The construction of the emplacements for the siege batteries is a work of the greatest impor tance. An illustration of the ingenuity used in adapting them to the accidents of the ground is afforded by the accompanying sections.
Sieges are comparatively few in a war as compared with the number of battles and other engagements. The siege of Vicksburg is an in stance of an investment carried to a logical con clusion. The Confederate army penned up in the city was gradually surrounded and cut off from its source of supplies. The Union army, under Genera] Grant, while closing in on the city. con structed a line of intrenchments strong enough to resist any possible attack by other Confed erate troops for the relief of the city. Although General Grant was gradually pressing his lines forward, the place eventually capitulated as the result of starvation. During the Franco-Prus sian War the sides of Strassburg, Metz, Paris, and Belfort wera carried on under different con ditions and with different results. In the Russo Turkish War (q.v.) Plevna is notable. Ge6k Tepe is an instance where the large but poorly disci plined and poorly equipped Turcoman army was besieged and overcome by the smaller but aggres sive and well-handled Russian army under Skobe left'. Allusion has already been made to \lafe king and Ladysmith in the South African War. The siege of Fort Wagner, one of the defenses of Charleston, S. C., by the Union troops was
unique in certain respects. Assaults having been made and having failed, recourse was had to ad vances by parallels and approaches. The time ar rived when it seemed impossible to make further headway by this method. Alining could not be resorted to, since the bottoms of the trenches were already near the level of the ground-water. The proximity of the forts to deep water en abled the Union gunboats to add their fire to that of the besieging batteries and so keep down the fire of the fort thatthe besiegers were able to advance their trenches with great rapidity. In this way the works were carried right tip to the fort. The night before the Union troops were to make the second assault the Confederates abandoned the fort, leaving the place by water. The conduct of the siege received the following high encomium from Major Clarke of the English Royal Engineers in his work on fortifications: "The difficulties of the siege, which were consid erable, were overcome with a skill and readi ness of resonree which the most highly trained force in Europe could not have excelled." Consult: Alenur, Attack of Fortified Places (New York, 1894): Chatham Manual of Military Engineering, part 2, Attack of Fortresses (Lon don, 1896). See also articles on SIEGE GUN; EOWITZER; TACTICS, IN1ILITARY; FORTIFICATION; and FORTIFICATIONS, ATTACK AND DEFENSE OF.