Harper's story booksA series of narratives, dialogues, biographies, and tales, for the instruction and entertainment of the youngEmbellished with numerous and beautiful engravings . INTRENCHING. 14 SAPPERS AND MINE The officer with a spy-glass. The direction of the trench. do it. Behind him is another soldier with a pickaxe, cutting intothe bank, so as to widen the passage-way. Near him is an offi-cer with a spy-glass in his hand, reconnoitring the enemy. If heshould see the flash of a gun from the ramparts of the town, hemight immediately drop his head below the embankment, and thusbe protect
Harper's story booksA series of narratives, dialogues, biographies, and tales, for the instruction and entertainment of the youngEmbellished with numerous and beautiful engravings . INTRENCHING. 14 SAPPERS AND MINE The officer with a spy-glass. The direction of the trench. do it. Behind him is another soldier with a pickaxe, cutting intothe bank, so as to widen the passage-way. Near him is an offi-cer with a spy-glass in his hand, reconnoitring the enemy. If heshould see the flash of a gun from the ramparts of the town, hemight immediately drop his head below the embankment, and thusbe protected from the ball. The trench which these men are digging does not run directlyin a straight line toward the walls of the town, for then, of course,it would afford no protection to the soldiers who are digging in would, in that case, be entirely open to the guns from the , on the other hand, does it go parallel to the walls, for in thatcase the end of the trench would be no nearer to the walls thanthe beginning of it, and thus the besiegers would have gained noth-ing in approaching &i-U. the town by mak-ing it. The line ofthe trench, there-fore, advances ob-liquely, graduallydrawing nearer tothe town, but stilladvancing in sucha way that the em-bankment on theside nearest thetown shall protectthe men. It theywere to march forward on the open plain, exposed like soldiers on SAPPERS AND MINERS. 15 Zigzag. How soldiers plant cannon to attack a town. parade, they would all be shot down before they could reach thewalls of the town by the fire which the besieged would directupon them from the ramparts. After advancing in this way as far as is thought expedient, themen make a short turn with their trench, and run in the oppositedirection, drawing all the time nearer and nearer to the a while they make another turn, and thus the trench ad-vances in a zigzag direction toward the town, the men at workin it being all the time protected by the embankment which theyr
Size: 1761px × 1420px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookidharpersstory, bookyear1854
