women in wartime

Published in The Post-Star (B1)
9/19/05

It’s not easy for anyone to march 10 miles a day without hiking boots, but try pulling it off in petticoats.

It’s no picnic living off small rations of salt pork and rice, and sleeping beneath cloth tents in unfamiliar fields. But in 1777, some women had no choice but to follow their husbands or brothers into battle during the Revolutionary War.

This weekend marked the 228th anniversary of the Battles of Saratoga, events that changed the course of history by turning the tide against the British. More than 1,000 visitors came to the Saratoga National Historical Park on Saturday and Sunday for a real-life glimpse of how soldiers — and those who supported them — might have lived during that battle.

At a re-created encampment on a hilltop in the park, the smell of campfires and the sound of cannon fire greeted visitors. So did the sight of more than 50 re-enactors in period costume, drawn from members of the 25th Continental Regiment, the 2nd Continental Artillery Regiment, the Oneida Indian Nation Living History Program and park staff.

The men played the most obvious roles, dressed in full military regalia with muskets at their side. But a closer look into the encampment revealed an underpinning that is often overlooked in the history books.

Women who tagged along with regiments, by choice or by necessity, were called “camp followers.” They played vital roles as nurses, launderesses, seamstresses, butchers, cooks and perhaps even de facto therapists.

“At first, General Washington wasn’t in favor of camp followers; he saw them as baggage,” said Chris Depta, an office manager from Newport, west of Albany, who volunteers as a re-enactor with the Oneida Indian Nation Living History Program. “But after a while, he realized that the men were actually better off with the women’s support, and he decided to allow a small percentage of them to travel with each unit.”

Sometimes, being supportive cost the women their lives. According to seasonal park ranger Jennifer Richard-Morrow, a few women were found dead on the battlefield with cartridges in their hands. “They were bringing more ammunition to the soldiers,” she said.

The women were allotted half-rations of any available food, and their children just a quarter-ration, said Richard-Morrow. It was a tough life, but circumstances often forced women to become camp followers.

“If your home was burned down by the British, you’d be a refugee. You’d have no choice,” Richard-Morrow explained.

Romance might have also played a role. “Occasionally, there would be a woman who followed her husband to battle just because she couldn’t bear to be parted from him,” she added.

For 12-year-old re-enactor Alyssa Northup, dressing like an 18th-century girl is “really fun,” but she knows the reality of war wasn’t.

Alyssa wore a linen jacket and skirt sewn by her aunt, Depta, and looked content to sit by the campfire weaving cord around a wooden fork called a lucet.

Would she have wanted to live back then?

“Probably not,” said Alyssa, looking up from her lucet with a grin. “It seems like it was a lot of hard work.”
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