BATTLE is a combat between large masses of troops, or whole armies. Every B. ought to have for its object the determination. if possible, of the whole contest, or at least the effecting of some important step to that end. It is therefore the aim of a gen eral to bring about an engagement at the decisive point. This constitutes strategy, while tactic is concerned with the handling of the troops in the actual battle. Victory on the battle-field is not enough for a general; it is only by following, up his victory to the annihilation, if possible, of the beaten artny, that its fruits are scoured. Onorat BATTLE is the particular way in which the several corps of different arms are disposed for entering into an engagement. It varies at different times, and is modified according to locality.
No general account of a B. can be given. Information on the various elements of which a B. consists will be found described under such heads as ATTACK, ARTILLERY, CAVALRY, INFANTRY. CIIAIME, FLEET, GUNNERY, TACTICS, etc. The more important individual battles will be found described, in their causes and results, under the names of the places with which they are associated.
Considered in their political relations, the importance of battles is not always in pro portion to their magnitude. " There are some battles which claim our attention, inde pendently of the moral worth of tlw combatants, on account of their enduring, import ance, and by reason of their practical influence on our own social and political condi tion, which we can trace up to the results of those engagements. They have for us an
actual and abiding interest, both while we investigate the chain of causes and effects, by they have helped to make tut what we are; and also while we speculate on what wo probably should have been, if any one of those battles had come to a different termina tion."--Prof. Creasy's Ilftren Deci4re Battles of the World, from Alla rothott to 1Vaterloo.
The fifteen battles which, in prof. Creasy's opinion, have had the most decisive influence, are the following: was a weapon much used by the early northern nations, Celtic and Scandinavian, requiring great strength in its use. Some were held with one hand, some with two; the former kind could be wielded equally by horse and foot, but the latter was for foot-soldiers only. The B. had a longer handle, and a broader, stronger, and sharper blade than the common axe. During the middle ages, and somewhat earlier, it was much used in sorties, and to prevent the escalading of a besieged fortress. The pole-axe differed but little from the battle-axe. The black bill and brown bill were a sort of hal bert, having the cutting part hOOked like a woodman's bill, with a spike projecting from the back, and another from the head. The glaire was a kind of-pole-axe or bill used by the 1Velsh.