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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| Tactics: | As opposed to strategy, tactics is the art of handling the movement of armies upon the battlefield within sight of the enemy. |
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| Tambour: | A loop-holed stockade with two faces forming a salient angle, constructed to defend the gorge of a small field work or to guard the doorways of a fortification or fortified building. |
| Temporary Fortifications: | Fortifications built for a battle or a campaign and constructed of available materials; usually constructed in a single day. |
| Terreplein: | The name given to the floor or level ground surface inside a fortification, located between the banquette slope and the interior slope of a rampart. |
| Tete du pont: | A detached fortification designed primarily to cover a bridge, usually constructed as a redan. |
| Tinclad: | A river gunboat that was minimally armored with thin sheets of iron plating no more than 5/8 inch thick. Some tinclads were reinforced by two layers of plating but were still only protected from small arms fire and were susceptible to artillery shells that sometimes penetrated entirely through the vessel. Most tinclads were stern-wheelers and the exposed wheel could be disabled if hit by enemy fire. This flaw soon lead to a new class of vessel, the "city-class ironclad." |
| Traverse: | An earthen wall or embankment, perpendicular to the main rampart wall, that provides protection from enfilading fire. In the construction of artillery batteries, splinter-proof traverses were placed alternately between the cannons to limit the destructive effect of a shell exploding within the battery. These rectangular earthen traverses were usually reveted with fascine, gabion or sand bags. |
| Tread: | The top platform of the banquette. |
| Trench: | A common name for a parapet and ditch; also the parallels or zigzags constructed by besiegers in an attempt to capture enemy works. |
| Trestle bridge (for infantry): | A bridge principally used for crossing a small stream not more than eight feet in depth. In shallow water, they also served to connect floating bridges with the shore. |
| Trestle bridge (railroad): | Military Bridges of the American Civil War were usually constructed with unskilled laborers, supervised by officers trained in such construction, using materials obtained on or near the site. The illustration depicts a military railroad bridge in Virginia that was 80 feet high and 400 feet long. A Civil War era guide to building military railroad bridges (Military Bridges: Designs for Trestle and Truss Bridges, 1864) was published by Colonel Herman Haupt, Chief of U.S. Military Railways. |
| Trous de loup: | An obstacle consisting of a sharpened stake placed in an inverted pyramid or cone-shaped pit, some six feet in diameter and about the same number of feet in depth. They are usually placed in "checkerboard" rows a few yards in front of the ditch and concealed by some type of slight covering. An identical type of defensive tool, substantiated by recent archaeological findings, was used by Roman legions in 52 BC at the siege of Alesia in Britain. Trous de loup derives from the French, meaning wolf holes. |