BATTERY (Fr. bat teric, front bat tee, Lat. baincre, to batter, beat). A term pertaining to the artillery arm of the military service. A number of guns or heavy ordnance mounted for the defense of a fortified place would receive the collective title of Fortress Battery. Groups of guns used in an attack on a fortified place, which is being besieged, become Siege Batteries. Light, or Field Batteries, consist of four or mone guns, with full equipment of men, horses, carriages, caissons, etc., designed and organized for service with troops in the field. Horse Artillery Bat teries are the most mobile of all, and act with the cavalry. They dither from the field-artillery in that- the gunners are mounted, instead of being seated on the carriages. Mountain, Mule, Bul lock, or Elephant Batteries consist of gulls so constructed that they may be taken apart and transported on the backs of animals. (See Batteries usually are designated according to the purpose for which they am employed, as: Barbette Buttery, guns that are fired over a parapet, or mounted en barbette. Blinded Battery, one protected by armored or bomb-proof defenses. Breaching Bat tery, one designed to make a breach in the ene my's defenses. Cavalier Buttery, situated within the bastion (q.v.). Counter Battery. one designed to disable such gulls of the defense as interfere with the breaching batteries. En/ihtdiny (q.v.) Batteries. Floating Battery. Masked or Fascine Battery, one concealed by faseines or other arti ficial device. Mortar Battery, one consisting of mortars (q.v.). lichen/ (q.v.) Battery. Sunken Battery. Water Battery, one close to, and but slightly above, high-water mark.
Battery, in a naval sense, is used to denote all the gums of a ship: all the guns on one side. as the starboard battery, the port battery; a certain part of a ship's guns, as the gun-deck battery, the rapid-fire battery, the six-inch bat tery. etc.
When a battery of artillery in the field comes under ritle-fire, its effectiveness is liable to cease at any moment, should the riflemen be under protected cover. In action, the artillerymen serving a field-battery have, of necessity, to se cure an open field, and a more or less eta:inland ing point from which to lay their guns. This entails exposure, and consequently dictates the distance or proximity to the enemy to which a battery may venture. No other arm is so de pendent as artillery on its own mobility, not only for offensive purposes, but largely for its own safety. Before the introduction of the long-range rifle, there were but few instances where guns, in order to take up effective positions, were forced to come under accurately sighted rifle-fire. Now that it is eompelled to face that risk, great rapidity of fire as well as movement becomes a prime necessity. The shifting of fighting value from the individual man to the firearm with which he is armed has thrown the balance of power on the artillery—a responsibility which will only be increased with succeeding improve ments and inventions. In the battles of the future the better trained, better equipped, bet ter handled, more mobile artillery—granting that the men on both sides are equal in stamina —will be able to drive back the attack, and so save the situation, or force in the defense, and win the whole battle. See ARTILLERY; COAST ARTILLERY; FIELD ARTILLERY; CANNON; SIEGE GuNs; ARMOR PLATE; FORTIFICATION; SHIPS, ARMORED; and TACTICS, MILITARY.