Note 11 — Chapter XII · THE SCUTARI MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

I believe I am correct in stating that, in the French army, one soldier has to cook for a squad of sixteen men, while in camp: and that he has charge of two canteen kettles. I always saw five or six men cooking for a company in each kitchen; there were ten kitchens to a regiment of ten companies. This the soldiers told me themselves.

I make this remark to corroborate what I afterwards said in Paris before several French officers who contradicted me, but who, I believe, were not in the Crimean war. They stated that they only had two cooks to one company while campaigning. Upon making inquiries of a corporal who had charge of that department in his regiment while in the Crimea, he assured me that it was one man to each kettle, and not one to two—afterwards divided into two messes, forming a squad of nine or ten men, which would be equal to one hundred men to a regiment of one thousand in strength, instead of eight, as I at first calculated, or about ten squads to a company. While in barracks, comparatively speaking, it only requires a few men per regiment.