lligence seems
communicated by a pervading electrical current, and the men are seized
with a universal desire to leave camp for the purpose of washing, or
getting wood, or taking a walk, or other praise-worthy purposes.

The total weight of a ration is something over two pounds, but in
marching, some articles are omitted, and but a small quantity of salt
meat is carried--fresh beef being supplied from the herds of cattle
driven with the army. A bullock will afford about four hundred and fifty
rations, so that an army of one hundred thousand men needs over two
hundred cattle daily for its supply.

In camp the men can refrain from drawing portions of their rations, and
the surplus is allowed for by the commissaries in money, by which a
company fund can be created, and expended in the purchase of gloves,
gaiters, etc., or luxuries for the table. A hospital fund is formed in
the same way--by an allowance for the portions of the rations not
consumed by the patients--and is expended in articles adapted to diet
for the sick. The rations are ample and of good quality, though the salt
meat is rather tough occasionally, and the consistency of the hard bread
is shot-proof. Company cooks are allowed, and in camp they contrive to
furnish quite appetizing meals. Their position is rather difficult to
fill, and woe is the portion of the cook not competent for his
profession. The practical annoyances to which he is subject make him
realize to the fullest extent 'the unfathomable depths of human woe.' On
the march the men usually prefer to boil their coffee in tin cups, and
to cook their meat on ram-rods--without waiting for the more formal
movements of the cooks. To reach camp before sunset, after a twenty-mile
march, to pitch his little shelter tent, throw in it his heavy arms and
accoutrements, collect some pine twigs for a couch, wash in some
adjacent stream, drink his cup of hot, strong coffee, eat his salt pork
and hard bread, and then wrap himself in his blanket for a dreamless
slumber, is one of the most delicious combinations of luxurious
enjoyment a soldier knows. To-morrow, perhaps, he starts up at the early
_reveille_, takes his hasty breakfast, is marshalled into line before
the enemy, there is a shriek in the air rent by the murderous shell, and
the soldier's last march is ended.

The next department we shall consider is that of _ordnance_, which
supplies the munitions and portions of accoutrements.

The subject of _art