t
130
BARRICADE.
The following are the thicknesses of ordinary materials, as determined by recentexperiments,—
Compact Limestone 1- 6 inches, solid stone,
Ditto Sandstone JCob (clay and straw) 9 inches thick,
Width of 1-bushel sand-bag, at least 10 inches, full of earth,
*12 inches thick,
* 9 do.
Yellow do.
* 4 do.
Oak, good.
2 do.
Oak, sheeted with £-inch wrought iron,f
t do.
Sheet iron,
are the lowest that should be relied on as musket-proof.
BARRICADING ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWNS.
As Insurgents are seldom hurthened by artillery or baggage, they are not compelledto keep to the roads, where they would he most exposed; they will be apt to disperseover the fields: hence all hedges, or walls, parallel to the front of attack, or anythingelse that may give cover, should be removed.
Where two tolerably wide roads, aa, bb, cross, they can generally be cut off so asto form a very fairly flanked redoubt, forbidding all advance along the roads them-selves ; the houses serving as barracks, and often capable of being loopholed.
- WZ:
bb. A slightditch.
If no crossings present themselves, any block of wide road, with an ordinary hedge,
* These thicknesses are best made up of different courses of plank crossing alternately, as in figs.3, 4, 5, where the 4-inch oak is made up of two 2-inch planks.
t When oak is to be thus covered, a sheet of tarred brown paper should be placed between it andthe metal, as the latter is likely to be corroded by the juices of the wood.