number of guns or heavy ordnance mounted for the defense of a fortified place would receive the collective title of Fortress Battery. Groups of guns used in an attack on a fortified place, which is being besieged, become Siege Batteries. Light, or Field Batteries, consist of four or more guns, with full equipment of men, horses, carriages, caissons, etc., designed and organized for service with troops in the field. Horse Artillery Batteries are the most mobile of all, and act with the cavalry. They differ from the field-artillery in that the gunners are mounted, instead of being seated on the carriages. Mountain, Mule, Bullock, or Elephant Batteries consist of guns so constructed that they may be taken apart and transported on the backs of animals. (See Mountain Artillery.) Batteries usually are designated according to the purpose for which they are employed, as: Barbette Battery, guns that are fired over a parapet, or mounted en barbette. Blinded Battery, one protected by armored or bomb-proof defenses. Breaching Battery, one designed to make a breach in the enemy's defenses. Cavalier Battery, situated within the bastion (q.v.). Counter Battery, one designed to disable such guns of the defense as interfere with the breaching batteries. Enfilading (q.v.) Batteries. Floating Battery. Masked or Fascine Battery, one concealed by fascines or other artificial device. Mortar Battery, one consisting of mortars (q.v.). Redan (q.v.) Battery, Sunken Battery. Water Battery, one close to, and but slightly above, high-water mark.
Battery, in a naval sense, is used to denote all the guns of a ship: all the guns on one side, as the starboard battery, the port battery; a certain part' of a ship's guns, as the gun-deck battery, the rapid-fire battery, the six-inch battery, etc.
When a battery of artillery in the field comes under rifle-fire, its effectiveness is liable to cease at any moment, should the riflemen be under protected cover. In action, the artillerymen serving a field-battery have, of necessity, to secure an open field, and a more or less commanding point from which to lay their guns. This entails exposure, and consequently dictates the distance or proximity to the enemy to which a battery may venture. No other arm is so dependent as artillery on its, own mobility, not only for offensive purposes, but largely for its own safety. Before the introduction of the long-range rifle, there were but few instances where guns, in order to take up effective positions, were forced to come under accurately sighted rifle-fire. Now that it is compelled to face that risk, great rapidity of fire as well as movement becomes a prime necessity. The shifting of fighting value from the individual man to the firearm with which he is armed has thrown the balance of power on the artillery — a responsibility which will only be increased with succeeding improvements and inventions. In the battles of the future the better trained, better equipped, better handled, more mobile artillery — granting that the men on both sides are equal in stamina — will be able to drive back the attack, and so save the situation, or force in the defense, and win the whole battle. See Artillery; Coast Artillery; Field Artillery; Cannon; Siege Guns; Armor Plate; Fortification; Ships, Armored; and Tactics, Military.
BATTERY. See Assault and Battery.
BATTERY (in electricity). See Voltaic Cell; Galvanic Battery; Electricity.
BATTERY, The. A tract of 21 acres forming the southern point of the city of New York, the site of fortifications erected by the Dutch, and later a public park. In the early history of the city the north side of the Battery was lined with the most aristocratic residences. The view of the rivers and bay from the Battery wall is unsurpassed, and the park is still a much frequented pleasure-ground, though much disfigured by the elevated railroads which cross it. The park contains the Barge Office and Castle Garden, now the Aquarium.
BATTEUX, ba'te', Charles (1713-80). A
French philosopher and writer on æsthetics. He was born at Alland'huy, near Vouziers (Ardennes), and studied theology at Rheims. Upon his ordination as priest he went to Paris, where he became professor of Greek and Latin philosophy at the Collège de France. His works, chiefly on æsthetics, enunciate the principle that art is not an imitation of nature as such, but of the element of the beautiful in nature, the faithful imitation or interpretation of which is regulated by the innate sense of taste. This theory, which has had many followers and which was afterwards enunciated by Sulzer in Germany (Theorie der schönen Künste), may be traced in the principal work of the author, Cours de belles-lettres (5 vols., 1765), a later edition of which appeared under the title of Principes abrégés de la litterature (6 vols., 1824). This work is an amplification of an earlier production entitled, Les beaux-arts réduits à un même principe.
BATTHYÁNYI, bot'yti-nye. A celebrated
Hungarian family. It traces its origin back to a companion of Arpád, the Magyar invader of Hungary (about 894). It has given to Hungary many warriors and statesmen. The surname is derived from lands obtained in the Fourteenth Century. Francis Batthyányi (died 1566) distinguished himself at the battle of Mohács, 1526. Balthazar Batthyányi, who was the head of the family in the latter half of the Sixteenth Century, fought with distinction in the Turkish wars. Prince Charles Batthyányi, a lieutenant field-marshal of the Empire, distinguished himself in the Austrian War of Succession, particularly by a victory over the French and Bavarians at Pfaffenhofen, on April 15, 1745. Count Casimir Batthyányi, a member of the principal branch of the family, was born June 4, 1807. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs in Hungary during the Revolution of 1848-49, in which he also distinguished himself as a military governor. After the triumph of the Austrians, he fled with Kossuth into Turkish territory, where he remained until 1851. He then went to France, and died in Paris, July 13, 1854. Count Louis Batthyányi, belonging to another branch of the same family, and born at Presburg in 1809, espoused the national cause, yet sought to maintain the connection with Austria and his allegiance to the Austrian sovereign. He was appointed president of the Ministry when Hungary obtained a ministry of its own, in March, 1848. When the breach between Hungary and the Hapsburgs widened into open war, he resigned, and afterwards took part in public affairs, chiefly as a member of the Diet. After the Austrians entered
