berme

[The word _birm_ seems to have the same meaning as berme (Fr. _berme_), which, in Fortification, denotes a piece of ground of three, four, or five feet in width, left between the rampart and the moat or foss, designed to receive the ruins of the rampart, and prevent the earth from filling the foss.

Notes and Queries, Number 219, January 7, 1854 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc Various

The _berme_, or _heel-path_, is the side of the canal opposite the tow-path; _basins_ are small coves in the canal where boats may lie over; _stop-lock_, a sort of quay; the _bit_, a timber-head at the bow of the boat.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 26, September, 1880 Various

F G the berme, or place left to prevent the parapet from washing down into the ditch.

The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864 Devoted to Literature and National Policy Various

The enemy opened with musketry and cannon, but the column went on, sweeping down the _abattis_, making use of it to aid in effecting a passage of the deep ditches and to gain a footing on the berme of the earthworks.

Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 A Political History of Slavery in the United States Together With a Narrative of the Campaigns and Battles of the Civil War In Which the Author Took Part: 1861-1865 Joseph Warren Keifer 1884

The berme usually left between the bottom of the parapet slope and the ditch was cut away so as to leave no level standing-place at the top of the scarp.

Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, Volume 2 November 1863-June 1865 Jacob Dolson Cox 1864