QUARTER-Master-General, is a considerable officer in the army; and should be a man of great judgment and experience, and well skilled in geography. His duty is to mark the marches and encampments of an army: he should know the country perfectly well, with its rivers, plains, marshes, woods, mountains, defiles, passages, &c. even to the smallest brook. Prior to a march, he receives the order and route from the commanding general, and appoints a place for the quarter-masters of the army to meet him next morning, with whom he marches to the next camp; where being come, and having viewed the ground, he marks out to the regimental quarter-masters the ground allowed each regiment for their camp: he chooses the head quarters, and appoints the villages for the generals of the army's quarters: he appoints a proper place for the encampment of the train of artillery: he conducts foraging parties, as likewise the troops to cover them against assaults, and has a share in regula-
ting the winter-quarters and cantonments.