Winter QUARTERS, sometimes means the space of time included between leaving the camp and taking the field; but more properly the places where the troops are quartered during the winter.
The first business, after the army is in winter-quarters, is to form the chain of troops to cover the quarters well: which is done either behind a river, under cover of a range of strong posts, or under the protection of fortified towns. Hussars are very useful on this service.
It should be observed, as an invariable maxim, in winter-quarters, that your regiments be disposed in brigades, to be always under the eye of a general officer; and, if possible, let the regiments be so distributed, as to be each under the command of its own chief.