Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett
Tennessee State Library and Archives
Civil War Resources
Civil War Source Book
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| Palisade: | Pointed stakes placed in the ground at an angle facing the enemy. The stakes were 6 to 8 inches in diameter and 6 to 10 feet long. A small ditch, about 2 feet 6 inches in depth and width, was dug for the palisade line. A large lintel or beam, called a riband, was nailed to the bottom of the palisade stakes, sunk into the ditch, filled with earth, and packed. When finished, at least 7 feet of palisade was angled above ground. Another riband was sometimes attached to the upper portion of the palisade stakes, about 18 inches from the pointed ends, to provide additional strength. The palisade was usually placed in front of a ditch or the base of a slope, as an obstacle. Today the terms stockade and palisade are sometimes used interchangeably, but during the Civil War, palisade referred to the above described angled defensive configuration, while stockade referred to vertical post defenses. |
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| Pan coupe: | A pan coupe was constructed by modifying a lunette or redan fortification by the addition of a small face (or flattened point) constructed across the salient angle, allowing a wider range of fire. |
| Parallels: | Trenches constructed parallel to enemy works to contain reserve troops and artillery during a siege. Successive parallels were dug, each being nearer to the work and connected by saps. |
| Parapet: | The wall of the rampart that troops stood behind to defend the fortified position. In field works, the height of the parapet was recommended at about 7 feet, the thickness of the parapet varied according to the kind of fire it was intended to resist. If the parapet was out of the range of enemy artillery (about 800 yards), then it was constructed to resist only musketry or rifle fire, a thickness of 2 1/2 feet. To withstand artillery fire the thickness of the wall was 6 to 10 feet. |
| Permanent Fortifications: | Fortifications designed for long-term occupation and constructed of durable materials. Fort Negley in Nashville and Fortress Rosecrans in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, are two examples. |
| Picket Stake: | A stake driven through fascine or other forms of revetment in order to secure them to the interior slope of the parapet wall. |
| Pioneers: | Soldiers equipped with axes, saws, spades, mattocks, pickaxes, billhooks and other tools for clearing the way before an advancing army or to entrench. Pioneers were sometimes detailed from different companies of a regiment and formed under a non-commissioned officer. |
| Pisa: | A form of sun-dried brick revetment made of ordinary earth mixed with clay and sometimes with chopped straw. The mixture was kneaded with water and laid wet, 12 inches thick by 2 feet broad and well packed. To protect the face from weathering, grass seeds or oats were sown, but were not to be cut when the stalks matured. |
| Plane of Sight: | An imaginary line sighted by an engineer that represented the converging enemy’s fire into the interior of a work. |
| Platform: | A foundation, usually built of timber, which supported an artillery piece and kept it from miring into the dirt surface of the terreplein. |
| Plongee: | The downward slope of the superior slope of the parapet; also the downward slope of the sole or floor of an embrasure. |
| Plunging Fire: | An annihilating fire from a high or commanding position. River batteries were often positioned on high ground to obtain a plunging fire that would strike the vulnerable and unarmed decks of gunboats and other river transportation. |
| Pontoniering: | The construction of temporary military bridges or ferries by engineers, aided by a detachment of sappers. The bridges were made using wooded pontoon skiffs (called bateau by French engineers), which were transported on carriages, or by using wooden raft frames covered with a vulcanized India rubber canvas. During the Civil War these devices were generally called pontoons, but the engineer corps continued to refer to them by the older spelling "pontons." |
| Postern: | A covered passage beneath the rampart that provided communication from the interior into the ditch. The passage from the covered way into the surrounding countryside, usually in front of the works, was called the sally port. |
| Priest Cap: | An earthwork resembling the capital letter "M," having an indented salient that forms two small redans. It was seldom used as a detached work, but was often constructed at the end of a main line of defenses. One example of this type fortification is recorded in Tennessee. |
| Profile: | A wooden outline, or frame of poles and laths nailed together, usually constructed on the ground and raised to a vertical position to simulate the dimensions of the desired earthen fortification to be built. Dirt would then be excavated from the ditch and thrown back into the profiled framework and compacted until it filled the dimensions of the profile. The parapet was then ready to be finished with a suitable revetment. |