. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. —From an Oil Painting by Joachim Bueclear(Frankfort, 1548—1596), in the possession of M. Paul de Saint-Victor. century, that traces can be found of any regulations imposing on command-ing officers the duties of teaching and drilling their soldiers. We have attempted to outline the general military physiognomy of theMiddle Ages; we will now rapidly examine the weapons and warlikeengines that were invented for the attack and defence of fortified places. WAR AND ARMIES. £>5 Until the invention of gunpowder,
. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. —From an Oil Painting by Joachim Bueclear(Frankfort, 1548—1596), in the possession of M. Paul de Saint-Victor. century, that traces can be found of any regulations imposing on command-ing officers the duties of teaching and drilling their soldiers. We have attempted to outline the general military physiognomy of theMiddle Ages; we will now rapidly examine the weapons and warlikeengines that were invented for the attack and defence of fortified places. WAR AND ARMIES. £>5 Until the invention of gunpowder, or rather till that of artillery (Fig 57)the whole art of fortification, says the learned Prosper Merimee, consisted infollowing more or less exactly the traditions handed down by the stronghold of the Middle Ages had precisely the same characteristic asthe ancient castellum. The methods of attack against which the engineershad to guard were the assault by escalade, either by surprise or by force ofnumbers, and the breach, caused either by sapping, mining, or by the. Fig. 57.—Mortars on Movable Carriages.—From an Engraving in the Kriegsbuch ofFronsperger: in folio, Frankfort, 1575. battering-rams of the besiegers. The employment of machines or enginesof this description was much less frequent after than before the fall of theRoman empire, when the art of war knew no higher flight than to lay siegeto a place or sustain a siege. The first operation of the besiegers was to destroy the outworks of thebesieged place, such as the posterns, the barbicans, the barriers, &c. Asmost of these outworks were built of wood, attempts were generally madeto cut them to pieces with hatchets, or to set them on fire with arrows to K 66 WAR AND ARMIES. which were fastened pieces of burning tow steeped in sulphur, or some otherincendiary composition. If the main body of the place were not so strongly fortified as to rendera successful assault by force impossible, it was usual to
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