vancing always. Alarm the enemy, break up his camps, and keep always advancing. These are the tactics which the French army employs with success.

THE SHELTER-TENT.

The shelter-tent is of much use to the soldiers.

1. It serves, buttoned up, as a bag, in which the man sleeps, under the large tent, or anywhere.

2. It serves as a bag to collect provisional and forage.

3. The men, buttoning them together, make of them tents or galleries, under which they are protected from the cold and rain. The more men unite, the better the tent, but eight men together can make an excellent tent.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

Numbers 52.
Camp near Falmouth, Va., May 15, 1863.

The suggestions contained in the following extract from a communication from the medical director of this army will be strictly observed by all concerned and it is made the duty of corps and other independent commanders, as well as of officers of the inspector-general's department, to enforce a compliance with the same.

By command of Major-General Hooker:

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Extract.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
Camp near Falmouth, Va., May 12, 1863.

Brigadier General S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac:

GENERAL: * * * In the selection of camping-ground, that should be selected which has not heretofore been occupied by troops, but new ground, and that which has natural drainage. All low-lying and bottom lands, and lands in the vicinity of stagnant water, should be avoided. Every camp should be thoroughly ditched by main ditches 18 inches deep, and the ground around the tents drained by ditches leading into the main ditches of the camp. Camps should, whenever possible, be pitched in the vicinity of running streams or of living springs, and the use of surface water, or that from holes dug 2 or 3 feet in the ground, should by all means be avoided. Camps should not be formed in the woods but upon the open ground, where a full and free exposure to the sun and air can be obtained and the tents should be pitched upon the ground, and in no case should men be permitted to excavate the earth underneath them; nor should the distance between the tents be less than that required by the regulations. The tents should be struck twice a week and the ground over which they have been pitched exposed to the direct rays of the sun and to the winds, and, if possible, they should be placed upon new ground, if only a few feet distant, once a week. The troops should be required to procure the small boughs from the pine tree and spread them thickly upon the ground covered by the tents, and should renew them every week. These will keep them from sleeping on the ground, which they should not be permitted to do.

The cooking, especially when in camp, should be done by companies