Pace - The military step. The word also signifies the relative distance in the formation of a battalion at close or open order.

Palisades - Wooden stakes, about nine feet long, and six or seven inches square, having one end sharpened in a pyramidical form to the extent of a foot. They are planted three feet deep in the ground. When placed in an inclined position, they are termed fraises.

Parallels - The trenches which connect the approaches and batteries carried on before a besieged fortress.

Parallel Lines - Lines drawn in the same direction, preserving equal distances form each other.

Parapet - A screen of a fortified post to protect troops from the enemy’s fire.

Park of Artillery - A spot in an encampment in which the artillery is placed. The term also signifies the whole train of artillery matériél belonging to an army in the field.

Parley - A conference with an enemy by means of a flag or truce.

To Beat a Parley - Is to give a signal for holding a conference by beat of drum, or sound of trumpet.

Parole. The promise or word of honor given by a prisoner or war, when he has leave to go at large, of returning at an appointed time, or not to take up arms, if not exchanged. A paroled person, if taken with arms in his hands, is shot for violation of his parole.

Partisan - One dextrous in commanding a party for obtaining intelligence, surprising the enemy’s convoys, etc. The term is used to denominate an officer who has he command of a partisan corps or party. It is also used, in American parlance, to signify a guerrilla leader—one who serves with no particular division or regiment.

Party - A small number or detachment of men either cavalry or infantry. Recruiting Party, a certain number of men, under an officer or a non-commissioned officer, detached from their battalions for the purpose of raising recruits. Working Parties, small detachments of men, under the command and superintendence of officers, who are employed on fatigue duties.

Passage - Openings cut in the passages of the covered way, to afford communication to all its parts.

Patrol - A small party under the command of a subaltern or a non-commissioned officer, detached from the main or quarter guard, to patrol, for the purpose of maintaining order and regularity in a camp or garrison.

Pause - The stop or intermission between the first and last words of a command.

Pay-Sergeant - The non-commissioned officer who pays the men of each company their pay.

Peace-Establishment - The reduced number of regulars when the country is in a state of peace.

Permanent Rank - In the army, which does not cease with a particular service or locality of service; a term in contradistinction to local or temporary rank, which ceases on the performance of the duty for which it was granted. Thus, officers I the regular service are of permanent rank – those in the volunteer or militia service are of temporary rank.

Petard - A pot charged with gunpowder, fixed against the gate of a fortress, for the purpose of blowing it open. In recent practice, leather bags containing powder have superseded the use of the petard.

Pickets - Sharp stakes for securing the fascines of batteries or fastening the tent ropes of camps. Picket Ropes are ropes twisted at given intervals round the several picket stakes, to confine the horses within a proper space of ground. Picket Poles are round pieces of wood, shod with iron, and driven firmly into the earth, to fasten the cavalry horses by, when at picket.

Picket - A small detachment of cavalry or infantry, which is either in-lying or out-lying - An In-lying Picket is within the lines of intrenchment of a camp, or within the walls of a garrison town, ready to turn out on alarm. An Out-lying Picket, is that which does duty without the limits of a camp or garrisoned town; being in the first-mentioned position, posted on the front and flanks of the army, to guard against surprise, or to oppose reconnoitering parties. They are also called In-Line and Out-Line pickets - Picket is often seen with the French spelling, picquet.

Picquet - French for Picket, (q.v.)

Pike - A shaft of wood, from ten to fourteen feet in length, pointed with a flat steel blade, about six inches in length. Men armed with pike, cutlass, and revolver are very formidable on charges, or in close conflict. In event of the negroes of the slave States rising in insurrection, almost their only reliance would be the pike, which they themselves would manufacture. The pike is much used in South American warfare. As a lance, it is used both by horse and foot soldiery. A regiment of pikemen is a very desirable organization for every grand army.

Piling Arms - Locking muskets together by means of that part of the ramrods near the muzzles of the pieces; and Unpiling Arms, is the unlocking or detaching them fro one another.

Pioneers - Soldiers selected from every regiment for mending the ways, removing obstacles, working on intrenchments and fortifications, and for making mines and approaches.

Pivot - The officer or soldier stationed at the flank of a company, on whom the different wheelings are made.

Place of Arms - When an army takes the field, every stronghold or fortress which supports its operations by affording a safe retreat to its depots, heavy artillery, magazines, hospitals, etc., is called a place of arms. In offensive fortifications, those lines are called places of arms or parallels, which unite the different means of attack, secure the regular approaches, etc., and contain bodies of troops who either do duty in the trenches, protect the workmen, or are destined to make an impression on the enemy’s outworks.

Platoon - A term implying a subdivision of troops, either less or more than a company, who act in concert of fire.

Point of Alignment - The point on which troops form and dress by.

Point Blank Range - Is when a cannon or musket is leveled horizontally, so that the muzzle neither mounts nor sinks, but that the surface lines of the pieces and the object are in the same plane.

Police Guard - A regimental guard, detailed every day, commanded by a lieutenant that furnishes ten sentinels for special duty.

Pontoon - A kind of vessel hull formed of wood, and covered with copper, for the purpose of forming temporary bridges to cross rivers.

Pontooning - The art of constructing a temporary bridge by means of pontoons.

Pontoon Train - The whole equipment requisite for pontooning.

Portfire - Paper-cases filled with saltpeter, sulphur, and mealed powder, to serve as a slow match for artillery.

Post - A spot of ground, fortified or not, where a body of men can be in a condition to resist an enemy. An Advanced Post is a spot of ground seized by a party to secure its front and the post behind it. Post of Honor, an honorable position. The advanced guard is the post of honor, and the right of the two lines is entitled to the same distinction.

POW - prisoner of war

PR - promoted

Prestige - Illusion, charm, moral force.

Profile - The drawing of a section of a parapet, or other work, sideways.

Projectiles - Shot or shell discharged from artillery.

PRLD - parolled

Provost-Martial - An officer appointed to preserve good order and discipline, apprehend offenders, and superintend their punishment.

Punishment - In military usage means any infliction of sentence for dereliction of duty or transgression, and consists of arrests, confinements, deprival of arms, cashiering, drumming out of camp, etc. In cases of treason, desertion and spying, the penalty is death by shooting or hanging.

Pyrotechny - In a military acceptation, is the manufacture of bombs, grenades, rockets, fire-lights, etc.

Quarters - Military stations, as head-quarters, home-quarters, regimental-quarters, etc.

Raid or Razzia - A plundering or marauding incursion.

Raise (To) a Siege - To abandon the siege of a fortress.

Rally (To). To re-form troops disordered or dispersed. A Rallying-Square, is a square formed around an officer by skirmishers surprised by cavalry.

Rampart - The exterior elevation of a fortified place upon which guns are placed in position.

Random-Shot - Is when a piece is elevated an angle of forty-five degrees upon a level plane.

Ranging - Disposing troops in proper order for battle, maneuver, march, etc.

Rank and File - The horizontal and vertical lines of troops when drawn up.

Rappeler - A particular beat of the drum to recall soldiers to the defense of their colors.

Rations - A certain allowance either for officers or men, given in bread, meat, or forage, when troops are on service.

Revelin or Demilune - A work constructed on the counterscarp before the curtain of a fortress.

Ravine - In field fortification, a deep hollow.

Raw - In military acceptation, unseasoned, wanting knowledge in military tactics, etc. Raw Troops, inexperienced soldiers, who have been but little accustomed to the use of arms.

Razed - Works and fortifications when demolished, are said to be razed.

Recoil - Or, as it is properly termed, the Kick, is the rebound or backward motion which a cannon or gun takes from the explosion of an overcharge of powder.

Reconnoissance - The act of reconnoitering an enemy’s position.

Reconnoiter (To). To view and examine a position. Balloon reconnoitering is by means of balloons.

Recruits - Men raised on the first formation of a corps, or to supply the places of those who have been disabled or killed.

Recruit Horses - The horses for completing regiments of cavalry.

Redans - In field fortification, are indented works, lines, or faces, forming sallying and re-entering angles, flanking one another, generally constructed on the side of a river running through a garrison town.

Redoubts - Works about musket-shot from a fortress, surrounded by a ditch. Field Redoubts are temporary defenses or fortifications, thrown up during a war of posts, or on account of sudden emergency.

REEN - reenlisted

Re-form (To). In a military acceptation, is, after some maneuver or evolution, to bring a line to its natural order, by aligning it on a given point.

Refuse (To). To throw back, or keep out of that regular alignment which is formed when troops are on the point of engaging an enemy.

Relief - A fresh detachment of troops who replace those on duty.

Relieve (To) the Guard - Is to put fresh men on guard. To relieve the trenches, is to relieve the guard of the trenches, by appointing those for that duty who have not been there already, or whose turn is next. To relieve the sentries is to put fresh men from the guard on that duty.

Rendezvous - The place appointed for the assembly of a body of troops in case of alarm.

Reserve - A select body of troops retained in the rear of any army, to support the attacking force, or to rally it in case of disaster.

Respited (To be) on the Muster Roll - Is to be suspended from pay, etc., during which period all advantages of promotion, pay, etc., are stopped. Not much used in our army parlance.

Retreat - The retrograde movement of an army or body of men. To be in full retreat is to retire expeditiously before the enemy.

Retrenchment - A work raised to cover a post, and fortify it against an enemy; such as fascines loaded with earth, gabions, barrels, etc., filled with earth, sand-bags, and generally all things that can cover the men, and stop the enemy; but it is more applicable to a ditch bordered with a parapet; and a post thus fortified, is called a retrenched post, or strong post.

Revétement - A strong wall built on the outside of the rampart and parapet, to support the earth, and prevent its falling into the ditch.

Revolver - Fire-arms which produce a series of successive discharges from the chambers of the barrel of a single arm or stock.

Ricochet - Boundings or leaps of round shot. Ricochet-Firing is firing at a slight elevation, in a direction enfilading the face of a work; so that when the shot falls over the parapet, it makes several bounds along the rampart, with destructive effect on the guns and gunners.

Rideau - A rising ground, or eminence, commanding a plain.

Rifle - A firelock of which the bore is furrowed or grooved in a spiral or screw-like form. The rifles of the highest repute are the Enfield, Minié, Sharpe’s, Whitworth’s, Colt’s repeating rifle, etc.

Riflemen - Expert marksmen, armed with rifles.

Rifle Pits - Pits in which riflemen ensconce themselves, to pick off the gunners at the embrasures of a fortress.

Rocket - A firework, used either as a signal or a projectile.

Roll - A uniform beat of the drum.

Roll-Call - The calling over the names of the men.

Roster - A plan or table by which the duty of officers, battalions and squadrons is regulated.

Round - A general discharge of cannon or musketry.

Round of Ammunition - The number of ball-cartridges with which a soldier is supplied.

Round-Robin - A compact of honor which officers enter into, (when they have cause of complaint against their superior officer), to state their grievances, and to endeavor to obtain redress, without subjecting one individual more than another to the odium of being a leader, or chief mover. The term is a corruption of ruban rond, which signifies a round ribbond.

Rounds (Visiting). The visitation and personal inspection of guards and sentries on duty.

Rounds (Grand). The rounds which are gone by general officers, governors, commandants, or field-officers.

Route - The order for the march of a regiment or detachment, specifying its various stages.

RTND - returned (from desertion)

Ruffle - A vibrating sound made by drummers on the drum, not so loud as the roll.

Running Fire - A rapid succession of fire.