HOWITZ, a kind of mortar, mounted upon a field-carriage like a gun. The difference between a mortar and a howitz is, that the trunnions of the first are at the end, and at the middle in the last. The invention of howitzes is of much later date than mortars, for they really had their origin from them. The constructions of howitzes are as various and uncertain as those of mortars, excepting the chambers, which are all cylindrical. They are distinguished by the diameter of the bore; for instance, a ten inch howitz is that the diameter of which is 10 inches; and so of the smaller ones.