Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett
Tennessee State Library and Archives
Civil War Resources
Civil War Source Book
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| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
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| Railroad Guard Post: | This refers to posts that protected vulnerable points along the rail system such as bridges, trestles, or depots. These were often defended using stockades, blockhouses, or earthworks such as redoubts and entrenchments. |
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| Ram: | A ship or boat equipped with an armored prow for ramming another ship was called a "ram." |
| Ramp: | An inclining passage from the interior of a work to the terreplein, allowing troops and artillery access to the parapet wall. |
| Rampart: | A broad wall or embankment forming the main body of a fortification and consisting of a terreplein and a parapet. |
| Rampart Plane: | That part of the rampart that is visually in line or in the same plane as a point in the rear of the work and the commanding heights in the front of the work. The plane represents the converging fire along the length of the rampart. |
| Rampart Slope: | The side of the rampart between either the banquette or the terreplein and the rear of the work, constructed with a slope of forty-five degrees. |
| Ravelin: | A large V-shaped outwork composed of two faces forming a salient angle, constructed outside the ditch. It was used to cover the curtain wall, the gate, or the flank of a bastion. It was sometimes referred to as a demi lune . Two ravelins were used in the construction of Fort Negley at Nashville. |
| Redoubt: | An earthwork that is enclosed on all sides. The overall configuration may be square, polygonal, or circular. Redoubts on level ground were generally square or pentagonal. On a hill or rising ground their outlines often followed the contour of the summit of the hill. Tennessee redoubts were often relatively small detached works used to fortify hilltops or to strengthen main lines of defense. |
| Redan: | A V-shaped earthwork, open at the rear, the opening being referred to as a gorge. In Tennessee examples occur both as detached works and as portions of defensive lines. |
| Re-entering: | An angle or line that points inward or toward the interior of the work. Almost all flanks joined faces of field works at re-entering angles. |
| Regiment: | A military unit composed of ten or more companies, usually about 1,000 men at the start of the Civil War. Regiments were commonly thought to consist of two battalions. As the war progressed regiment size was often under strength, with considerably less than 1,000 men, in some reported instances as low as 375. |
| Relief: | The height of the work. High or bold relief refers to a tall or commanding work; low relief refers to a work that is low in height. |
| Retrenchment: | A retrenchment was a parapet or trench constructed in the rear of the forward parapet of a field work that defending troops could fall back to when driven from the outer works. It was a second line of defense that could be used to prevent enemy forces from entering the interior of a field fortification or penetrating through a line of works. Retrenchments were used in the works at the Battles of Franklin and Nashville and at other Civil War sites across Tennessee. |
| Reverse Fire: | A fire that strikes the rear of a work or a fire that hits the interior slope of a parapet at an angle greater than thirty degrees. |
| Revetment: | Material used to sustain an embankment when the slope is steeper than the natural slope. Revetments were constructed with materials such as wood, stone, sandbags, sod, gabions, or fascines, held in place with wooden picket stakes. |
| Riband: | A thick plank or log nailed horizontally to the base of a row of palisades and placed in the ground to strengthen the palisades. Another riband was sometimes placed about 18 inches from the pointed ends or tops of the palisades to also provided more stability. |
| Ricochet Fire: | Ricochet artillery fire was delivered at a low elevation toward a parapet so that shot would pass over the parapet wall and bound along the interior of the work. |
| Rifle Pit: | Rifle pits were relatively simple to construct, requiring no engineering expertise. They could be thrown up quickly almost anywhere and provided fairly efficient protection against small arms and some light artillery fire. Some of the entrenchments had an interior or exterior ditch, but it was not intended as an obstacle for the enemy. Rifle pits can be subdivided into two distinct types of works defined by their lateral extent (rather than their profiles) and function. Skirmish pits were small, detached works providing cover for one or two or small groups of troops. They were placed on the flanks of a fortified or unfortified position to provide cover for skirmishers or pickets. Rifle trenches were extended lines of rifle pits that were used to connect major field works and cover the front of infantry troops deployed in a position. The term rifle pit was a "catch-all" phrase used during the war, and its true definition was commonly misinterpreted when describing types of infantry field works. Both subdivisions were used in many locations throughout Tennessee. Fort Donelson National Battlefield in Dover, Tennessee, contains excellent examples of both types of rifle pits as described above (see also "Entrenchment"). |