Vivandière

Vivandière or Cantinière is a French name for women attached to military regiments as sutlers or canteen keepers. 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 ‘vivandière' starting in 1793, but the use of both terms was common in French until the mid-19th century, and 'vivandière' remained the term of choice in non-French-speaking countries such as the USA/CSA, Spain, Italy, and Great Britain. Vivandières served in the French army up until the beginning of World War I, but the custom (and the name) spread to many other armies. Vivandières also served on both sides in the American Civil War, and in the armies of Spain, Italy, the German states, Switzerland, and various armies in South America, though little is known about the details in most of those cases as historians have not done extensive research on them.

The origins of vivandières are impossible to pin down with precision. Soldiers’ wives traveled with armies far back into history, and, in the years before 1700, armies often had more women and children than soldiers. By 1700, there was a clear category of women accompanying the French army, composed of soldiers’ legitimate wives who served as vivandières. Until the French Revolution, the legal right to sell food, drink, and sundries like tobacco, wig powder, writing paper and ink to the soldiers in any regiment belonged solely to eight soldiers known as vivandiers. This was typical of Europe in the period of the Old Regime, in that custom and law granted a monopoly to a small number of privileged persons.

As servicing soldiers (vivandiers) were often too busy with their military duties to spend much time selling, their colonels granted them permission to marry. Their wives became de facto ‘vivandières’ (the female version of ‘vivandiers’). This private enterprise provisioning operation was needed because the logistical system seldom supplied the troops with food, drink, or other items beyond basic rations. If the troops could not get these things in camp, they would forage to get them outside, and the army feared that this would lead to desertions. Allowing vivandières to supplement army rations for a profit kept the troops in camp and thus lessened the chance of desertion.

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Wikipedia