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Miscellany Topic: Soldiers’ Wives
My book, Raven's Honor begins in Spain in November 1812 during the army's retreat from Burgos. The descriptions of the retreat in Raven's Honor are based on the accounts of several contemporary witnesses. The experiences of the heroine in the book are based on the real-life experiences of the women who went to war with Wellington's army.
Soldiers’ Wives with Wellington’s Army
"One of the men's wives, being very large in the family-way, towards evening stepped from among the crowd, and lay herself down amidst the snow, a little out of the main road. Her husband remained with her; and I heard one or two hasty observations amongst our men that they had taken possession of their last resting-place. The enemy were, indeed, not far behind at this time, the night was coming down, and their chance seemed in truth a bad one. To remain behind the column of march in such weather was to perish.
To my surprise, however, I some little time afterwards, again saw the woman. She was hurrying, with her husband, after us, and in her arms she carried the babe she had just given birth to. Her husband and herself, between them, managed to carry that infant to the end of the retreat, where we embarked. Many years afterwards I saw that boy, a strong and healthy lad."
From The Recollections of Rifleman Harris
The Lottery of Going to War
When a regiment was sent on active service, only six wives out of every hundred men were allowed to go with it.
Soldiers and their wives would assemble in the pay-sergeant's room. Tickets marked "to-go" and "not-to-go" were placed in a hat and the women were called forward one at a time in order of seniority. The wives who drew "not-to-go" tickets - the majority - were given a cash allowance to return home, but received no further rations or financial assistance. The lucky few prepared for the journey to the Peninsula.
In most cases no account was taken of whether a woman was pregnant or had children, although in the Rifle Corps it was laid down that "women who have more than two children can never be of the number to embark."
The Sea Voyage
The average length of the voyage to the Peninsula was about three weeks. The sleeping areas on the transports were arranged so that a space the size of a blanket was shared by six men. The same amount of deck space was allowed for three couples. There were no separating partitions and neither men nor women had any privacy.
The soldiers and their families were divided into three watches. Each watch went on deck in rotation and had to stay there for four hours to reduce congestion in the berths.
Women only received half rations and sometimes arguments - and even fights - took place over the division of the family food.
Keeping up with the Column
The women were usually allowed to move forward with the army. It was often difficult for them to keep up and many of them bought small local donkeys. The donkeys cost about £4, which was a significant sum when the daily rate of pay for an infantry private was eight pence.
Billets and Bivouacs
If the night was to be spent in a large town or village, an officer from the quartermaster-general's department went ahead to make arrangements for billeting the troops. Women and children didn't have any specific right to accommodation in billets, but they were usually fitted in if it was possible.
Alternately, the night might be spent in bivouacs in the country. Until fairly late in the war, the army didn't have any tents and huts were erected instead. The men were divided into squads to cut branches, carry logs to the lines, or to construct the huts.
Danger and Hardship
Life on the line of march was always demanding and sometimes it was extremely dangerous. One mother and child drowned as they were trying to cross a river on a donkey.
Women and children were particularly at risk when the army was in retreat. The extract at the top of the page from Rifleman Harris's Recollections is a story with a happy ending, but other women and children died from exhaustion and exposure.
If the women fell too far to the rear they were in danger of being captured by the French. Sometimes they were returned unharmed. But during the retreat from Corunna one group of women were overtaken and raped by French troops before they were allowed to continue.
An Example of One Woman's Courage
During the defence of Cadiz in 1810 one small outwork was held by a garrison of 140 men. One day the garrison was subjected to heavy bombardment. 64 men were killed or wounded. Mrs Reston, a sergeant's wife, first carried her child to one of the bombproof shelters, then helped the surgeon with the wounded men.
When the water in the shelter began to run out a drummer-boy was ordered to draw some more from the well. But the well was out in the open and the boy was too frightened. Mrs Reston went to get the water herself. The first time she tried to let the bucket down into the well a shell cut the rope. She found a sailor to help her retrieve the bucket, and then she carried it full of water back to the surgeon.
Mrs Reston also carried sandbags to bolster up the damaged defences and passed up ammunition to the guns.
Women's Instinct for Survival
"The women of the army must be prevented from purchasing bread in the villages, within two leagues of the station of any division of the army: when any woman wants to purchase bread, she must ask the Officer of the company to which she belongs, for a passport, which must be countersigned by the commanding officer of the regiment. Any woman found with bread in her possession, purchased at any place nearer than two leagues, will be deprived of the bread by the provost or his assistants; as will any woman who goes out of camp to purchase bread without a passport. Women, who will have been discovered disobeying the order, will not be allowed to receive rations."
Duke of Wellington's General Orders
As these orders show, many women became so good at foraging for themselves, their husbands and their children, that sometimes they managed to buy all the available supplies ahead of the commissariat staff. Regulations were laid down to control them.
Widows and Remarriage
"When the roll was called after the battle, the females who missed their husbands came along the front of the line to inquire of the survivors whether they knew anything about them. Amongst other names I heard that of Cochan called in a female voice.
The name struck me, and I observed the poor woman who had called it, as she stood sobbing before us. I myself had observed him fall ...
After a while Mrs Cochan appeared anxious to seek the spot where her husband fell, and in the hope of still finding him alive, asked me to accompany her over the field.
She now soon discovered all her hopes were in vain; she embraced a stiffened corpse, and after rising and contemplating his disfigured face for some minutes, with hands clasped and tears streaming down her cheeks she took a prayer-book from her pocket, and kneeling down, repeated the service for the dead over the body ...
Mrs Cochan then returned with me to the company to which her husband had been attached, and laid herself down upon the hearth near us. She lay amongst some other females, who were in the same distressing circumstances with her, with the sky for her canopy, and a turf for her pillow, for we had no tents with us.
She was a handsome woman, I remember, and the circumstances of my having seen her husband fall, and accompanied her to find his body, begot a sort of intimacy between us. The company to which Cochan had belonged, bereaved as she was, was now her home, and she marched and took equal fortune with us to Vimeiro. She hovered about us during that battle, and then went with us to Lisbon, where she succeeded in procuring a passage to England.
The circumstances of our intimacy were singular, and an attachment grew between us during the short time we remained together. What little attention I could pay her during the hardships of the march I did, and I also offered on the first opportunity to marry her.
‘She had, however, received too great a shock on the occasion of her husband's death ever to think of another soldier,' she said; she therefore thanked me for my good feeling towards her, but declined my offer, and left us soon afterwards for England."
From The Recollections of Rifleman Harris
Unlike Mrs Cochan, many women did marry again, in some cases two or three times during the campaign. Far from home, and with little money, most soldiers' widows didn't have much choice.
Bad Behaviour
Given the opportunity, some women were as hard-drinking as their menfolk. On the retreat from Corunna the wine stores at Bembibre were pillaged and soldiers, women and even children were seen lying dead drunk in the streets. Both Wellington and Napoleon believed women were as bad as men when it came to plundering.
One Devoted Father
When the wife of a soldier in the 94th Scots Brigade died, she left him with a small child only a few months old. Instead of asking one of the women to help him, he looked after the child completely unaided. For some time he marched along in the ranks with the child perched on top of his already heavy equipment. After a while he became ill and was sent to hospital, taking the baby with him. Unfortunately there is no record of what happened to them after that.
Romance
One of the most well-documented romances of the Peninsular War is that of Juana Maria de Los Dolores de Leon and Harry Smith of the Rifle Brigade.
Juana and Harry met in the aftermath of the siege of Badajoz in 1812. When Badajoz finally fell, the victorious British troops rampaged through the town, drinking, looting and raping. Juana and her older sister met Harry Smith and his friend John Kincaid when they tried to flee the city. Juana's sister begged the two officers for help and protection. Both Smith and Kincaid immediately fell for Juana, but when Kincaid realised she preferred Smith he kept quiet about his own feelings. Within two days Juana and Harry were married, and from then on she accompanied him on the march. They were a devoted couple, and most of the time Juana enjoyed life on campaign, though sometimes she was dreadfully afraid for Harry. Their story is told in Harry Smith's Autobiography and was fictionalised by Georgette Heyer in The Spanish Bride.
Finally, here is Rifleman Harris's description of the passionate way one officer's wife greeted her husband when he arrived safely at Southampton.
"I recollect seeing at this time an affecting instance of female affection displayed. One of our officers, whose name I will not mention, and who was much beloved by us all, observed his wife waiting for him on the beach, as he disembarked from the boat. He met her as she rushed into the sea to embrace him, and they were locked in each others' arms before they touched dry land."
References
Following the Drum: Women in Wellington's Wars. Brigadier F C G Page (1986) Andre Deutsch.
The Recollections of Rifleman Harris. Edited and Introduced by Christopher Hibbert (1997 Edition) The Windrush Press.
The Autobiography of Sir Harry Smith 1787-1819. Introduction by Philip Haythornthwaite (1999) Constable and Company Limited.
The Spanish Bride (1940) Georgette Heyer