"It is a pleasing sight to see a column arrive at its halting ground. The Camp is generally marked out, if circumstances allow of it, on the edge of some wood, and near a river or stream. The troops are halted in open columns and arms piled, pickets and guards paraded and posted, and in two minutes all appear at home. Some fetch large stones to form fire places; others hurry off with canteens and kettles for water while the wood resounds with the blows of the tomahawk. Dispersed under the more distant trees you see the officers, some dressing, some arranging a few boughs to shelter them by night, others kindling their own fires. How often under some spreading pine tree which afforded shade, shelter and fuel have I taken up my lodging for the night. Sitting in the midst of my comrades, men whom I loved and esteemed partaking of a coarse but wholesome meal, seasoned by hunger and cheefulness [sic]. Wrapt up in a blanket, the head reclining on a stone or a knapsack coved [sic - covered] with the dews of the night or drenched perhaps by the thunder shower sleeps many a hardy veteran. A bivouack in heavy weather does not I allow present a very comfortable appearance. The officers sit shivering in their wet tents idle and angry. The men with their forage caps drawn over their ears huddle together under the trees or crowed [sic - crowd] round cheerless smoky fires – complaining of their commissaries, the rain and the Americans."
--Cpl/Sgt Lamb, of the 9th/21st/23rd Regiment; during the Burgoyne Campaign
Straw for huts/tents:
“Straw is to be allowed at the rate of one truss to each paliass for two men, and to be changed every thirty-two days. Two trusses per company are to be allowed for Batmen, or servants not soldiers; and three trusses per company or troop, for the three washerwomen, to be changed every fifteen days, they not having paliasses. Thirty trusses of straw, per company or troop, are allowed, on first taking the field, for thatching the women’s huts.” 1
(Editor’s note – a paliass sounds a lot like a mattress or ticking. The OED says “a straw mattress, or an under mattress stuffed with straw.”)
Bedding:
“Tho it was strongly recommended by the General [Burgoyne] to take as little baggage as possible, which advice I followed, leaving my bedding behind and making use of a Buffalo skin, with my cloak to cover me at nights.” 17 July, 1777 2
Hurdled huts/tents:
“ ...The most expeditious and ready method, is to provide square hurdles [boards nailed together with a cross piece to make a solid piece], large enough to cover a tent, when resting slope ways against the upper edge of each other; they must be a foot on every side larger than the tent; a piece of wicker work is next to be fitted to the rear, entirely to cover it, and to fasten to the hurdles; another must be fitted to the front, by way of a door, to move at pleasure; these hurdles and wickers being properly made and fixed, a thick coat of thatch (straw, sedge, or rushes) is to be laid on them, secured and bound; nothing can be warmer than one of these habitations.” 3
Covered mess fires:
“In particular, during the time of cooking, when the inclemency of the weather often renders it almost impracticable, in the open air, to obviate, therefor, the distress, to which they must be at that juncture disposed, young trees should be collected, about the size and length of hop poles (12-16 feet) and placed in a circular form outside of the kitchens, sloping upwards to a point (exactly the same position the poles are fixed after the hop gathering is finished) [like a teepee!], leaving a sufficient opening on one side for the men to enter, and weaving small boughs or rushes through the poles: the Kitchens, when defended in this manner, the soldiers remain no longer exposed to the inconveniences of the weather; and are enabled, not only to dress their victuals, without the smallest interruption, but by making a large fire in the center of the kitchen, to enjoy themselves with great comfort and satisfaction....” 4
Nomenclature:
From now on, our “sections” will be called “squads." "Squad" and “Mess Group” will be synonymous. Squad leaders and deputy leaders will be called “Corporals” and “Lance Corporals”. They will also be responsible for running the mess (food).
“The use of forming Companies into as many Squads of Inspection, as it has Corporals and Serjeants, is proved by those regiments, who have practiced that method....[in the absence of the Corporal] the private man who is appointed to act as Lance-Corporal, must have the inspection and care of his squad, with all of the power and authority over it, as if he was a full one.”
“Five, six, or eight men, being generally the number of a mess...”
“The mess, or Squad...” 5
NOTES
1. John Williamson, A Treatise on Military Finance, Containing the Pay, Subsistence, Deductions and Arrears of the Forces on the British and Irish Establishments, And All the Allowances in Camp, Garrison and Quarters, With An Enquiry into the Method of Clothing and Recruiting the Army, And An Extract from the Report of the Commissioners of Public Accounts Relating to the Office of the Pay Master General (London: T. Egerton, 1782)
2. James Phinney Baxter, Editor. The British Invasion from the North: Digby’s Journal of the Campaigns of Generals Carleton and Burgoyne from Canada, 1776-1777 (1887; reprint edition New York: DaCapo Press, 1970), pg. 227
3. Captain Bennett Cuthbertson, A System for the Complete Interior Management and Economy of a Battalion of Infantry (London: 1779; reprint edition Sullivan Press, 2002), pp. 11-21
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