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Special pages :
Abatis
| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 11 August 1857 |
First published in The New American Cyclopaedia, Vol. I, 1858
Reproduced from The New American Cyclopaedia
Source : Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 18
On August 11, 1857 Marx made in his notebook the following entry concerning the dispatch of this item to New York: "Cyclopaedia. Afghanistan. Abatis." This item seems to belong to the "militaria" which Engels (at the time undergoing medical treatment at Liverpool) had promised Marx, in a letter dated July 30, 1857, he would send him as soon as possible (see present edition, Vol. 40). Charles Dana acknowledged receipt of the item in a letter to Marx of September 2, 1857.
Abatis, or abattis, in military strategy, a bulwark made of felled trees, in frequent use in rude mountain warfare. On emergency, the trees are laid lengthwise, with the branches pointed outwards to repel the invaders, while the trunks serve as a breastwork for the defendants. When the abatis is deliberately employed as the means of defending a mountain pass, for instance, the boughs of the tree are stripped of their leaves and pointed, the trunks are embedded in the ground, and the branches interwoven, so as to form a sort of chevaux de frise.