793.  The captain then causes the company to take intervals as described in the School of the Squad and commands:  PITCH TENTS.

At the command PITCH TENTS, each man steps off obliquely to the right with the right foot and lays his rifle on the ground, the butt of the rifle near the toe of the right foot, muzzle to the front, barrel to the left, and steps back into his place; each front rank man then draws his bayonet and sticks it in the ground by the outside of the right heel.

[Illustration:  Plate VI.]

Equipments are unslung, packs opened, shelter half and pins removed:  each man then spreads his shelter half, small triangle to the rear, flat upon the ground the tent is to occupy, the rear rank man’s half on the right.  The halves are then buttoned together; the guy loops at both ends of the lower half are passed through the buttonholes provided in the lower and upper halves; the whipped end of the guy rope is then passed through both guy loops and secured, this at both ends of the tent.  Each front rank man inserts the muzzle of his rifle under the front end of the ridge and holds the rifle upright, sling to the front, heel of butt on the ground beside the bayonet.  His rear rank man pins down the front corners of the tent on the line of bayonets, stretching the tent taut; he then inserts a pin in the eye of the front guy rope and drives the pin at such a distance in front of the rifle as to hold the rope taut; both men go to the rear of the tent, each pins down a corner, stretching the sides and rear of the tent before securing; the rear rank man then inserts an intrenching tool, or a bayonet in its scabbard, under the rear end of the ridge inside the tent, the front rank man pegging down the end of the rear guy ropes; the rest of the pins are then driven by both men, the rear rank man working on the right.

NOTE.—­The use of the hand ax and the pick mattock in organizations equipped with the intrenching tool is authorized for the purpose of driving shelter tent pins.  The use of the bayonet for this purpose is prohibited.

The front flaps of the tent are not fastened down, but thrown back on the tent.

As soon as the tent is pitched each man arranges his equipment and the contents of his pack in the tent and stands at attention in front of his own half on line with the front guy-rope pin.

To have a uniform slope when the tents are pitched, the guy ropes should all be of the same length.

In shelter-tent camps, in localities where suitable material is procurable, tent poles may be improvised and used in lieu of the rifle and bayonet or intrenching tool as supports for the shelter tent.

794.  When the pack is not carried the company is formed for shelter tents, intervals are taken, arms are laid aside or on the ground, the men are dismissed and proceed to the wagon, secure their packs, return to their places, and pitch tents as heretofore described.