The sentries on the outposts are always to be doubled. No officers, soldiers, or followers of the camp, are on any account to be suffered to pass the outposts, without they are on duty, or present a regular pass from head-quarters.
The men on advanced picquets are to carry their provisions with them, ready cooked, when circumstances will permit. The cavalry to carry sufficient forage for the time they are to be out.
It is the duty of officers on all guards to inspect every relief of sentries, both when they go on, and come off their posts; to call the rolls frequently, and by every means in their power to keep the men under their command in the most perfect state of vigilance and preparation.
Officers commanding outposts are to send guides, or orderly men, to the major of brigade of the day, or to the brigade-major of their own brigades, as circumstances require, in order to conduct the new guards, and to carry such orders as may be necessary.
When the army is on a march, the officers must apprize the brigade-majors of the situation of their posts, as soon as they arrive at them. All detachments of brigades, which are ordered to march immediately, are to be taken from the picquets, and replaced directly from the line.
Whenever detachments exceed 200 men, or upwards, a surgeon or surgeon’s mate is to be sent from the corps of the officer who commands. On particular duties, the attendance of a surgeon or mate may be requisite with smaller detachments. Detachments of cavalry, of 50 or upwards, will be attended by a farrier.
As soon as an officer commanding an outpost, or advanced picquet, (whether of cavalry or infantry) arrives on his ground, he must endeavor to make himself master of his situation, by carefully examining, not only the space he actually occupies, but the heights within musquet-shot; the roads and paths leading to or near his post, ascertaining their breadth and practicability for cavalry and cannon. He should examine the hollow ways that cover the approach of an enemy; and, in short, consider all the points from which he is most likely to be attacked, either by cavalry or infantry. He will, by these means, be enabled to take measures to prevent the possibility of being surprized; and should he be attacked during the night, from the previous knowlege he has obtained of the ground, he will at once form a just estimate of the nature of the attack, and make his arrangements for defence with promptitude and decision. In order to convey the same alacrity to his men, and to prepare the most inexperienced for sudden and unexpected attacks, an officer upon an outpost will do well to put them upon the alert, by skilfully occasioning false alarms. But these must not be often repeated, nor when practised be made known to his men as having proceeded from himself; since supineness and inactivity might by degrees be the consequence of such a discovery.
An intelligent officer upon an outpost, even unprovided with entrenching tools, will materially strengthen his post, when the unobserver would remain inactive.
A tree felled with judgment; brushwood cut to a certain distance; pointed stakes, about breast high, placed on the points most assailable by an enemy, may be attended with the greatest advantages, and can be effected with the common hatchets, which the men carry to cut fire-wood. In short, every impediment which an officer, acting on the defensive, can throw in an enemy’s way, ought to be scrupulously attended to. Independently, therefore, of the means which he adopts for the immediate protection of his posts, he must look beyond that point; and as nothing checks the ardour of troops more than an unexpected obstacle, within an hundred yards, more or less, of the place attacked, he must, on his arrival at the outpost, throw up some temporary impediment at that distance. See Am. Mil. Library.
Mounting Guards. It is indispensibly necessary, that every officer should know how to mount and come off guard.