John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life

[380] gridironed with small streams. These, bear in mind, the troops could ford easily, but the heavily loaded trains must have bridges to cross on, or each ford would soon have been

A trestle bridge, no. 2.

choked with mired teams. Sometimes the bridges built by the natives were still standing, but they had originally been put up for local travel only, not to endure the tramp and rack of moving armies and their thousands of tons of impedimenta; wherefore the engineers would take them in hand and strengthen them to the point of present efficiency. So well was much of this work done that it endures in places to-day as a monument to their thoroughness and fidelity, and a convenience to the natives of those sections.

When a line of works was laid out through woods, much slashing, or felling of trees, was necessary in its front. This was especially necessary in front of forts and batteries. Much of this labor was done by the engineers. The trees were felled with their tops toward the enemy, leaving stumps about three feet high. The territory covered by these fallen trees was called the Slashes, hence Slashing. No large body of the enemy could safely attempt a passage through such an obstacle. It was a strong defence for a weak line of works.

The Gabions, being hollow cylinders of wicker-work without bottom, filled with earth, and placed on the earthworks; the Fascines, being bundles of small sticks bound at both