OUTWORKS

, in Fortification, all those works made on the outside of the ditch of a fortified place, to cover and defend it.

Outworks, called also Advanced and Detached Works, are those which not only serve to cover the body of the place, but also to keep the enemy at a distance, and prevent them from taking advantage of the cavities and elevations usually found in the places about the counterscarp; which might serve them either as lodgments, or as rideaux, to facilitate the carrying on their trenches, and planting their batteries against the place. Such are ravelins, tenailles, hornworks, queue d'arondes, envelopes, and crownworks. Of these, the most usual are ravelins, or halfmoons, formed between the two bastions, on the flanking angle of the counterscarp, and before the curtain, to cover the gates and bridges.

It is a general rule in all Outworks, that if there be several of them, one before another, to cover one and the same tenaille of a place, the nearer ones must gradually, and one after another, command those which are farthest advanced out into the campagne; that is, must have higher ramparts, that so they may overlook and fire upon the besiegers, when they are masters of the more outward works.

The gorges also of all Outworks should be plain, and without parapets; lest, when taken, they should serve to secure the besiegers against the fire of the retiring besieged; whence the gorges of Outworks are only pallisadoed, to prevent a surprize.

OX-EYE, in Optics. See Scioptic, and CAMERA Obscura.