A cavalier was any work raised above the level of
another work for the purpose of gaining a command of fire over the other
work or ground surrounding it. Trench cavaliers, for example, were trenches
with their parapets raised high enough to see over the crest of the glacis
and command a fortification's covered way with fire. A cavalier battery was
constructed on top of a raised mound or small rampart. Interior retrenchments
constructed within a fortification's bastions to gain a command over the
interior of the bastion, covered way, and glacis were referred to as bastion
cavaliers or cavaliers of the bastion. The Swiss engineer G. H. Dufour employed
a huge cavalier of the ravelin in his method of fortifying a bastion front
as a bonnet on the ravelin salient to shield the faces of the ravelin from
ricochet fire.
A cavalier was any work raised above the level of
another work for the purpose of gaining a command of fire over the other
work or ground surrounding it. Trench cavaliers, for example, were trenches
with their parapets raised high enough to see over the crest of the glacis
and command a fortification's covered way with fire. A cavalier battery was
constructed on top of a raised mound or small rampart. Interior retrenchments
constructed within a fortification's bastions to gain a command over the
interior of the bastion, covered way, and glacis were referred to as bastion
cavaliers or cavaliers of the bastion. The Swiss engineer G. H. Dufour employed
a huge cavalier of the ravelin in his method of fortifying a bastion front
as a bonnet on the ravelin salient to shield the faces of the ravelin from
ricochet fire.
