Question: From [the Wikipedia page for "Battle of Melle"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Melle#Battle):

> 
> Now Moltke broke off with the entire force and headed for Ghent
>  **running a gauntlet of fire** from the various French posts along the
>  roads and ways and abandoning the rest of the column, losing about one
>  half of this force, including nearly 400 of the Royal Scots
> 
> 
> 

What does the phrase "running a gauntlet of fire" mean in this context? I know "gauntlet" means a glove armor, but this phrase still doesn't make sense to me. [Searching Google](https://www.google.com/search?q=gauntlet+of+fire) seem to yield results mostly related to gaming.

Answer: 
You are using an unrelated meaning of *gantelet* from Old French *gantelet* (“gauntlet worn by a knight in armor, a token of one's personality or person, and symbolizing a challenge”), diminutive of *gant* (“glove”).

Here it means "a simultaneous attack from two or more sides", originally *gantlope*, from Swedish *gatlopp* (“passageway”), from Old Swedish *gata* (“lane”) + *lopp* (“course”), from *löpa* (“to run”).

(All etymologies from [Wiktionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gauntlet).)

Originally, it was a (sadistic) game or punishment, where participants would form two parallel lines and then strike at a victim who was forced to run between them.

In this context, *fire* means “the bullets or other projectiles fired from a weapon”, as in “courage under fire”, not literal flames, of course.
You need the other definition of gauntlet:

> 
> *(in phrase run the gauntlet)*
> 
> 
> 1 Go through an intimidating or dangerous crowd or experience in order to reach a goal: she had to run the gauntlet of male autograph seekers
> 
> 
> 2 *historical*
> 
> 
> Undergo the military punishment of receiving blows while running between two rows of men with sticks.
> 
> 
> 

From <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gauntlet#gauntlet-2>

So *running the gauntlet* means to pass through somewhere dangerous, and *gauntlet of fire* presumably means even more dangerous, because fire is dangerous.

Interestingly, the etymology of the two definitions is completely different, yet arrived at the same word with the same spelling.