Counter-guard is a low outwork designed to cover the revetment of a bastion or ravelin from the fire of the enemy's breaching batteries. It is separated from them by a narrow ditch, and lest the enemy should establish a battery on it when captured, the terre-plein, or flat space behind its parapet, is made very narrow. See FORTIFICATION.
Counter-guard
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 3: Catarrh to Dion, p. 520
Source scan(s): p. 0531