Online Encyclopedia
Make a correction
Your email address will not appear on the site. Note, comments may take some time to be approved.
Back to article:
CAPONIER (from the Fr. caponniere, properly a capon-cote or house)
Your email:
Article name:
Article content:
CAPONIER (from the Fr. caponniere, properly a capon-cote or house), in fortification, a work constructed in the ditch of a' fort. Its fire (musketry, machine-guns, case shot, &c.) sweeps the bottom of the ditch and prevents an enemy from establishing himself in it. The term is used in a military sense as early as in the late 17th century. In various bastioned systems of fortification a caponier served merely as a covered means of access to outworks, the bastion trace providing for the defence of the ditch by fire from the main parapet.