Major GENERAL, the next officer to the lieutenant general. His chief business is to receive orders from the general, or in his absence from the lieutenant general of the day; which he is to distribute to the brigade majors, with whom he is to regulate the guards, convoys, detachments, &c. On him rests the whole fatigue and detail of duty of the army roll. It is the major general of the day who is charged with the encampment of the army, who places himself at the head of it when they march, who marks out the ground of the camp to the quartermaster general, and who places the new guards for the safety of the camp.
The day the army is to march, he dictates to the field officers the order of the march, which he has received from the general, and on other days gives them the parole.
In a fixed camp he is charged with the foraging, with reconnoitring the ground for it, and posting the escorts, &c.
In sieges, if there are two separate attacks, the second belongs to him; but if there is but one, he takes, either from the right or left of the attack, that which the lieutenant general has not chosen.
When the army is under arms, he assists the lieutenant general, whose orders he executes.
If the army marches to an engagement, his post is at the head of the guards of the army, until they are near enough to the enemy to rejoin their different corps; after which he retires to his own proper post: for the major generals are disposed on the order of battle as the lieutenant generals are; to whom, however, they are subordinate, for the command of their divisions. The major-general has one aid-de-camp, paid for executing his orders.