D.

=Davids Island.= An island of 100 acres in Long Island Sound, within the township limits of New Rochelle, Westchester Co., N. Y. It was purchased in 1867 by the U. S. government, to be used for military purposes.

=Dinkelsbuhl.= A town of Bavaria, surrounded with a high wall, flanked with towers and ditches. It suffered much during the Thirty Years’ War.

=Dorylæum= (_Phrygia_). Soliman, the Turkish sultan of Iconium, having retired from the defense of Nicæa, his capital, was here defeated with great loss by the Crusaders, July 1, 1097.

=Douglas.= An ancient noble family of Scotland. The earls of Douglas, the earls of Angus, and the earls of Morton belonged to this family. Sir James Douglas, surnamed “The Good,” was the founder of their fame and grandeur. He commanded the left wing at Bannockburn in 1314, and was killed by the Saracens in Spain about 1330, in a pilgrimage to Palestine. James the second, earl of Douglas, was a famous warrior, and was killed at the battle of Otterburn in 1388. Archibald the Grim, third earl, fought for the French at Poitiers, and died about 1400. He was succeeded by his son Archibald, fourth earl, who displayed great courage at the battle of Shrewsbury (1403), where he fought against Henry IV., and rendered important services to Charles VII. of France, who rewarded him with the duchy of Touraine. He was killed at the battle of Verneuil, in France, in 1424.

=Dry Tortugas.= A group of ten small, low, barren islands belonging to Monroe Co., Fla. These islands served as a place of imprisonment for persons under sentence by courts-martial during the late civil war. Several criminals concerned in the conspiracy in which President Lincoln was murdered were confined here.

E.

=Egard= (_Fr._). An ancient tribunal of Malta which decided, by commission, suits among the knights.

=Eleasa.= In Palestine; here Judas Maccabæus was defeated and slain by Bacchides and Alcimus, and the Syrians about 161 B.C.

=Entrenchments.= The field-works which are hastily thrown up to cover a force in position.

=Erivan=, =Irvin=, or =Irivan=. A fortified town of Russian Armenia, situated on the Zenghi. It was taken by the Turks in 1553 and 1582, but recovered by Abbas the Great, 1604; after being several times captured, it was ceded to Persia, 1769. The Russians blockaded this place during six months in 1808, and were repulsed, with great slaughter, in an attempt to storm it. In 1827, however, it was taken by them.

=Ermin.= An order of knights instituted in 1450, by Francis I., duke of Bretagne, and which formerly subsisted in France. The collar of this order was of gold, composed of ears of corn in saltire, at the end of which hung the ermine, with the inscription _a ma vie_. But the order expired when the dukedom of Bretagne was annexed to France.

=Erouad=, or =Erroad=. A town of Hindostan, in the province of Coimbetoor. This town was reduced in size during the reign of Tippoo Sahib; and during the invasion of Gen. Meadows the town was destroyed. It was taken by the British in 1790, and retaken by Tippoo; but it came into the final possession of the British, along with the province, in 1799.

=Evans Rifle.= See MAGAZINE GUNS.

F.

=Fabian.= Delaying; dilatory; avoiding battle, in imitation of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, a Roman general who conducted military operations against Hannibal, by declining to risk a battle in the open field, but harassing the enemy by marches, countermarches, and ambuscades.

G.

=Gad.= The first-born of Zilpah, Leah’s maid, was the seventh son of Jacob. The _tribe_ of Gad numbered in the wilderness of Sinai more than 40,000 fighting-men. Nomadic by nature, they preferred to remain on the east side of Jordan, and were reluctantly allowed to do so by Joshua, on condition of assisting their countrymen in the conquest and subjugation of Canaan. The men of Gad--if we may judge from the eleven warriors who joined David in his extremity--were a race of stalwart heroes; “men of might, and men of war, fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains.”

=Gomer Chamber.= Chamber of the 24-pounder Coehorn mortar; it is in the form of a frustum of a cone, superior diameter 3 inches, and inferior, 2 inches.

=Gore.= In heraldry, a charge consisting of one-third of the shield cut off by two arched lines, one drawn from the dexter or sinister chief, and the other from the bottom of the escutcheon, meeting in the fess point. A _gore sinister_ is enumerated by heralds as one of the abatements or marks of dishonor borne for unknightly conduct. See GUSSET.

=Guelf=, =Guelph=, or =Welf=. The name of a noble family in Germany, the founder of which lived in the time of Charlemagne.

H.

=Half Merlons.= The merlons at the ends of the parapet.

=Harrow.= In a military sense, means to lay waste; to ravage; to destroy.

=Here.= Is a word used by soldiers at a regimental roll-call, to intimate their presence.