Besieger

“ The first of these two modes depends on the skill of the besieger; requires time for his arts to operate, and may be resisted by equal skill supported by firmness. As he mines, you may countermine, and, perhaps, finding that you will not surrender at discretion, in his eagerness to have possession, he will grant such terms as even the bravest garrison may with honour receive. ”

“ Interior works should therefore have a command over those in front of them, at least equal to the height which a besieger can give to the parapets of his lodgments, and which is seldom less than 3 feet.
8. Every opportunity should be seized of so directing the faces of [239] works that an enemy may not have it in his power to enfilade them by ricochet fire.
9. In the general construction of fortifications the salients should be few, and sufficiently prominent to force the besieger to take them before he can attack the re-entering parts. ”

“ Remark.—In underground warfare the besieger has a decided advantage, but the besieged, by a cool consideration in handling his mines, and by persistently holding back the attack, foot by foot, may very greatly retard it, or even cause such losses and delays as to lead to its being abandoned. ”

“ The besieger's preparations appeared formidable, and the camp opposite the northern salient of the Oppidum presented a busy scene. Sigild on his part neglected no means of resistance, though he calculated on the arrival of the troops summoned to their relief in the evening. He had the towers well supplied with stones and darts: on the ramparts he strengthened the wattle parapet, and increased the number of inclines for reaching it easily. ”

“ Then began the last bitter struggle: the besiegers pushing relentlessly before them the long upright shields that occupied almost the whole height and breadth of the stairway; the besieged contesting every step, hacking and thrusting, splitting the shields with the jagged boulders from the ramparts, lunging with sword and pike through the narrow spaces at the sides, yet moment by moment losing ground as fresh men from below came up to replace their wounded or exhausted comrades. ”

“ On that day a sortie was made which created great havoc in the besieger's works, but the advance was continued until the night of 3 Oct., when a violent bombardment was opened upon the town from both fleet and army, and on 9 Oct. a general assault was delivered. The assault was successfully resisted, and the enemy was forced to retire with a very heavy loss. ”

“ When an armistice is concluded between a fortified place and the army besieging it, it is agreed by all the authorities on this subject that the besieger must cease all extension, perfection, or advance of his attacking works as much so as from attacks by main force. ”

“ The Attack.—The besieger should advance by several galleries, securing those on the flank by listeners. He must be active and persistent, as the enemy will use every available moment to develop his countermines. When he receives the first camouflet of the defence he must hasten to fire his overcharged mines in the uninjured branches, in order to destroy the hostile countermines. He will generally suffer losses more or less heavy from this epoch forward, but must submit to them; since too much circumspection and delay will almost always result in complete failure. ”

“ A warrior returning victorious from battle, with his buckler sprinkled with blood, would, in the early days of heraldry, readily have adopted the bearing afterwards called ‘guttée de sang.’ In those times the besiegers of a fortress were often assailed with boiling pitch, poured by the besieged through the machicolations of the wall constructed for such purposes. Splashes of this pitch falling upon some besieger’s shield, in all probability gave the first idea of ‘guttée de poix.’ The fusil is like the lozenge, but narrower. ”

“ It is besieged by another army of about seventy-five thousand men flushed with victory. The besiegers occupy the river with a strong fleet. They are also led by a general who has shown skill and extraordinary tenacity, while the commander of the besieged has not shown much of either quality and must feel great discouragement.”
“But you're only stating the side of the besieged.”
“Don't interrupt. It's impolite. I mean to be thoroughly fair. Now come the factors favoring the besieged. The assailing army, despite its superior numbers, is far in the enemy's country. ”

“ An assault against works of this class offers no prospect of success. The besieger is therefore obliged, as soon as he captures a detached fort, to put it in condition to withstand the assaults of the besieged army and to afford protection from the artillery fire of the collateral works, and then to push forward his approaches against the successive positions prepared by the defence, which will as a rule present a front equal to or greater than that which can be occupied by the attack. ”

“ The teaching of history is all against immobile mechanical defences. Initiative, surprise, unforeseen offensive action, keeping the besieger in ignorance of the dispositions of the garrison, and of what progress he is making: all these, with their influence on the morale of both sides, tend towards successful defences and do not point towards the use of armour. ”

“ To avoid forming craters on the surface, and to do the greatest possible damage to the besieger’s works, the besieged should not fire his mine until the enemy’s distance from it is less than the line of least resistance reckoned toward the surface. ”

“ The besieged have usually great advantages over the besiegers; and unless the latter are vastly superior in number, or the work is of a very inferior character, or the garrison is destitute of the requisite means and energy to resist an attack, they will not be taken. ”

“ Sometimes, too, the besiegers burrow underground till they are just below the wall, then fill the hole with gunpowder, and blow up all above them; in short, instead of, as in former days, a well- fortified city being almost impossible to take, except by starving out the garrison, a siege is in these times almost equally sure to end in favor of the besiegers. ”

“ The besieged will sally forth."
"At a siege, my daughter, sallies are not all there is of it. The besiegers surround the town with numerous redoubts or bastilles, furnished with machines for darting bolts and artillery pieces for bombarding, and all are defended with deep moats. How will you take possession of such formidable entrenchments?"
"I shall be the first to descend into the moats and the first to climb the ladders, while crying to the armed men: 'Follow me! Let us bravely enter the place! The Lord is with us!'" [38]
The two knights looked at each other amazed at Joan's answers. ”

“ That space will have to be crossed by sap, and it needs little imagination to realize how great the task will be for the besieger.
There are other modern methods of siege warfare to be noticed, the use of which is common to besiegers and besieged. Much is expected of balloons; but the use of these in war is unlikely to correspond to peace expectations. They must be kept at a considerable distance from the enemy’s guns, a distance which will increase as the means of range-finding improve ”

“ The stones, darts, and arrows flew in showers upon the besieged, and many fell beneath the deadly strokes; yet others pressed forward to take their places, and in their turn poured fire and stones and pieces of iron upon the besiegers, who worked beneath their hurdles. ”

“ The skill and valour of the defenders were equal to those of the besiegers, and their hearts were strung by every motive which could lead men to defend themselves to the last. But early in the next year, in February 886, accident threw a great advantage into the hands of the besiegers. ”

“ The besieger had at this point from twelve to fifteen hundred men to protect the workmen. The first troop of the garrison advanced resolutely against the flank, throw [Pg 290] ing grenades into the trenches, and destroying the gabions and fascines. They were soon attacked by all the Germans posted at this point ”

“ Wherefore it is better to divide the besiegers into small companies and to place them not far apart, in order that they may aid one another. In this wise, when those of one body are discomfited those of another have time to put themselves in battle array for their succour. While the assailants are sore aghast at seeing fresh troops come down [Pg ii.147] upon them, those who are being attacked take heart of grace. At any rate such was the opinion of Messire Jean de Bueil. ”

“ Sometimes the besiegers form a testudo, like the ancient Romans, with their locked shields, and advance under cover up to the posts, which they attack with their axes, while the besieged hurl down showers of stones upon their heads. But, once their ammunition is exhausted, the hapless Mandayas have nothing to do but witness, as impotent spectators, the work of destruction, until the moment comes when their habitation topples over and falls. ”

“ An army far inferior in numbers to its enemy attacked one corner of a city, six miles in circumference, open on all other sides to supplies of every kind, while the besiegers had much ado to keep up their own communications through a disturbed country, besides defending themselves against almost daily sallies of the nominally besieged. ”

“ As the barrier was now built of nothing but turf overlaid with sank-bags and gabions, the besiegers found their axes of no use, and were reduced to try to swarm up to the top of the parapet in overwhelming numbers. The garrison, however, shot freely into the struggling mass, but in doing this had to expose themselves greatly, and in consequence lost many men. Still, they managed to drive back the besiegers, and the two cannon belched forth grape-shot alternately, so that at length the enemy were forced to retreat over the brow of the hill. ”

“ Perceiving, one day, that the besiegers, occupied in a general attack, had left their camp unguarded, she immediately sallied forth by a postern with five hundred men, set fire to their tents, baggage, and magazines, and created so universal an alarm, that the enemy desisted from the assault, to cut off her communication with the town. ”

“ In selecting the point of attack the first consideration is, that when taken, it shall afford material advantage 74 to the besieger and give him a foothold from which further approaches may be driven, if necessary. ”

“ In spite of the hosts encamped before them, the courage of the defenders never failed, and for a time it seemed as if their strength would never fail either. Vainly did the besiegers build screens or 'mantelets' of wood or stones, behind which their soldiers could shoot in safety; a well-directed fire beat on them with such persistence that at length they got weary of constantly repairing, and moved their mantelets away to some other place. ”

“ The besieged could generally disconcert the battering-ram by hanging beds or mattresses over the walls to receive the brunt of the blow, the sows could be crushed with heavy stones, the towers burnt by well directed flaming missiles, the ladders overthrown, and in general the besiegers suffered a great deal more damage than they could inflict. ”

“ Those who reached the besiegers' posts, thinned by the darts showered upon them, and hesitating on seeing so many of their party fall, were more inclined to fly than to continue the attack when they saw themselves in their turn taken in flank and rear by the besiegers. The defenders on the ramparts, whom the darkness of the night prevented from seeing clearly what was taking place, and not knowing whether the confusion arose from the flight of the Romans or of their own men, dared not discharge stones and arrows. ”

“ Dragoon Guards, Lancers, Hussars, Imperial Light Horse, Natal Carbineers, and Border MountedPg 74 Rifles, have known little real rest for days past. When not actually scouting the cavalry have been either on outpost within touch of the enemy, or bivouacked beside their horses ready for any emergency. The extreme tension necessitating all these precautions may be relaxed somewhat now, but still we rely on the mounted troops for information of every movement among the besiegers, and so far trust in their alertness has been fully justified. ”

“ The method of the besiegers appeared to be starvation, but the interval between strained relations and war had been well employed by the ships, and supplies were, for the time at any rate, sufficient. While the Spanish siege batteries were being constructed the fortress fired, and many useful artillery experiments were carried out by the garrison at this time and subsequently throughout the siege. ”

“ During the night half their force lay concealed in ambush, and when the garrison emerged in the {41} morning to give battle to an apparently small body of besiegers they were mortified to find themselves so hopelessly outnumbered and outgeneralled that there was nothing left for them to do but die as bravely as they might. ”

“ The besiegers, therefore, might operate at their pleasure, with but little molestation from the garrison within, whose guns could not be brought into a position to bear on them, and who could mount no part of their own works for their defence without exposing their persons to the missiles of the whole besieging army. The parapet, however, proved too strong for the efforts of the assailants. In their despair, they endeavored to set the Christian quarters on fire, shooting burning arrows into them, and climbing up so as to dart their firebrands through the embrasures. ”