The Women Who Followed Napoleon’s Armies

“Since Antiquity, all armies have been accompanied by groups of non-combatants: servants, squires, wives, children, merchants, musicians, prostitutes, street vendors and other adventurous travellers.

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The term cantinière is a French word that only came into use in the mid-eighteenth century and originally derives from the Latin cantina (wine cellar). Initially, it referred to a female tavern keeper in a military garrison town, but it eventually came to be used broadly for vivandières, with the two terms becoming synonymous and interchangeable.

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These vivandières, or cantinières, occupy an almost legendary place in the annals of Napoleon’s Grande Armée — courageous and resilient women who faced bullets and explosions to supply soldiers with small glasses of brandy as they fought and marched towards glory.

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People who have never gone without life’s essentials cannot imagine the importance that a bottle of wine or a glass of brandy can have at certain moments. An experienced cantinière always kept a small reserve for the officers, saving it for special occasions, which doubled — or even tripled — the value of the service she provided.”

Bibliographical reference:

CROWDY, Terry (2021). Napoleon’s Women Camp Followers. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.

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