“Camp followers more than earned their keep because they provided an invaluable social matrix that increased the effectiveness of everyone involved.”
By John Danielski
THE CAMP followers of Napoleon’s armies were tough and hardy, brave and adaptable, and accompanied every one of his campaigns.
They could shoot muskets, give food and drink to men under fire and drag the wounded to safety. Searing heat and agonizing cold might slow them but could never stop them.
Contrary to myth, they were not all prostitutes but more often wives of soldiers in the ranks and mothers who could give birth without delaying a march and nurse a child as they walked. In addition to their strong maternal instincts, many displayed a shrewd sense for business as they traded, sold wares and bartered for goods. Many were excellent accountants, managing their spouses’ meager pay.
Officially they were in camp to perform routine housekeeping chores – cooking, mending uniforms, washing clothes – but they also supplied something even more important: emotional support for men at war, something that complimented and strengthened the bonds of fellowship.
Camp followers in Napoleon’s Grande Armée fell into two categories: blanchisseuse, laundress/seamstress, or vivandière, a seller of foodstuffs and necessaries.
Camp followers had to be wives, usually of the NCOs, and were officially licensed and paid by the government. Licensing camp followers solved a difficulty that had plagued pre-Revolutionary French armies: A lack of regulation had often swelled their numbers to the point that they greatly slowed an army’s rate of advance. One battalion of the era with 350 men had more than 1,300 camp followers.
Each camp follower wore a small circular brass medallion which proclaimed her name, function, and the unit to which she was attached. They wore no uniforms, but could often be found wearing castoff greatcoats, cavalry capes, gaiters, and brogans: above and under dresses that were made from linen, wool, or canvas. They wore their hair tucked under a hat or bonnet, often binding it up with a red ribbon.
Regulations allowed an army headquarters one vivandière along with a four wheeled cart pulled by two horses and a blanchisseuse with a pack horse. Each regimental headquarters was furnished with a vivandière and a four wheeled wagon drawn by four horses. Each battalion was allowed two vivandières and two blanchisseuses, each with a pack horse.
When Napoleon’s army marched into Russia in 1812, Davout’s corps of 69,000 had 207 blanchisseuses, 222 vivandières, 21 four horse wagons, 11 three horse carts, and 397 pack horses: a total of 429 women and 514 horses. The army as a whole contained more than 3,000. Only 30,000 of the more than 600,000 troops that invaded Russia made it out six months later, but accompanying the frozen and starving survivors were over 500 women.
Children were a natural concomitant of marriage, and each regiment was permitted to support two male children at the government’s expense. Girls were provided for by way of voluntary donations from soldiers in the regiment. The boys would be educated by the regiment’s senior sergeants. At age 14 they were apprenticed to armorer’s, sappers, or musicians, with the expectation that they would enlist at 16. They proved a valuable source of future NCOs and officers. Female children assisted their mothers in their assigned tasks.
Widowed camp followers were not permitted to remarry for a period of 10 months, to ensure that the parentage of any child they might bear was clear. As was the usual practice, a would-be suitor for a widow had to secure permission from his commanding officer to marry. Widows, however, were encouraged to return home and take advantage of their husband’s pensions. In practice, many newly single blanchisseuse or vivandière quickly sought new partners, often from the men she had served in the unit. Such common-law marriages were widely accepted, often solemnized by a simple public exchange of vows, followed by drinking, singing and dancing. In a time when marriages among the better classes were often arranged and the participants strangers, a vivandière widow typically knew her next husband well.
Camp followers typically came from the lower classes. Many were the children of army veterans. Despite their lack of status, some were able to advance socially in a way that would have been impossible before the Revolution. Catherine Hübscher married a soldier named François Joseph Lefebvre. Despite starting out as a humble private, he eventually became a Marshal of France in 1804 and the Duke of Danzig in 1807. Catherine, who accompanied her husband through his rise, was very blunt-spoken at the Imperial Court, but Napoleon found her lack of pretentiousness amusing.
Blanchisseuses worked hard. Doing the laundry for an entire battalion took a full week. In an era before laundry soap, wood ash was used for cleaning and clothes had to be repeatedly rinsed to fully release the ash’s alkaline contents. Drying, folding, ironing and mending consumed additional time, as did returning the clothing to its owners.
Vivandière were merchants who provided non-regulation but prized trade goods and non-ration food to soldiers. They functioned as what the British and American armies called a sutler. Neither dairy products nor charcuterie – ham and sausage – were officially issued to soldiers, but could be purchased in the field from a well-connected vivandière. Vinegar, which was the chief way to purify stream water, could only be purchased from a vivandière. She sold many useful non-food items, as well, the most popular of which included flint and strikers, pipes, tobacco, utensils, bowls, needles, threads and even writing paper. A good vivandière also became a dependable confidant to the men she served and often wrote letters home for the illiterate.
Because they handled cash and coin on a regular basis, many vivandières did a brisk business as money lenders, though chiefly to officers rather than enlisted men.
Though soldiers were supposed to cook their own meals, more than a few messes hired vivandières to perform the duties.
Between the evening meal and tattoo (the time for lights out), soldiers had several hours of free time to gather and socialize, often with a drink. Many craved something stronger than the wine and beer issued by the army and many sought out a venue more comfortable than a campfire. Both were provided at a cantina, or café, and it was a vivandière who ran it. Known as a cantinière, these central meeting places took on the role of coffeehouse, tavern and salon, all rolled into one. It was a place where a soldier might drink, smoke and swap the latest gossip, both military and civilian. Card playing was permitted, but gambling was not, although small bets were winked at.
In garrison towns, those cantinas might be substantial buildings with real menus, as well as having tables, chairs, and even billiard tables. On campaign, they were often tents, or even just a large canvas sheet draped over tree branches. Large garlands placed outside functioned as the equivalent of a sign at an inn.
Savvy vivandières stood to make substantial profits; a few retired as wealthy women. But since they were often close enough to the front lines to be exposed to random artillery fire, they also risked losing their livelihoods as well as their lives. They were also tightly regulated. They could be fined for selling drinks after the beating of retreat and might face up to 10 years in irons for robbing the dead on a battlefield – unless they had secured permission from the commanding general to do so. A death sentence would be handed down if a wounded soldier was killed to secure plunder.
Vivandières who were well-liked by the soldiers might have their goods protected during retreats. Those who were not so popular could expect their wagons to be looted amid the chaos. One who greatly endeared herself to the men was Catherine Baland, who distributed brandy under fire at the Battle of Bidossa. As she handed out cups, she told each man, “Pay me tomorrow.” Her words reassured the men; she believed that they would survive the fight.
Of course, prostitutes could also be found around every Napoleonic army, but sex workers stood apart from true camp followers. Ever present, officers, ever mindful of the effect of social diseases on a regiment, might order them driven off if their numbers became too great. When a unit was stationed in garrison town, soldiers were encouraged to patronize only government authorized brothels, where the women were regularly checked for disease.
While camp followers performed useful functions, a small group chiefly satisfied the needs of the boudoir. Officers were not supposed to bring their wives on campaign, so many acquired local mistresses. The mistresses of general officers were well known and often exercised considerable influence over their men.
Marshal Andre Messina accepted the Spanish command only when Napoleon granted him permission to bring his mistress, Henriette Leberton. He outfitted her as an officer, and she was never far from his side. At one point, he halted an entire marching column so the men could fall out and search for her lost parrot.
General Doumourez had two mistresses: Félicité and Théophile. Both were not only dressed as officers but were given actual commissions. They were treated as aide-de-camp and fought in four battles.
Most remarkable of all was Pauline Fourès. The wife of a lieutenant in the 22nd Chasseurs, she disguised herself as cavalryman and smuggled herself to Egypt aboard a military transport. There she attracted the romantic attention of Napoleon himself. Bonaparte had the husband reassigned to Malta. He later returned unexpectedly, discovered the affair, and divorced the woman. When Napoleon left Egypt, she became the mistress of his successor in command. She eventually returned to France, remarried twice, and made a fortune in the Brazilian lumber trade.
Camp followers are often ignored in military history, but they played an important role in turning battalions into something resembling families: their humanity increased unit cohesion. They promoted efficiency by freeing men from housekeeping duties and the goods they provided made the hard lives of soldiers easier. Their children furnished a valuable source of future NCOs as well as providing soldiers with useful servants for minor tasks. Camp followers more than earned their keep because they provided an invaluable social matrix that increased the effectiveness of everyone involved. They were as grease to gears: while an army could function without camp followers, it functioned far more smoothly with them.
John Danielski is the author of seven books chronicling the adventures of Royal Marine Thomas Pennywhistle during the Napoleonic Wars. The newest title in the series is Attaché Extraordinaire. It is available from Amazon.com. He is a frequent contributor to MilitaryHistoryNow.com. Destination Waterloo, the eighth book in the Pennywhistle series, will be released in November of 2023.
