Vivandière

Vivandière is a generic name for women attached to military regiments as sutlers or canteen keepers. In popular fiction, if not in reality, they might also occupy a place of honour as mascots or "daughters of the regiment" who stiffened morale and acted as nurses on the battlefield. Their actual historic function of selling wine to the troops and working in canteens led to the adoption of the name 'cantinière' which came to supplant the original.

Cantinières were most commonly associated with the French Army. Originating as civilian canteen keepers during the Napoleonic Wars they gradually achieved official status. Each regiment had a fixed establishment of cantinières who by the mid-nineteenth century were wearing a female version of the appropriate uniform. They were sometimes married to a soldier of the regiment and normally accompanied it on active service. During the Second Empire the cantinière achieved a popular, if romanticised, image as a virtual icon of the French military. With the adoption of a short-term conscript army under the Third Republic, the cantinières were phased out and replaced by civilian workers who were employed at the regimental depot only and did not wear uniform.

French vivandières frequently appeared in popular entertainment in the 19th century, from musicals to picture postcards. In opera, the classic example is Marie in Donizetti's "La Fille du Régiment" - its title is equivalent to the frequently found translation of vivandière as "Daughter of the Regiment".

Cantinières were also present in the Spanish Army as late as 1910.

A rare American example was Anna (Annie) Etheridge who lived in Detroit when the American Civil War broke out. Etheridge joined 19 other women in April 1861 who enlisted as vivandiere's (or Daughter of the Regiment) with the Union's 2d Michigan Volunteer Regiment. When the 2nd Michigan first saw action at Blackburn's Ford, Etheridge was reported to have nursed the wounded and to have brought water to the dying. She served with the Regiment throughout its battles, including both at Bull Run. At Chancellorsville, Etheridge was wounded in the hand when a Union officer attempted to hide behind her, and he was ultimately killed and her horse wounded. For her courage under fire, Etheridge was one of only two women awarded the Kearny Cross, named in honor of Gen. Philip Kearny [Elder, Daniel K. "Remarkable Sergeants: Ten Vignettes of Noteworthy NCOs," http://ncohistory.com/files/RemarkableSgts.pdf] .

References

External links

* [http://www.vivandiere.net/hist.html History of the Vivandière on vivandière.net]
*Elder, Daniel K. "Remarkable Sergeants: Ten Vignettes of Noteworthy NCOs," http://ncohistory.com/files/RemarkableSgts.pdf