In a soil easy to be dug, one man can fill the 500 barrows in a day; but if the ground be hard, the number of fillers must be augmented, so as to keep pace with the wheel barrow man. BATTERY-_Planks_ are those planks or boards used in making platforms. BATTERY-_Boxes_ are square chests or boxes, filled with earth or dung; used in making batteries, where gabions and earth are not to be had. They must not be too large, but of a size that is governable. BATTERY-_Nails_ are wooden pins made of the toughest wood, with which the planks that cover the platforms are nailed. Iron nails might strike fire against the iron-work of the wheels, in recoiling, &c. and be dangerous. BATTERY-_Master_, whose duty formerly it was to raise the batteries. This officer is now out of use. BATTEURS _d’Estrade_. See SCOUTS. BATTLE, implies an action, where the forces of two armies are engaged; and is of two kinds, _general_ and _particular_, general where the whole army is engaged, and particular where only a part is in action; but as they only differ in numbers, the methods are nearly alike. There is no action in war more brilliant than that of pitched battles. Their success sometimes decides the fate of nations. It is by this action a general acquires reputation. It is in battle that his valour, his force of genius, and his prudence, appear in their full extent; and where especially he has occasion for that firmness of mind, without which the most able general will hardly succeed. _Battles_ have ever been the last resource of good generals. A situation where chance and accident often baffle and overcome the most prudential and most able arrangements, and where superiority in numbers by no means ensures success, is such as is never entered into without a clear necessity for so doing. The fighting a battle only because the enemy is near, or from having no other formed plan of offence, is not the way of making war. Darius lost his crown and life by it: Harold, of England, did the same; and Francis I. at Pavia, lost the battle and his liberty. King John, of France, fought the battle of Poictiers, though ruin attended his enemy if he had not fought. The king of Prussia lost his country, and the reputation which Prussia acquired from Frederick II. by the battle of Jena.