“The utter insufficiency of means of land-transport greatly perplexed the authorities, and, judging from the ever-varying complexion of the memoranda, orders, and notifications on the subject, which issued continually from the bureaux of Selimnieh, it was unlikely a satisfactory solution of the problem would be promptly reached. At one moment, we were assured that the commissariat (hapless institution! doomed from the very beginning to be the scape-goat of every administrative failure or shortcoming) would provide for the conveyance of tents, sick, baggage, and the like; an hour afterwards, it was noised abroad that that department declined to engage in such duties, that the poor Treasury camel, starved and cuffed about as it was, had quite enough to do to provide the troops with daily bread, without undertaking any fresh burdens. Then did a public-spirited man in authority, hit upon the policy of making the Captains responsible for the carriage of the _impedimenta_ of their respective companies; naturally enough, this scheme was unfavourably received by those so seriously menaced in that delicate point—the pocket. The intended victims remonstrated, inquiring whence the purchase-money of so many horses and mules was to be derived? how losses were to be indemnified? meekly adding, that the project was unprecedented in military finance. These objections silenced the prescriber of the nostrum. The alarmed centurions heard no further about the matter.”[197] ----- Footnote 197: _Our Veterans, etc._, p. 23. ----- After this, orders were issued to all Officers to provide themselves with bât-horses.[198] Twenty-one were allotted to each battalion, of which two belonged to every company for the transport of tents (_General Order_ , June 1, 1854). Baggage parades frequently took place, to instruct the men how to pack the loads, and to accustom the animals to carry them. ----- Footnote 198: _Battalion Order_, May 25, 1854: “Officers are to provide themselves with animals for the conveyance of their baggage without delay.” -----