Page:The Adventures Of A Revolutionary Soldier.pdf/124

122 a parade in front and a street through the whole, between the front and rear, the whole length, twelve or fifteen feet wide. Next in order, in the rear of these huts the officers of the companies built theirs with their waiters in the rear of them. Next, the Field officers in the same order; every two huts, that is, one in front and one in the rear, had just their width in front indefinitely, and no more, to procure the materials for building; the officers had all in the rear. No one was allowed to transgress these bounds on any account whatever, either for building or firewood. The next thing is the erecting of the huts; they were generally about twelve by fifteen or sixteen feet square, (all uniformly of the same dimensions,) the building of them was thus; after procuring the most suitable timber for the business, it was laid up by notching them in at the four corners. When arrived at the proper heighth, about seven feet, the two end sticks which held those that served for plates were made to jut out about a foot from the sides and a straight pole made to rest on them, parellel to the plates; the gable ends were then formed by laying on pieces with straight poles on each, which served for ribs to hold the covering, drawing in gradually to the ridge pole. Now for the cov-ingcovering (at line break) [sic]; this was done by sawing some of the larger trees into cuts about four feet in length, splitting them into bolts, and riving them into shingles, or rather staves; the covering then commenced by laying on those staves, resting the lower ends on the poles by the plates, they were laid on in two thicknesses, carefully breaking joints; these were then bound on by a straight pole with withes, then another double tier with the butts resting on this pole and bound on as before, and so on to the end of the chapter. A chimney was then built at the centre of the backside, composed of stone as high as the eves and finished with sticks and clay, if clay was to be had, if not, with mud. The last thing was to hew stuff and build us up cabins or births to sleep in, and then the buidings were fitted for the reception of gentlemen soldiers, with all their rich and gay furniture.

Such were the habitations we had to construct at this time. We got into them about the beginning of the year, when the weather became intensely cold. Cold weather and snow were plenty, but beef and bread were