SIEGE (Fr. a seat, a sitting down) is the sitting of an army before a hostile town or fortress with the intention of capturing it. With certain elements, the success of a siege is beyond doubt; the result being merely a question of time. These elements are: first, the force of the besiegers shall be sufficient to overcome the besieged in actual combat, man to man. If this be not the case, the besieged, by a sortie, might destroy the oppos ing works, and drive away the besiegers. The second element is, that the place must be thoroughly invested; so that no provisions. reinforcements, or other aliment of war can enter. The third eletLent is, that the besiegers be undisturOed from without. For this it is essentia: atilt there shall not he a hostile army in the neighborhood; or if there he, that the operations of the besiegers be protected by it covering army able to cope with the enemy's force in the field. The ancients executed gigantic works to produce these effects. To complete the investment, they built a high and strong wall around the whole fortress; and to render themselves secure from without, they built a similar wall facing outwards, beyond their own position. The first was circumvallation, the second eon travallation. it was thns that Czesar fortified himself while besieging Alexia, and main tained 60,000 men within his ring. In modern warfare, it is considered preferable to establish strong posts here and there round the place, and merely sentries and vedettes betWeen.
Let us now assume that a fortress of great has to be reduced. and that the force of the enemy in the vicinity has been either sub lued or held in cheek by is cover ing army. By rapid movements, the place is at once invested on all sides. This step constitutes merely a blockade; and if time be of litt13 importance, is a sufficient. opera tion, for hunger must sooner or later cause the fortress to sin render; hut if more ener getic measures are required, the actual siege must lie prosecuted. Advantage is taken of any hidden ground to establish tits pi•k of artillery and the engineers' park; or if there be none, these parks have to be placed out of range. The besieging force is not encamped just beyon.1 the reach of the guns of the fortress; and their object is to gek over the intervening ground and into the works wit limit being torn to pieces by the con centrated fire of the numerous pieces which the defenders can bring to bear on every part. With this view, the place is approached by a series of zigzag trenches so pointed
that they cannot be enfiladed by any guns in the fortress. In order to accommodate the to protect the workers, the trenches at certain intervals are cut laterally for a great length, partly encircling the place, and affording safe room for a large force with ample battering material. These are called pa role's, and they are generally three in number. The distance of the first parallel will increase as small-arms become more deadly; but with the old smooth-bore muskets it was usual to break ground at 600 yards from the way of the fortress, while at al ground was broken at 2.000 yards, and in the siege of Paris by the Germans the lines were begun at least 4 m. from. the city. The locality of the parallel being decided on, a strong body of men is sent to the spot soon after nightfall. The attention of the garrison is distracted by false alarms in other directions. Half the men are armed cap-I-pie, and lie down before the proposed parallel; while the other half, hearing each pick and shovel, and two empty gabions, prepare for work. Each man deposits the gaLons where the parapet of the trench s'iould be. Ile then digs down behind them, tilling the gabions with the earth dug out; and, after they arc filled, throwing it over them, to widen and heighten the parapet pet Before daylight the working.party is expected to have formed sufficient cover to conceal themselves and the troops protecting them. During the day. they—b•ing conceal-ti from the garrison—widen and eomplem their parallel, making it of dimensions sufficient to allow of wagons and bodies of troops with guns passing. along. During the saute night, other parties will have been at work at zigzags of approach from the depots out of range to the first parallel, which zigzags will be probably not less than 1000 yards in lenoalt. As a rule the defenders will not expend ammunition on the first parallel, for its extent (often several miles) will render the probability of doing ma terial damage extremely small. For this reason also, the dimensions of the parapet and its solid ity are of far less import ance in the first parallel than in the more advane4 ed works of attack. The first parallel, AAA, fig.