1.
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
2.
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
3.
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
4.
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
5.
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
6.
Tunnel warfare
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A counter mine is a mine dug to allow defenders to attack miners, or destroy a mine threatening their fortifications. The Aetolians then countered the Roman mine with smoke from burning feathers with charcoal, eventually, when Philip V announced that large parts of the town-walls were undermined, the citizens surrendered without delay. Mining was a method used in ancient China from at least the Warring States period forward. When enemies attempted to dig tunnels under walls for mining or entry into the city, a well-preserved case of mining and counter-mining operations is in Dura Europos, during the siege in 256 AD during the Roman-Persian wars. In warfare during the Middle Ages, a mine was a tunnel dug to bring down castles, attackers used this technique when the fortification was not built on solid rock, developing it as a response to stone-built castles that could not be burned like earlier-style wooden forts. A tunnel would be excavated under the outer defenses either to access into the fortification or to collapse the walls. These tunnels would normally be supported by wooden props as the digging progressed. Later, explosives like gunpowder were used for greater effect. A tactic related to mining is sapping the wall, where engineers would dig at the base of a wall with crowbars, several methods resisted or countered undermining. Often the siting of a castle could make mining difficult, the walls of a castle could be constructed either on solid rock or on sandy or water-logged land, making it difficult to dig mines. A very deep ditch or moat could be constructed in front of the walls, as was done at Pembroke Castle, or even artificial lakes, as was done at Kenilworth Castle. This makes it difficult to dig a mine, and even if a breach is made. Defenders could also dig counter mines, from these they could then dig into the attackers tunnels and sortie into them to either kill the miners or to set fire to the pit-props to collapse the attackers tunnel. Alternatively they could under-mine the attackers tunnels and create a camouflet to collapse the attackers tunnels, finally if the walls were breached, they could either place obstacles in the breach, for example a cheval de frise to hinder a forlorn hope, or construct a coupure. During the Siege of Vicksburg, in 1863, Union troops led by General Ulysses S. Grant tunnelled under the Confederate trenches and detonated a mine beneath the 3rd Louisiana Redan on June 25,1863. The subsequent assault, led by General John A. Logan, gained a foothold in the Confederate trenches where the crater was formed, but the attackers were eventually forced to withdraw. A more famous instance occurred during the Siege of Petersburg, Union troops dug a tunnel under the Confederate lines at Elliotts Salient, when set off, the resulting explosion killed about 300 soldiers. The combat was known as the Battle of the Crater
7.
Siege of Godesberg
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The Siege of Godesberg,18 November –17 December 1583, was the first major siege of the Cologne War. Seeking to wrest control of an important fortification, Bavarian and mercenary soldiers surrounded the Godesberg, on top of the mountain sat a formidable fortress, similarly named Godesburg, built in the early 13th century during a contest over the election of two competing archbishops. Towering over the Rhine valley, the Godesburgs strategic position commanded the leading to and from Bonn, the Elector of Colognes capital city, and Cologne. Over time, the Electors strengthened its walls and heightened its towers and they added a small residence in the 14th century and the donjon developed as a stronghold of the Electoral archives and valuables. The Godesburg came under attack from Bavarian forces in November 1583, the explosion killed many of the defending troops, but the resulting rubble impeded the attackers progress, and the remaining defenders continued to offer staunch resistance. Only when some of the attackers entered the inner courtyard through the latrine system were the Bavarians able to overcome their opponents. The others who were left in the keep—men, women and children—were killed, nearby Bonn fell to the Bavarians the following month. When he refused to relinquish the Electorate, a faction of clerics in the Cologne Cathedral chapter elected another archbishop, Ernst of Bavaria, Italian mercenaries hired with papal gold augmented the Catholic force. The dispute had broad implications in the political, social, and it tested the principle of ecclesiastical reservation established in the religious Peace of Augsburg. The 1555 agreement settled religious problems in the Empire with the principle Cuius regio, eius religio, ecclesiastical reservation excluded the territories of the imperial prelates from cuius regio, eius religio. In an ecclesiastical territory, if the prelate changed his religion, instead, the prelate was expected to resign from his post. Problematically, the 1555 agreement did not specify this detail, agnes of Mansfeld-Eisleben was a Protestant canoness at a convent in Gerresheim, today a district of Düsseldorf. After 1579, she maintained a liaison with the Archbishop of Cologne, Gebhard of Waldburg-Trauchburg. In defense of her honor, two of her brothers convinced Gebhard to marry her, and Gebhard considered converting to Calvinism for her, rumors spread throughout the Electorate of his possible conversion, and that he might refuse to relinquish his position. The Electorate had overcome similar problems, hermann of Wied had converted to Protestantism and resigned in 1547. Salentin of Isenburg-Grenzau, Gebhards immediate predecessor, had resigned upon his marriage, in December 1582, Gebhard announced his conversion and extended equal religious rights to Protestants in the Electorate. At the end of March 1583, the Pope excommunicated him, the Cathedral chapter promptly elected a new archbishop, Ernst of Bavaria. With two competing archbishops, both claiming the see and the Electorate, the contenders and their supporters gathered the troops, in numbers, Ernst had the advantage
8.
Cologne War
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The Cologne War devastated the Electorate of Cologne, a historical ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire, within present-day North-Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany. The war occurred within the context of the Protestant Reformation in Germany and the subsequent Counter-Reformation, and concurrently with the Dutch Revolt and it stipulated instead that if an ecclesiastical prince converted to Protestantism, he would resign from his position rather than force the conversion of his subjects. In December 1582, Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, the Prince-elector of Cologne, the principle of ecclesiastical reservation required his resignation. Instead, he declared religious parity for his subjects and, in 1583, married Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben, intending to convert the ecclesiastical principality into a secular, a faction in the Cathedral Chapter elected another archbishop, Ernst of Bavaria. Initially, troops of the archbishops of Cologne fought over control of sections of the territory. Several of the barons and counts holding territory with feudal obligations to the Elector also held territory in nearby Dutch provinces, Westphalia, Liege, the conflict coincided with the Dutch Revolt, 1568–1648, encouraging the participation of the rebellious Dutch provinces and the Spanish. The successful conclusion of the war consolidated Wittelsbach authority in northwestern German territories, importantly, it also set a precedent for outside intervention in German religious and dynastic conflicts. Prior to the 16th century, the Catholic Church had been the sole official Christian faith in the Holy Roman Empire. By the mid-1530s, the German-speaking states of the Holy Roman Empire had devolved into armed factions determined by family ties, geographic needs, religious loyalties, the religious issue both accentuated and masked these secular conflicts. Princes and clergy alike understood that institutional abuses hindered the practices of the faithful, the Protestants believed a reform of doctrine was needed while those that remained Catholic wished to reform the morals of the clergy only, without sacrificing Catholic doctrine. The Schmalkaldic League called its own council in 1537. Catholic and Lutheran adherents seemed further apart than ever, in only a few towns and cities were Lutherans, by 1548, political disagreements overlapped with religious issues, making any kind of agreement seem remote. In 1548 Charles declared an interreligio imperialis through which he sought to find common ground for religious peace. Clearly, Charles interim solution could not continue and he ordered a general Diet in Augsburg at which the various states would discuss the religious problem and its solution. He himself did not attend, and delegated authority to his brother, Ferdinand, to act and settle disputes of territory, religion, at the conference, Ferdinand cajoled, persuaded and threatened the various representatives into agreement on three important principles. The principle of cuius regio, eius religio provided for religious unity within a state, The religion of the prince became the religion of the state. The second principle covered the status of the ecclesiastical states, called the ecclesiastical reservation. If the prelate of an ecclesiastic state changed his religion, the men and women living in that state did not have to do so, instead, the prelate was expected to resign from his post, although this was not spelled out in the agreement
9.
Fort Bourtange
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Fort Bourtange is a star fort in the village of Bourtange, Groningen, Netherlands. It was built in 1593 under the orders of William the Silent and its original purpose was to control the only road between Germany and the city of Groningen, which was controlled by the Spaniards during the time of the Eighty Years War. After experiencing its final battle in 1672, the Fort continued to serve in the network on the German border until it was finally given up in 1851. Fort Bourtange currently serves as a historical museum, during the Eighty Years War, the Spaniards had control over Groningen and the road leading from there to Germany. William, the leader of the Netherlands, saw it necessary to break off communications between Groningen and Germany and he decided that it would be optimal to build a fortification on the Bourtange passage, which was the main road leading to Germany. The fort was completed in 1593 in the design of a fort with a network of canals. At the time of its completion, the fort housed five garrisons, soon after its construction, Spanish forces from Groningen besieged it, though the attack ended in failure. Fort Bourtange faced another battle in 1672 against invading forces of the Prince-Bishop of Münster, after capturing 18 cities and towns in the northern Netherlands, they demanded that the Fort be surrendered. The forts governor, Captain Protts, refused this demand, thanks to the surrounding marshes and the time-tested fort defenses, the invading army was repelled successfully. After its eventual secession and conversion into a village in 1851, over 100 years later in 1960, the local government decided that to combat this growing problem the old Fort would be restored to its 1740–50 appearance and made into a historical museum. This provided valuable tourism for the surrounding village, the Fort remains a museum today. George Sale, George Psalmanazar, Archibald Bower and several others, An Universal History, From the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time, Vol.45,1779 Official site
10.
Newark-on-Trent
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Newark-on-Trent or Newark /ˈnjuːək/ is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England. It stands on the River Trent, the A1, and the East Coast Main Line railway, the origins of the town are possibly Roman as it lies on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way. The town grew around Newark Castle, now ruined, and a marketplace, now lined with historic buildings. In the English Civil War, it was besieged by Parliamentary forces and had to be relieved by Prince Rupert in a known as the Relief of Newark. The estimated population in 2007 was 26,330, increasing to 27,700 at the 2011 census, the origins of the town are possibly Roman due to its position on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way. In a document which purports to be a charter of 664, after his death it changed to, and remained in the hands of, the Bishops of Lincoln from 1092 until the reign of Edward VI. There were burgesses in Newark at the time of the Domesday survey, the Newark wapentake in the east of Nottinghamshire was established during the period of Anglo-Saxon rule. Newark Castle was originally a Saxon fortified manor house, founded by King Edward the Elder, in 1073, Robert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln founded an earthwork motte and bailey fortress on the site. From 1123–33, Bishop Alexander the Magnificent completely rebuilt the castle, the river bridge was built about the same time under charter from Henry I, also St. Leonards Hospital. He also gained from the king a charter to hold a fair at the castle each year. He gained a charter under King Stephen to establish a mint in the town, the town became a local centre for the wool and cloth trade, certainly by the time of Henry II a major market was established. Wednesday and Saturday markets in the town were established during the period 1156–1329 when a series of charters granted to the Bishop of Lincoln made them possible, King John died of dysentery in Newark in 1216. Around the time of Edward IIIs death, and excluding beggars and clergy, in January 1571 or 1572, the composer Robert Parsons fell into the swollen River Trent at Newark and drowned. There is no record of his ever having been retrieved from the river following his death. The dissolution affected Newarks political landscape heavily, and even more changes came in 1547 when the Bishop of Lincoln exchanged ownership of the town with the Crown. Newark was incorporated under an alderman and twelve assistants in 1549, during the English Civil War, Newark was a mainstay of the royalist cause, Charles I having raised his standard in nearby Nottingham. It was attacked in February 1643 by two troops of horsemen, but beat them back. The town fielded at times as many as 600 soldiers, and raided Nottingham, Grantham, Northampton, Gainsborough, and others with mixed success, but enough to cause it to rise to national notice
