers troops, being thus enabled to march in perfect security to the opening in the walls of the place, assault it in strong columns, and, being much more numerous than the garrison defending the breach, soon overcome them, the more easily as they are assisted by a fire of artillery and musketry directed on the garrison from portions of the road only a few yards from the breach, which fire can at that distance be maintained, without injury to the assailants, on the defenders of the breach until the very instant of personal contention. The first breach being carried, should the garrison have inner works, the covered road is by similar rules of art pushed forward through the opening, and advanced batteries are erected in it to overpower the remaining guns of the place ; which effected, the road is again pushed forward, and the troops march in security to the assault of breaches made in a similar manner in those interior works, and invariably carry them with little loss. But as it is always an object to preserve the life of even a single soldier, so, when time is abundant, the loss of men attendant on the assault of breaches under these favourable cir cumstances may be avoided, by pushing up the covered road through the breach, without giving the assault, and thus, by art and labour, the strongest defences frequently fall without any exertion of open force. &quot; From this description it must be obvious that the most important object at a siege is to carry forward the covered road to the walls of the place, that all the other operations are secondary to and in furtherance of such an advance, and that hence the efficiency of armies at sieges depends upon their ability to complete the road at a small expense of life. But as this covered road advances, the difficulty increases. At its commencement, the work, being many hundred yards from the fortifications, can be performed by the common soldiers. But when the road or trench has arrived within a fair range of musketry from the place, then particular precautions are required ; yet the work at this stage is not so difficult as to prevent its being executed by soldiers who have had a little previous training. At the last stage, when the approaches have been pushed close to the place, when to be seen is to be killed, when mine after mine blows up the head of the road, with the officers and men on the spot, when the space becomes so confined that little or no front of defence can be obtained, and when the enemy s grenadiers sally forth every moment to attack and deal out destruction to the workmen, then the work becomes truly hazardous, and can only be performed by selected brave men, called sappers, who have acquired the difficult and dangerous art from which they derive their name. An indispensable auxiliary to the sapper is the miner, who in the exercise of his art requires even greater skill, conduct, and courage. The duty of a miner at a siege is to accompany the sapper, to listen for and discover tiie enemy s miner at work, and to prevent his bloving up the head of the road, either by sinking a shaft down to and meeting him, in which case a subterranean conflict ensues, or by running a gallery close to that of his opponent, and forcing him to desist from working by means of suffocating compositions, and by various arts the knowledge of which he has acquired from experience. Without the aid of skil ful miners, sappers would be unable to execute that part of the covered road forming the descent into the ditch, not to mention other operations in the progress of which the assistance of the miner is equally indispensable ; and with out their joint labours and steady co-operation, no besiegers approaches would ever reach the walls of a fortress. In the British service they are blended into one honourable body, the Royal Engineers. But a siege, though it calls for personal bravery, unre mitting exertion, and extraordinary labour in all employed, if scientifically prosecuted, is certain in its progress and its result. More or less skill and exertion in the contending parties may prolong or abridge its duration ; but the sapper and the miner, when skilfully directed and adequately sup ported, will ultimately surmount every obstacle. On the other hand, sieges undertaken by armies imperfectly sup plied with these auxiliaries are hazardous in the extreme. The only chance of success consists in scrutinizing the ex terior of the fortress, in order to discover some spot whence, from the irregularity of the ground, or fault of construction, the main escarp wall may be seen at a distance sufficiently great to enable the ordinary working parties to approach with the covered road, and there to establish batteries for breaching or forming an opening through it into the place. When this is effected, the troops advance to the assault of the breach, as in the IGth century, thus passing from the shelter of the covered road into the fire of the place at the moment when it becomes most powerful and destructive ; and as the fire of the besiegers distant batteries is neces sarily suspended during the assault, lest it should destroy the storming party, the garrison can with impunity mount the ramparts and employ every kind of weapon, missile, and instrument in their defence. All the chances are thus in favour of the besieged ; for should the columns of attack,, under these disadvantages, arrive in good order at the brink of the ditch, they must descend into it clown a wall from 14 to 16 feet in depth, which cannot fail to break their order and throw them into confusion ; and as no new for mation can be attempted in a spot where death meets them in every shape, the assailants rush to the breach more like a rabble than a solid column. From this moment success hinges on the individual bravery of the officers and men, and the unshrinking firmness of the general commanding, in encouraging and supporting their efforts. But although these qualities, when united in a high degree, may, at a great sacrifice of life, enable the assailants to overcome all resistance, yet an assault of this nature, under ordinary circumstances, lias almost always proved unsuccessful, Indeed, it rnay be laid down as the result of experience that, should an army unprovided with sappers and miners, and with the materials and means to render their services efficient, be opposed to a place fortified according to the modern system, with its walls completely covered, all the usual methods to reduce it would prove unavailing ; no period of time nor sacrifice of men would be sufficient to purchase success, and the prudent course would be to decline an attempt pregnant with hazard, perhaps ruin. &quot;These considerations,&quot; says Sir John Jones, to whom we are indebted for the above account of the various modes of attacking