ad to manage and direct
operations is the common want. Possessing that a company is pretty sure
to have a successful culinary department; and just this makes all the
difference between excellent and execrable rations. The commissary
supplies of the army, judging by the experience of the Twenty-Third,
are abundant and good; better, it is believed, than the average fare of
American farmers, except in the matter of fresh vegetables; but bad
cooking spoils the best rations.

To construct a plat on a steep slope for the kitchen: lay out a square
of liberal dimensions--eight feet on a side should be a minimum
perhaps. Along the lower side and half-way up the adjacent sides firmly
drive stiff stakes, sixteen or eighteen inches apart, reaching a little
above the destined level of the plat, and pile bushes or twigs against
them on the inner side, interweaving them as much as possible, and
making a matted wall. Then with pick and spade dig down along the upper
side of the square, and half-way along the adjacent sides, tossing the
earth against the twig wall, and packing it well down, till you have a
level to suit you. There will be subsequently a gradual subsidence of
the loose earth to some extent, against which you must provide. The
centre of course must be the highest part in order to shed rain. If the
soil be clayey, you will have a sticky mud with every fall of rain
unless you put on a covering of gravel, slate, or the like. On one side
steps should be dug out leading down from the table where rations are
dispensed. Stakes should be driven at the extremities of the steps so
as to hold firmly a stiff limb of a tree or a stick laid against them
and along the edge of the step. Without this precaution your steps will
not last longer than a day or two. If boards for a shed are not to be
had, a bower can be constructed of branches of trees, such as any old
soldier knows how to build.

_Wednesday, July 1st._--Picket force returned without loss; but they
had met the enemy, as the following report of the Officer Commanding
will show:--

Fort Washington, Harrisburg, Pa. }
July 1st, 1863. }

COLONEL WM. EVERDELL, Jr.,
Commanding 23rd Reg. N.G.S.N.Y.

COLONEL:--

I have the honor to report that in compliance with General Orders
No. ---- of June 29th, from Gen. Knipe, commanding Second Brigade
of First Division of the Army of the Department of the Susquehanna,
I assumed comma