Women Camp Followers of the American Revolution

Introduction: Women and the Camp Follower Tradition

Women have played a crucial role in history and in its most important developments over time. The status of women in America, however, has been one of the most controversial issues in building American democracy. This is largely due to the fact that women in the 18th and 19th centuries did not have the same rights as men and were therefore forced into a position of legal inferiority. The struggle for equal rights and the abolition of discriminatory practices is an important segment of American history, and one of its defining episodes unfolded during the American Revolution and the Civil War. Women, despite common expectations, played an essential role in supporting the war effort and the military. In their struggle to make a difference and to contribute to the changes taking place in society, they faced different sorts of obstacles — from gender inequality to social disregard and racial discrimination. In the end, however, history acknowledged their part in the overall development of the events that made up the crucial moments of the American Revolution and the Civil War. Women were, in this sense, part of the camp followers.

This paper presents the role of camp followers — and in particular that of women as part of this group — during the American Revolution as well as the Civil War. The two historical events are not treated separately in terms of the definition and description of camp followers, largely because the role played by these groups was similar in nature and technique. The paper therefore focuses on the general idea of camp followers during the troubled times of the American past, encompassing both the American Revolution and the Civil War.

Defining Camp Followers: Women and Children in Military Service

A proper definition of the term "camp followers," provided by Holly A. Mayer, points out that "soldiers alone do not make an army. They are the most fundamental part of that military force, but as hard as they work, and as much as they do, an army seldom marches out on their efforts alone. A great number of other people join the soldiers and their officers to build and maintain these martial organizations. (…) Such women, wagoners, and others are camp followers: those people who live and work with the military and accept, willingly or not, its governance of their affairs."¹ It can therefore be said that camp followers included women and children who, at one point or another, became useful to the war effort.

Another definition of camp followers also addresses the preconceptions surrounding them. More precisely, "while the word 'camp follower' has come to be synonymous with whore, the camp followers of the American Revolution were generally married women (with their children) who followed their husbands. They were recognized as part of the military, receiving rations — half rations for wives and quarter rations for children — and were subject to military discipline. (One woman, for instance, was jailed for using abusive language to an officer.) Camp followers earned pay as cooks, nurses, and laundresses."² Women as camp followers ultimately bore the same responsibilities in camp as they did at home, but under far harsher circumstances.

The role of children as camp followers was also important, and the army most often relied on their presence to ensure the completion of several chores around the camp. More precisely, "the children in the army had to work too. They were expected to be as busy as the adults. They hauled water and gathered firewood. Boys served as runners carrying messages from one person to another. Some boys became military musicians who played fifes and drums. Girls helped their mothers with cooking, cleaning, mending, and washing clothes. The children had time to work because there was no school in the army."³

The most important role among the camp followers was played by the women who accompanied the army, because of the multiple tasks they performed — from housekeeping to wound relief. The choice to become a camp follower was most often self-imposed. Women tended to follow their husbands because life without them would have been far more difficult financially and in terms of personal security. Furthermore, the society of that time was relatively reluctant to accept non-traditional family arrangements without a male head of household.

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