Safeguard - A protection granted for the preservation of an enemy’s lands or persons from insult or being plundered.

Salamanders and Serpents - Brittle earthern vessels, filled with serpents, which were thrown among a storming party on the point of ascending a breach, for the purpose of annoying them.

Salient - An angle projecting from a fortress toward the country.

Sally or Sortie - A sudden attack made by the besieged against the troops or works of the besiegers.

Sally-Ports - Openings in the glacis of a fortress, for the purpose of egress and regress of troops engaged in a sally or sortie.

Salute - A discharge of artillery or musketry, or of both, in honor of persons or events. The term also signifies the ceremony of presenting arms.

Sap - A trench or approach sunk underground to protect the work-men from the fire of the garrison. A flying sap is that in which the working parties place the gabions themselves, and instantly fill them themselves.

Sapping - The method of carrying on the approaches, by excavating trenches so as to protect the workmen from the fire of the garrison.

Sappers - Soldiers belonging to the corps of artificers and engineers who work at the saps. Sapping party, the men who form a brigade or party of sappers.

Saucisse, Saucisson - In mining, a long pipe, or bag, made of cloth, well pitched, or sometimes of leather of one and a half inch in diameter, filled with powder, laid from the chamber of a mine to the entrance of the gallery. The term also signifies a king of fascine, longer than those usually made, for the purpose of raising batteries, or repairing breaches. They are also used in making epaulements, stopping passages, making traverses over a wet ditch, etc.

Scaling Ladder - A ladder for scaling or mounting walls or ramparts.

Scarp (To). To render a slope accessible by cutting it down.

Sconce - A redoubt or small fort.

Scour (To). A term to express the act of firing a quick and heavy discharge of ordnance or musketry for the purpose of dislodging an enemy; as to scour the rampart or the covered way. The expression also signifies to clear, or to drive away, as to scour the streets, to scour the trenches, etc. To scour a line, is to so flank it so as to be able to see along it, and that a musket ball discharged at one end, may range to the other.

Scouts - Men employed to gain intelligence of the forces and movements of an enemy.

See the Elephant - Experience combat.

Sentinel, Sentry - A soldier posted to watch the approach of an enemy, prevent surprise, or to stop and challenge those who approach his post.

Sergeant (Covering). A non-commissioned officer, who during the exercise of a battalion, regularly stands or moves behind each officer commanding or acting with a company.

SERGT - Sergeant

Shells - Hollow iron balls, filled with powder, thrown from mortars or howitzers. Message Shells are shells in the inside of which a letter or other papers are put.

Shot - A denomination given to all kind of balls used for artillery and fire-arms, whether round, grape, chain case, or canister.

Siege - The position which an army takes, on its encampment, before a fortified town, or place, for the purpose of reducing it. The first operations is investing the place, that is, taking possession of all the avenues, forming lines of circumvallation, opening the trenches, etc. In siege-operations, the rear of an attack is the place where the attack begins; the front or head of the attack, that part next to the place.

Sight - A small piece of brass or iron, which is fixed near the muzzle of a musket or pistol, to serve as a point of direction, and to assist the eye in leveling. Rifles have two sights, one at the breach, and the other at the muzzle; and some rifles have telescope sights.

Signal - A sign for conveying intelligence by balls, rockets, or flags. Signals are also given by the short and long rolls of the drum during the exercise of a battalion. They are frequently given for commencing a battle, either with drums and trumpets, sky-rockets, the discharge of cannon, etc. The term is also used for an order for marching, etc. Secret signals are in frequent use in our army, both for conveying orders and intelligence. A new "code" has recently been adopted by General Scott. "Codes" change as often as necessary to preserve their secrecy.

Signal-Staff - A flag planted upon the spot where the general, or commanding officer, takes his station.

Size-Roll - A list containing the names of the men composing a trop or company, with the height or stature of each specified.

Skirmish/Skirmishing

Soldier’s Thigh - A figurative expression for an empty purse or a pair of trowsers which set close and look smooth, because they have no pockets, or nothing in them.

Sobriquets (Regimental and Divisional). Are cognomens obtained for some special conduct or circumstance. The habit of naming regiments has become very general. We have, for instance, "The Advance Guard," "The Garibaldi Guard," "The Union Guard," "The Scott Guard," "The President’s Guard," "The Invincibles," etc.

Spike (To) Cannon - To drive a large nail or iron spike into the vent.

Squad. A small number of men, cavalry, or infantry, who are collected together for the purpose of drill, etc. To squad, is to divide a troop or company into parts, for the purpose of drilling the men separately, or in small bodies. The awkward squad, consists not only of recruits at drill, but of soldiers who are ordered to exercise with them, in consequence of some irregularity while under arms.

Squad-Roll - A list containing the names of each squad.

Squadron - A body of cavalry, composed of two troops.

Staff - In military acceptation, is either general, personal, regimental, garrison, or district. A General Staff consists of a quartermaster-general, and adjutant-general, majors of brigade, aides-de-camp, etc. A Personal Staff consists of those officers who are constantly about the person of a governor or a general, as his military secretary, aides-de-camp, etc. A Regimental Staff, are the adjutant, paymaster and surgeon.

Station (Military). A place for the rendezvous of troops. The term is also used to designate the spot for offensive and defensive measures.

Step - The pace of the soldier while marching in slow, quick, or double-quick time. Stepping Out, is lengthening the pace to thirty-three inches, by leaning a little forward, without altering the cadence. Stepping Short, is taking but ten-inch paces. In Stepping Back, the pace and cadence are the same as in the slow march. The Diagonal Step, is carrying the left foot forward nineteen inches in the diagonal line to the left. The Balance Step, popularly termed the goose step, is alternately throwing out the feet, without gaining ground.

Stockade - A work consisting of palisades.

Stock Purse - A saving made in a corps, and which is applied to regimental purposes.

Stores (Military). Provisions, forage, clothing, arms, ammunition, etc.

Stormers - The troops who immediately follow the forlorn hope in the assault of the breach made in the walls of a fortress.

Strategy, Strategetics - The science of military command, and of planning and directing military movements.

Strategy - The art of conducting war; frequently confused with tactics, which is the art of handling troops.

SUB - substitute

Subaltern - An officer under the rank of captain. The term, in familiar expression, is abbreviated Sub.

Subdivision - A company told off for parade or maneuver into two equal parts.

Supernumerary Officers, and Non-Commissioned Officers - Those placed in the rear for supplying the place of those who fall in action, and for preserving order and regularity in the rear ranks while the front rank is engaged or is advancing.

SVC - service

Swivel - A small piece of ordnance which turns on a pivot or swivel.

Tactics - The arrangement and formation of troops by means of maneuvers and evolutions.

Take (To) Ground to the Right or Left - To extend a line toward either of those directions.

Tambour - A work formed of palisades.

Tampions or Tompions - Wooden cylinders to put into the mouths of guns, howitzers and mortars in traveling, to prevent dust or wet entering them.

Target - A mark employed in the practice of ball-firing.

Tarred (To be). A cant expression in use among the regiments of guards, to signify the punishment which privates undergo among themselves, when they have been tried and sentenced by their comrades.

Tirailleurs, Voltigeurs - In the French service tirailleurs are skirmishers or marksmen, advanced in front to annoy the enemy, and draw off his attention; or they are posted in the rear to amuse and impede his advance in pursuit. Voltigeurs (springers, leapers), are employed for the same purpose. The distinctive employment of tirailleurs and Voltigeurs is, that the first move irregularly and scattered; the second are formed and act in collective bodies.

Tire - Large guns, shot, shells, etc., placed in a regular form.

Tell (To) Off - To divide and practice a regiment or company in the several formations, preparatory to marching to the general parade for field-exercise. A regiment is told off into wings, grand divisions, divisions or companies, and subdivision or sections. A company is told off into subdivisions and sections.

Terre-Plein - In field fortifications, is the plane of a level country around a work; in permanent fortification, it signifies the broad surface of the rampart, which remains after constructing the parapet and bauquette.

Tête-de-Pont - A field-work or fortification, in front of a bridge, in the form of a redan, a system of crémailleres, a horn or crown-work, or portions of star or bastioned forts.

Touch (The). In a military sense, signifies the sensation felt by the soldier, when properly in line, at the thick part of the arm, immediately below the elbow, and which is communicated to him by his right or left-hand man, according to the point of direction in which the line is marching.

Tour of Duty - Duty by turn or succession.

Traverse - In siege operations, is a kind of retrenchment made in the dry ditch to defend the passage over it. To Traverse a Gun or Mortar, is to bring it about to right or left with handspikes, till it is pointed exact on the object.

Train - All the necessary apparatus and implements of war, as cannon, etc., required at a siege or in the field. Train of Artillery, the ordnance belonging to an army in the field. Field Train, a body of men, consisting chiefly of commissaries and conductors of stores, who belong to the artillery. Train, in mining, a line of gunpowder laid for the purpose of blowing up earthworks, etc.

Trenches - Passages or excavations made by besiegers, in order to approach more securely to the place attacked, on which account there are also termed Lines of Approach - The tail in rear of the trench is the place where it was begun; its head is where it ends. Returns of a Trench are elbows and turnings which form the lines of approach. To open the Trenches, is to break ground for the purpose of carrying on approaches to the place. To mount the Trenches, is to relieve the guard of the trenches. To scour the Trenches, is to make a vigorous sally on the guard of the trenches, force them to give way, and quit their ground, drive away the workmen, break down the parapet, fill up the trench, and nail or spike the cannon. Counter-trenches, are trenches made by the besieged against the besiegers. Trenches are also made to protect an encampment.

TR FM - transferred from

TR TO - transferred to

Troop - A company of cavalry.

Trooper - A horse soldier.

Trouee - An opening, a gap.

Trous-de-Loup, or Wolf-Holes - In field fortifications, are round holes about six feet deep, and four feet in diameter, pointed at the bottom, with a stake planted in the middle. They are frequently dug round a redoubt, to obstruct the enemy’s approach.

Tumbrils - Covered carts, which carry ammunition for cannon, tools for the pioneers, miners and artificers; and sometimes the military chest.

Truncheon - A staff of command.

Trunnions - The arms by which a gun is attached to its carriage.

Turn (To) out the Line - To exhibit in battle array, men for the purpose of parade, or to bring them into action.

Under Arms - Troops are under arms when assembled, armed, and accoutered, on paraded.

Upshot (To). To extract a ball from a piece.