Battlefield Badasses: The Forgotten Vivandière
by Ivan Farkas
When they weren't standing three feet apart in a neat line and waiting to be stabbed or shot in the face, old-timey armies were a mess in other ways. So a few hundred years ago, spouses and kids accompanied soldiers to provide much-needed help and were often believed to outnumber the combatants on the battlefield.
But as MMORPGs have taught us, support units are just as essential as tanks or stabbers. And the old armies were supported by vivandière (or cantinière): women who performed in essence what was akin to Dungeons & Dragons cleric functions for combat corps.
As per their mellifluous name, the vivandière were mainly associated with the French military, circa the start of the 18th century, though mentions date back to at least the 1600s. Eventually, other countries like Italy, Spain, Russia, and Civil War-era America employed equivalent agents to augment their armed forces.
And augment they did. In addition to offering logistical support, comfort, and nursing for men suffering injuries or syphilis flare-ups, the women managed supplies. They sold food, drink, and even more vital items like tobacco or wig powder. Many of the women were the wives or daughters of the soldiers, unwilling to let their loved ones take to the battlefield alone. They braved bullets, and it's even said that they sometimes engaged in a bit of brawling themselves.
Arguably the most important part of their arsenal, at least in terms of militaristic morale, was the "tonnelet" slung over their shoulder. Not only did this little barrel identify the women and their units like a wartime ID, but even more crucially, it held the life-blood of soldiers and support teams: sweet, sweet booze.
Sadly, as with many accomplished women of the past (and to this day), their role was belittled and unappreciated, tainted by historical misconceptions that recorded them as "camp followers," or even prostitutes. Yet their real role was much more dignified. They led marches and parades, and often starred in marketing images for the prominent companies of the day. Like in this chocolate advertisement:
They also ushered in a fresh new style while doing all of the above, which I like to describe as "French Revolutionary cowgirl traveling hundreds of years forward to the parachute-pants era." This matched the men's get-ups, which is actually pretty neat until you remember the ultimate point of all of this is to kill a whole bunch of other people.
Aesthetically, these styles trace their lineage back to the Zouaves, a faction of flashy North African French troops recruited from Algeria. They gained fame for being as fighty as they were fashionable — which was very fashionable indeed, as seen here painted by none other than Vincent Van Gogh:
It’s too bad the vivandière were banned by the French War Ministry in 1906, due to the intimidation caused by the Viv's excellence at war and their supposed unfemininity. Which, now that I think about it, is basically women’s martial history in a nutshell.
