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About 20,000 women followed their husbands to war.
They were known as camp followers. Some were looking for adventure. Others wanted to be with their loved ones. But most became camp followers to survive. They were poor women who were afraid that they and their children would starve with their husbands at war. Camp followers were paid for doing laundry or serving as nurses, and they were fed. Women got half as much food as men did (half rations). Children got quarter rations.
◀ Some camp followers worked as nurses in field hospitals. They were paid, but not much. In those days, nursing was not a skilled or respected job. Nurses emptied chamber pots. They bathed and fed sick soldiers. They also tried to keep hospital wards clean by sprinkling vinegar around several times a day. Very little was known about preventing diseases. Nurses risked catching whatever the soldiers had.
◀ George Washington was an upper-class gentleman. He was used to women with good manners and fancy clothes. He thought the camp followers made his army look ragged. In August of 1777, the Continental Army marched through Philadelphia. Washington made the camp followers use the backstreets. He didn’t want them to be seen with the soldiers. But he thought that having their wives in camp kept some men from deserting.
Officers’ wives usually visited their husbands only during winter camp. That’s when the army stayed in one place. They knitted socks and sewed for the soldiers. But their main job was to keep up their husbands’ spirits. They did this by having dances and card parties. Martha Washington also joined her husband at winter camp. On her first winter visit, to Boston, she brought George’s favorite jams and relishes. She also brought some cured hams. ▶
◀ British troops had camp followers too. Most came to America with their husbands. They were ragged and often hungry. Loyalists accused them of stealing food. They were allowed to stay in America only as long as their husbands could fight. The first widows and orphans were sent back to England in the summer of 1775.
▲ A few camp followers served on the battlefield. They carried cold water. It was used to cool down the cannons. One famous water carrier was Margaret Corbin. She took over her husband’s cannon when he was killed in battle. She fired it until her arm was nearly torn off by grapeshot (small iron balls shot from a cannon). Another famous water carrier was Mary Hays, who was known as Molly Pitcher. She took over from her husband when he collapsed from heat. One soldier’s journal claims that a British cannonball blew off the lower part of her petticoat. But she kept firing the cannon.
