1.
Groundwater sapping
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Groundwater sapping is a geomorphic erosion process that results in the headward migration of channels in response to near constant fluid discharge at a fixed point. The consistent flow of water displaces fine sediments which physically and chemically weathers rocks, valleys that appear to have been created by groundwater sapping occur throughout the world in areas such as England, Colorado, Hawai’i, New Zealand, and many other places. An example of drainage ways created purely by the outflow of subsurface fluids can be seen on the foreshores of beaches. As the surge of water and sand brought to land by a wave retreats seaward, small fans form at the apex of the rhombic features, which are eventually fed by the remaining backflow of water traveling downslope. Channels begin to form headward in the form of millimeter wide rills along the sides of the fans and this is one of the processes involved in the formation of gullies, such as lavaka. Erosion by sapping tends to produce steep-sided U-shaped valleys of fairly uniform width with box-like and this contrasts with the more common branching or dendritic pattern of V-shaped valleys produced by overland flows that become wider with distance from their source. Sapping typically occurs in permeable sandstones associated with water tables underlain by an impermeable layer. Limited in its ability to travel vertically, water is forced to travel laterally where it eventually seeps out of the ground, limestones, siltstones, and shales can be found in valleys created by groundwater sapping as well. Characteristic landforms caused by groundwater sapping are “theater-shaped” channel heads and “U-shaped” valleys, weakened basal rocks are unable to support more resistant upper layers, causing valley head and sidewalls to collapse inwards. Theater-shaped channel heads are characterized by overhanging sidewalls that are relatively dry compared to the lower level rocks below the zone of seepage. The development of theater heads has been related to flow direction, jointing and faulting, permeability contrasts, formation slope and dip angles. The morphology of channels and valleys created by sapping are highly dependent on regional scale geology, chemical precipitates can be used as indicators of groundwater water discharge implying that a valley or channel may have been formed as a result of sapping. These sorts of clues are important in areas where water is not currently being discharged, many “natural amphitheaters” can be found near the Colorado River. It is thought that sapping may have more common in this area in the past when there was a higher water table. A shift in the climate and associated precipitation or the incision of the Colorado River are two factors that may have caused a change in the table level. Short, stream-like, deep channels have been observed on Mars, very similar to valleys created by groundwater sapping here on Earth, the discovery of the Martian valleys has prompted numerous studies that aim to better understand the process of sapping. Kochel, and H. R. Holt, NASA SP-491, p. 1-5 Julie E. Laity, malin, Sapping processes and the development of theater-headed valley networks on the Colorado Plateau, Geological Society of America Bulletin, Vol.96, No. Stepinski and S. Coradetti, Comparing morphologies of drainage basins on Mars and Earth using integral-geometry, http, //commons. lib. niu. edu/handle/10843/13362 Lou, W. “Quantifying Groundwater-sapping Landforms with a Hyposemetric Technique. ”
2.
1st New York Volunteer Engineer Regiment
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The 1st New York Volunteer Engineer Regiment was an engineer regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was also known as Serrells Engineers, New York Volunteer Corps of Engineers, or Engineers, the regiment served initially in the Lower Seaboard Theater, and later in the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign. In 1860 the army Corps of Engineers consisted of just 44 officers and 100 soldiers for an army of 15,000 soldiers, the regiment was accepted by the state on September 27,1861. Serrell was appointed a Lieutenant Colonel of Volunteers on October 11,1861, the regiment was officially organized in New York City, and mustered in for a three-year enlistment on October 11,1861. After the unit had been mustered, the Paymaster General refused to recognize the status of the newly formed regiment, after protests to the War Department failed to rectify the situation, the men refused to take their reduced pay. Finally, after eight months of refusing to accept the lower wages, the 1st New Yorks was deployed to Port Royal Sound and was formed as the 10th Corps Engineers in the Department of the South. The regiment distinguished itself in the Battle of Fort Pulaski, helping to capture the fort after 30 hours of bombardment, the 1st New York was given the honor of having their regimental flag chosen as the first to float over Fort Pulaski after its capture. The regiment was employed throughout the east coast, from South Carolina to Florida, while serving in the X Corps, the regiment was involved in capturing several key forts in Charleston Harbor. After 60 days of shelling, the abandoned the fort on September 7,1863. Using Morris Island as an area, the X Corps could focus on recapturing Fort Sumter. During the Battle of Fort Sumter, the 1st New York established watchtowers, however, in spite of a near constant bombardment, as well as a failed amphibious assault, Union forces were unable to occupy the fort until its abandonment by Confederate forces on February 17,1865. Unable to recapture Fort Sumter, the X Corps under Gen. Quincy Adams Gillmore turned their attention to the city of Charleston. According to legend Serrell gave the duty to an engineer who declared the project could not be done. Serrell told the engineer that nothing was impossible, and to requisition any necessary materials. A short time later Serrell received a request for twenty men eighteen feet tall, at the same time there was a request to the departments surgeon to splice three six-foot men together to make the needed eighteen footers. The request did not amuse Serrell, and he replaced the young officer. Serrell assumed personal responsibility and conducted a series of experiments to establish the capability of the soil to support weight and he believed the soil could be stabilized enough to receive the weight of a siege piece. A plan was presented to Gilmore for the construction of a battery on August 2,1863 and it was immediately accepted, and several days were spent setting up support activities to supply lumber and other materials
3.
Morris Island
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Morris Island is an 840-acre uninhabited island in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, accessible only by boat. The island lies in the reaches of the harbor and was thus a strategic location in the American Civil War. The island forms parts of the cities of Charleston and Folly Beach, Morris Island was heavily fortified to defend Charleston harbor, with the fortifications centered on Fort Wagner. The regiment and this assault, where it suffered over 50% casualties, was immortalized in the film Glory, after the Confederates abandoned Morris Island in 1863 the Union occupied it. In the next yearthey transferred 600 Confederate officers from Fort Delaware to Morris Island,50 of whom were quickly exchanged, none of these men were killed by artillery fire though several died of sickness. They soon became known in the South as the Immortal Six Hundred, Land erosion has destroyed a great deal of the old fortifications on the island, including some parts of Fort Wagner. Morris Island is also the site of the Morris Island Light, in January 2005, Charleston developer Harry Huffman, listed the 125 acres for sale on eBay for $12.5 million. Huffman was in negotiations to sell the island to a consortium of preservation groups, Charleston zoning regulations permit no more than 5 homes to be built on the island. Huffman had waged a number of battles with the development agencies to change the zoning. The island was last sold in the 1980s for $3 million, on February 2,2006, the Trust for Public Land, a non-profit private land conservation organization, announced the purchase of Morris Island for $4.5 million. Ginn Resorts had previously purchased the island for a reported $6.5 million, in May 2008, TPL and partners purchased the island on behalf of the City of Charleston from Ginn Resorts for $3 million. According to TPL, the city and county are working to complete a management plan to protect the islands nationally significant historical and natural resources, Morris Lighthouse Morris Guide Civil War Photos of Morris Island Assault on Battery Wagner, Maps, Histories, Photos, and Preservation News
4.
Siege
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A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. This derives from sedere, Latin for to sit, Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is not uncommon, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy, a siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by direct assault and refuses to surrender. Failing a military outcome, sieges can often be decided by starvation, thirst, or disease and this form of siege, though, can take many months or even years, depending upon the size of the stores of food the fortified position holds. During the process of circumvallation, the force can be set upon by another force of enemies due to the lengthy amount of time required to starve a position. During the Warring States era of ancient China, there is textual and archaeological evidence of prolonged sieges and siege machinery used against the defenders of city walls. Siege machinery was also a tradition of the ancient Greco-Roman world, during the Renaissance and the early modern period, siege warfare dominated the conduct of war in Europe. Leonardo da Vinci gained as much of his renown from the design of fortifications as from his artwork, Medieval campaigns were generally designed around a succession of sieges. In the Napoleonic era, increasing use of more powerful cannon reduced the value of fortifications. In the 20th century, the significance of the classical siege declined, with the advent of mobile warfare, a single fortified stronghold is no longer as decisive as it once was. Modern sieges are more commonly the result of smaller hostage, militant, the Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples, and defensive walls. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were also fortified, by about 3500 BC, hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus River floodplain. Many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets, mundigak in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun-dried bricks. City walls and fortifications were essential for the defence of the first cities in the ancient Near East, the walls were built of mudbricks, stone, wood, or a combination of these materials, depending on local availability. They may also have served the purpose of showing presumptive enemies the might of the kingdom. The great walls surrounding the Sumerian city of Uruk gained a widespread reputation, the walls were 9.5 km in length, and up to 12 m in height. Later, the walls of Babylon, reinforced by towers, moats, in Anatolia, the Hittites built massive stone walls around their cities atop hillsides, taking advantage of the terrain. In Shang Dynasty China, at the site of Ao, large walls were erected in the 15th century BC that had dimensions of 20 m in width at the base and enclosed an area of some 2,100 yards squared
5.
Sapper
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They are also trained to serve as infantry personnel in defensive and offensive operations. A sappers duties are devoted to tasks involving facilitating movement, defence and survival of allied forces, the term sapper is used in the British Army and Commonwealth nations, Polish Army and the U. S. military. The phrase sapper comes from the French saper, saps were excavated by brigades of trained sappers or instructed troops. When an army was defending a fortress with cannon, they had an obvious height, the attacking armys artillery had to be brought forward, under fire, so as to facilitate effective counter-battery fire. This was achieved by digging what the French termed a sappe, using techniques developed and perfected by Vauban, the sappers began the trench at such an angle so as to avoid enemy fire enfilading the sappe. As they pressed forward, a position was prepared from which cannon could suppress the defenders on the bastions, the sappers would then change the course of their trench, zig-zagging toward the fortress wall. Each leg brought the attackers artillery closer until the cannon would be sufficiently suppressed for the attackers to breach the walls. Broadly speaking, sappers were experts at demolishing or otherwise overcoming or bypassing fortification systems. An additional term applied to sappers of the British Indian Army was miner, the native engineer corps were referred to as sappers and miners, as for example, the Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners. The term arose from a task done by sappers to further the battle after saps were dug, the saps permitted cannon to be brought into firing range of the besieged fort and its cannon, but often the cannon themselves were unable to breach the fort walls. This was dangerous work, often lethal to the sappers, and was resisted by the besieged enemy. Since the two tasks went hand in hand and were done by the troops, native Indian engineer corps came to be called sappers and miners. Sapper is the Royal Engineers equivalent of private, the term sapper was introduced in 1856 when the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners was amalgamated with the officer corps of the Royal Engineers to form the Corps of Royal Engineers. During the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I Australian sappers repaired a bridge at the crossing of the Jordan River at Jisr Benat Yakub. Here the retreating Ottoman and German rearguard had blown up the central arch which was repaired in five hours by sappers attached to the Australian Mounted Division. Australian Sappers in the Vietnam War were also honoured in the Cold Chisel song Khe Sanh with the line I left my heart to the Sappers round Khe Sanh, in the Canadian Forces, sappers exist both in the regular force and reserve force. The rank of sapper is used instead of private trained to signify completion of the Engineer DP1 course, Canadian sappers have been deployed in many major conflicts in recent history including World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the War in Afghanistan. Ultimately, the objective of the sappers is to facilitate the living, moving, and fighting for friendly troops on the battlefield, the motto of the Canadian Military Engineers is Ubique a motto shared with the Royal Canadian Artillery
6.
Enfilade and defilade
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Enfilade and defilade are concepts in military tactics used to describe a military formations exposure to enemy fire. A formation or position is in enfilade if weapons fire can be directed along its longest axis, a unit or position is in defilade if it uses natural or artificial obstacles to shield or conceal itself from enfilade. The strategies invented by the English use the French enfiler and défiler which the English nobility used at that time, enfilade fire, a gunfire directed against an enfiladed formation or position, is also commonly known as flanking fire. Raking fire is the equivalent term in naval warfare, strafing, firing on targets from a flying platform, is often done with enfilade fire. A formation or position is in enfilade if weapons fire can be directed along its longest axis, for instance, a trench is enfiladed if the opponent can fire down the length of the trench. A column of marching troops is enfiladed if fired on from the front or rear such that the travel the length of the column. A rank or line of advancing troops is enfiladed if fired on from the side, the benefit of enfilading an enemy formation is that, by firing along the long axis, it becomes easier to hit targets within that formation. Enfilade fire takes advantage of the fact that it is easier to aim laterally than to correctly estimate the range to avoid shooting too long or short. Additionally, both indirect and direct fire projectiles that might miss a target are more likely to hit another valuable target within the formation if firing along the long axis. A unit or position is in if it uses natural or artificial obstacles to shield or conceal. For an armored fighting vehicle, defilade is synonymous with a hull-down or turret-down position, defilade is also used to refer to a position on the reverse slope of a hill or within a depression in level or rolling terrain. Defiladed positions on hilltops are advantageous because dead space – a space that cannot be engaged with direct fire – will be created in front of the position. Ideally, this space should be covered by the interlocking fields of fire of other nearby positions. In the case of weapons, and especially short-range man-portable antitank rockets. Early detection and elimination of antitank threats is an important reason that tanks attack with infantry support, the same principles apply to fighting positions for artillery and armored fighting vehicles. A unit sited in defilade threatens an enemy that decides to pass it and move forward, the friendly unit would be in a position that is shielded by terrain from direct enemy fire, while still being able to fire on the enemy in an effective manner
7.
Gabion
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A gabion is a cage, cylinder, or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building, military applications and landscaping. For erosion control, caged riprap is used, for dams or in foundation construction, cylindrical metal structures are used. In a military context, earth- or sand-filled gabions are used to protect sappers, infantry, leonardo da Vinci designed a type of gabion called a Corbeille Leonard for the foundations of the San Marco Castle in Milan. Other uses include retaining walls, noise barriers, temporary walls, silt filtration from runoff, for small or temporary/permanent dams, river training. They may be used to direct the force of a flow of water around a vulnerable structure. Gabions are also used as fish screens on small streams, a gabion wall is a retaining wall made of stacked stone-filled gabions tied together with wire. Gabion walls are usually battered, or stepped back with the slope, gabion baskets have some advantages over loose riprap because of their modularity and ability to be stacked in various shapes. Gabions have advantages over more rigid structures, because they can conform to subsidence, dissipate energy from flowing water and resist being washed away and their strength and effectiveness may increase with time in some cases, as silt and vegetation fill the interstitial voids and reinforce the structure. They are sometimes used to prevent falling stones from a cut or cliff endangering traffic on a thoroughfare, the life expectancy of gabions depends on the lifespan of the wire, not on the contents of the basket. The structure will fail when the wire fails, galvanized steel wire is most common, but PVC-coated and stainless steel wire are also used. PVC-coated galvanized gabions have been estimated to survive for 60 years, Some gabion manufacturers guarantee a structural consistency of 50 years. In the United States, gabion use within streams first began with projects completed from 1957 to 1965 on North River, Virginia and Zealand River, more than 150 grade-control structures, bank revetments and channel deflectors were constructed on the two U. S. Forest Service sites. Eventually, a portion of the in-stream structures failed due to undermining. In particular, corrosion and abrasion of wires by bedload movement compromised the structures, other gabions were toppled into channels as trees grew and enlarged on top of gabion revetments, leveraging them toward the river channels. Gabions have also used in building, as in the Dominus Winery in the Napa Valley, California by architects Herzog & de Meuron. There are various designs of gabions to meet particular functional requirements. For example, Bastion, a gabion lined internally with a membrane, typically of nonwoven geotextile to permit use of a granular soil fill, mattress, a form of gabion with relatively small height relative to the lateral dimensions, commonly very wide. For protecting surfaces from wave erosion and similar attack, rather than building or supporting high structures, trapion, a form of gabion with a trapezoidal cross section, designed for stacking to give a face that is sloping rather than stepped
8.
Mantlet
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A mantlet was a large shield or portable shelter used for stopping projectiles in medieval warfare. It could be mounted on a carriage, and protected one or several soldiers. In the First World War a mantlet type of device was used by the French to attack barbed wire entanglements, a wicker U-shaped mantlet on wheels. Wicker was a material for siege defences as it was lightweight, effective. The wheels add further mobility which meant that the user could move forward slowly but surely, a wood-planked, L-shaped mantlet on wheels, similar to 34. Wooden-planked construction with proper joinery and even arrow slots would make this a more hard-wearing and it would be heavier to push and would require more time and skill to construct, this might not be the sort one would use when attacking uphill. This is probably the cheapest and simplest option, but it would not be as hard wearing, a wood-planked mantlet on wheels, affording the hard protection of a wooden structure but still being mobile. The lever-like handle would allow the mantlet to be pushed along, chemise Gun mantlet Pavise Gabion Testudo formation Farrows military encyclopedia, a dictionary of military knowledge By Edward Samuel Farrow
9.
Cannon
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A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile, which may or may not be explosive. The word cannon is derived from languages, in which the original definition can usually be translated as tube, cane. The Greeks invented the first type—a steam cannon—designed by Archimedes during the Siege of Syracuse, ctesibius built a steam cannon in Alexandria and in the fifteenth century Leonardo da Vinci designed another, the Architonnerre, based on Archimedes work. The earliest form of artillery was developed in Song China, over time replacing siege engines. In the Middle East, the first use of the cannon is argued to be during the 1260 Battle of Ain Jalut between the Mamluk Sultanate and Mongol Empire. The first cannon in Europe were in use in the Iberian Peninsula by the mid-13th century and it was during this period, the Middle Ages, that cannon became standardised, and more effective in both the anti-infantry and siege roles. After the Middle Ages most large cannon were abandoned in favour of greater numbers of lighter, Cannon also transformed naval warfare in the early modern period, as European navies took advantage of their firepower. In World War I, the majority of fatalities were caused by artillery. Most modern cannon are similar to those used in the Second World War, Cannon was widely known as the earliest form of a gun and artillery, before early firearms were invented. The word has been used to refer to a gun since 1326 in Italy, both Cannons and Cannon are correct and in common usage, with one or the other having preference in different parts of the English-speaking world. Cannons is more common in North America and Australia, while cannon as plural is more common in the United Kingdom, Cannon in general have the form of a truncated cone with an internal cylindrical bore for holding an explosive charge and a projectile. The thickest, strongest, and closed part of the cone is located near the explosive charge, as any explosive charge will dissipate in all directions equally, the thickest portion of the cannon is useful for containing and directing this force. Field artillery cannon in Europe and the Americas were initially made most often of bronze, though later forms were constructed of cast iron and eventually steel. However, cast iron cannon have a tendency to burst without having any previous weakness or wear. The following terms refer to the components or aspects of a classical western cannon as illustrated here. In what follows, the words near, close, and behind will refer to those parts towards the thick, closed end of the piece, and far, front, in front of, and before to the thinner, open end. Bore, The hollow cylinder bored down the centre of the cannon, including the base of the bore or bottom of the bore, the diameter of the bore represents the cannons calibre. Chamber, The cylindrical, conical, or spherical recess at the nearest end of the bottom of the bore into which the gunpowder is packed
10.
Curtain wall (fortification)
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A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two towers of a castle, fortress, or town. In medieval castles, the area surrounded by a curtain wall, the outermost walls with their integrated bastions and wall towers together make up the enceinte or main defensive line enclosing the site. In earlier designs of castle and town, the walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult. Evidence for curtain walls or a series of walls surrounding a town or fortress can be found in the sources from Assyria. Some notable examples are ancient Lachish and Buhen, enceinte Curry, Anne, Hughes, Michael, eds. The Popular Encyclopedia, or, Conversations Lexicon, I, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London, Blackie & Son, p.444
