CASTRAMETATION, is the art of measuring or tracing out the form of a camp on the ground; yet it sometimes has a more extensive signification, by including all the views and designs of a general; the one requires only the knowlege of a mathematician, the other the experience of an old soldier. The ancients were accustomed to fortify their camps by throwing up entrenchments round them. The Turks, and other Asiatic nations, fortify themselves, when in an open country, with their waggons and other carriages. The practice of the Europeans is quite different; for the surety of their camp consists in the facility and convenience of drawing out their troops at the head of their encampment; for which reason, whatever particular order of battle is regarded as the best disposition for fighting, it follows of course, that we should encamp in such a manner as to assemble and parade our troops in that order and disposition as soon as possible. It is therefore the order of battle that should regulate the order of encampment; that is to say, the post of each regiment in the line of battle should be at the head of its own encampment; from whence it follows, that the extent of the line of battle from right to left of the camp, should be equal to the front of the troops in line of battle, with the same intervals in the camp as in the line. By this means every battalion covers its own tents, and they can all lodge themselves, or turn out in case of necessity, at a minute’s warning. If the front of the camp is greater than the line, the troops must leave large intervals, or expose their flanks; if less, the troops will not have room to form with the proper intervals. The front or principal line of the camp is commonly directed to face the enemy. See CAMP. CAT _o’ nine tails_, a whip with nine knotted cords, with which the British soldiers are punished. Sometimes it has only five cords. A barbarous and unmilitary usage, unknown in any other European army. CATAFALCO, in military architecture, a scaffold of timber, decorated with sculpture, painting, &c. for supporting the coffin of a deceased hero, during the funeral solemnity CATAPHRACT, the old Roman term for a horseman in complete armor. CATAPHRACTA, in the ancient military art, a piece of heavy defensive armor, formed of cloth or leather, fortified with iron scales or links, wherewith sometimes only the breast, sometimes the whole body, and sometimes the horse too, was covered. CATAPULTA, in military antiquity, an engine contrived for throwing of arrows, darts and stones, upon the enemy. Some of these engines were so large, and of such force, that they would throw stones of an hundred weight. Josephus takes notice of the surprising effects of these engines, and says, that the stones thrown out of them beat down the battlements, knocked off the angles of the towers, and had force sufficient to level a very deep file of soldiers CATATROME. See CRANE.