FORT ABERCROMBIE, D. T.
Officer's Wives
1861 REGULATIONS
There are no regulations found in the 1861 Army General Regulations regarding the wives of officers. Married officers were allowed to bring their wives and families to live with them at the post, but no legal status or recognition was accorded them. The only women officially recognized by the army were the laundresses. If an officer were to die, then the wife and family would have to vacate the quarters that they had been living in. Most likely, they would return to their homes.
Nevertheless, the officers' wives did play a significant role in the fort community and through their literary works-journals and diaries-contributed much to our knowledge of army life.
OVERVIEW
A typical Frontier Army wife came from the upper middle class. She adapted to the harsh, often hostile environment and the frequent separations and moves. She brought her civilizing influence to bear on isolated posts and to the men stationed there.
Despite having to endure low pay and near constant indebtedness, being ranked out of quarters on little or no notice and lack of fresh food and accustomed comforts, the Frontier Army wife is aptly described as "a kind of tough, weather proof, India-rubber woman. Serene and unruffled in all situations."
The hardships were a fact of life in the West, but preferred to the alternative. "It is infinitely worse to be left behind, a prey to all the horrors of imagining what may happen to one you love. You eat your heart out with anxiety, and to endure such suspense is simply the hardest of all trials that come to a soldier's wife." And so, these valiant women came to the frontier and found that their lives were filled with the extended family of an Army post.
Life on an Army post was filled with diversions. Entertaining both new arrivals and visitors and neighbors was a constant activity when the troops were in garrison. Also popular while the men were home were fishing, dancing, picnicking, and shooting.
On days that the soldiers were gone the officers' wives spent their time with less strenuous pursuits. Activities such as sewing bees, riding, teas, and card parties were the rule of the day.
Socially, Army wives were generally from upper-middle-class families. Assuming the majority were educated, why then were they almost "invisible" as a group? One answer may lie in the education itself.
They had been educated as gentlewomen in the prevailing school of thought that began in the early decades of settlement in America. Known as the "cult of true womanhood," teaching demanded that a woman be pious, submissive, uncomplaining, supportive, and educated in the genteel and domestic arts. She should not compete with men in any way. As the moral guardian of her home, she should shield the family from the undesirable elements of a materialistic society.
In the 1830s and 1840s, essays, novels, school texts, sermons, and ladies' periodicals, such as Godey's Lady's Book, stressed the importance of a woman's "sphere" of influence. Although women were physically weaker and possibly mentally inferior to men, they were morally superior and thus equal to men within their separate sphere. Women were to remain behind the scenes, with only the results of their work showing, not the process. To use a trite phrase, women were to "be seen and not heard."
In the 1850s and 1860s, the images of the frail and delicate lady and the sedentary life of confinement that produced her, went out of fashion. Women were encouraged to "go forth into the fields and woods" for walks of at least two miles a day, and to be more conscious of their health and diet, thus enabling them to perform their moral duties and responsibilities more effectively.
The officer's wife seemed to embrace the 1840s school of thought; she followed her husband to the frontier out of a sense of love, duty, and the desire to provide her family with a comfortable home no matter where it was of how crude the surroundings. In this case, if an officer's wife wanted to live up to the ideals of true womanhood, she had to go with her husband to achieve them. The self-sufficiency required in frontier society lent itself to the newer school of thought. Though probably not overly concerned about which school was popular at the time; it appears the wives were able to move easily between both. They were, it would seem, products of their natural and social environments.
TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT
Tools or props used by an officer's wife would include the following:
OFFICER'S WIFE'S OUTFIT
HOUSING
The first challenge that women had to deal with was getting to their new homes. There were no railroads or stage lines on the frontier at this time. One had to travel by keelboat, riverboat, or overland in springless army wagons. It was slow, tiring, and extremely uncomfortable. Their husbands' first priority upon arriving at the new post would be to obtain quarters for their families.
The quality of quarters varied from post to post, depending on the availability of construction materials, the skill of the builders, the age of the post, and of course, the allotted budget. In the 1850s and early 1860s, an officer's lady could expect to set up housekeeping in a one-room cabin with a dirt, or if she was lucky, a wooden floor. Walls were made of rough, unhewn logs, with and without chinking. Roofs were sometimes nothing more than a framework of boards with a sheet of canvas stretched over the top. Small sheet or cast iron stoves were used for cooking and warmth and toilet facilities were usually in outhouses behind the quarters.
Since transportation costs were high, the officer's lady made do with only a few items of furniture. Packing crates were lined with calico to become cupboards for her few pieces of china, glass, and silver. Boards laid on sawhorses became an elegant table when topped by starched linen tablecloth. An oriental carpet might cover the damp floor and chintz curtains offered some privacy. Camp cots became comfortable when piled high with quilts and army blankets, and an easy chair could be made out of a barrel stuffed with moss and covered with calico.
The quarters a wife found, when she arrived at a post, might be as simple as a log shelter or as comfortable as Officers' Quarters at Fort Abercrombie. Whatever her lot she accepted it with equanimity and busied herself making a "home" out of her quarters, using the limited furniture and contents of the trunks and packing boxes that had accompanied her in the transport wagon.
Officers' wives had to endure frequent moves and the high cost of transporting their personal effects. An Infantry Officer also mentioned preparations to "break up and sell out" items of furniture. By this time, it was customary for a departing officer to sell all or part of his good to another officer to defray transportation costs. In the 1860s, an officer noted that "the direct consequence of making oneself comfortable appears to be to get orders for some other station."
The frequent transfer from post to post caused another irritant for army wives. The practice of "ranking out" or "the bricks falling" was widespread and very disturbing. Upon arrival at a post, an officer could select the quarters of any subordinate officer. This often caused the whole garrison to move, because the displaced officer then had to chose from the remaining quarters. This usually resulted in the displacement of the lowest ranking officer and his family or caused them to double up on quarters with another family. It was particularly annoying when a bachelor officer displaced a family, or when gardens, polished floors, freshly calcimined walls, and a well stocked cellar had to be vacated. At Fort Abercrombie, however, there was sufficient housing for the officers so that the practice of "ranking out" did not occur.
LIFESTYLE
The status of officers' wives was ambiguous at best. Under military law, the wives were camp followers because they were civilians, whereas, laundresses had a legal standing in military law insofar as regulations were concerned. There were no restrictions on officers marrying as there were in some European armies.
The social caste system in the old Army was very rigid. The women often divided themselves into social groups. Some of the women who inhabited officers' row were refined and cultured. Others were just simple-mannered and warmhearted army girls who knew no home but the regiment. There was always the would-be fashionable, frivolous kind as well.
There was only one social position harder to fill than that of the minister's wife, and that was the wife of the commanding officer. The tone of garrison life depended immeasurably upon its social leader, the commanding officer's wife.
The officers' wives were an intensely loyal lot of women. They were part of the regiment and proud of it. For that reason a troop commander's wife would refer to her husband's company as "our troop" and the regiment as "ours".
Although officers' wives privately expressed individual opinions in letters and diaries about various officers, publicly, regimental pride meant that all the wives were proud of all the officers and vice versa. If all the officers were not handsome, they were treated as if they were by all the women. The loyalty and sense of oneness extended beyond the regiment. When an unescorted army wife was encountered on a train, for instance, any officer would send his card by the porter. It was the commonest civility for an officer to always introduce himself to a woman who was known to be an army wife.
Eastern ladies had to become accustomed to many things on the frontier, one of which was exposure to the elements which was a hazard. They often dreaded the effect on the complexion of the "dazzling sun" and "blasting gales". The sun fades and streaks the glossiest locks and breaks and dries the silkiest mane. One lady tried covering her face with a chamois mask while traveling in an open wagon, but it so terrified her baby that she could not continue using it.
The ladies always exchanged tips on how to deal with traveling in the West. One was the use of a champagne basket as a cradle while traveling in a wagon. Above all, the women of the frontier Army post wanted to see and hear everything so long as the gossip came from other women. When she heard gossip from her husband, she refused to believe a word of it and sought verification from another woman.
Aside from the element of insecurity, life on an army post could be quite pleasant for the wife of an officer. Since a female servant took over many of the household chores, she had leisure time for sewing bees, tea parties, etc. If the region was free of hostiles, she could ride, shoot and fish. In the winter, when the men had returned from campaign, some posts enjoyed a steady round of card parties and dinners which were often elegant formal affairs beautifully served with dainty china and silver. Dances were held and with ladies in short supply, no woman ever lacked for a partner.
Distinction of rank exerted a strong influence on the lives of the women on an army post, for the military caste system extended to the dependents. The wives of officers and enlisted men held separate parties, and often did not even talk to each other. Nevertheless, the Captain's wife and the laundress were sisters under the skin. Every army wife was well aware of the threat to her husband that lay outside the post. When the trumpets sounded officers' call and the company commanders gathered for orders, wives and men alike waited in silent dread. Such was life at a western army post.
SERVANTS
Once secure in her quarters, if she could indeed feel secure, an officer's lady would occupy herself with managing the household, helped by one or more servants. Servants were a luxury that almost all officers could afford, and depending on the size of the family, would consist of at least a cook, a nursemaid for the children, and possibly a soldier striker.
Obtaining reliable help was a recurring concern for army wives after the Civil War. An officer's wife might find help from other women on the post. Often the wives of enlisted soldiers who were not engaged as laundresses would work for officers' families as cooks or maids to support their soldier husband's income.
Female servants, rarities on the frontier, proved as hard to keep as to obtain. At first, officers' wives wanted attractive servants, but soon they found that the pretty maids became enamored of their good looks and popularity and refused to work or resigned and got married.
Because female servants were so difficult to find and keep, officers often hired soldiers as servants for their families. Called strikers, such soldier/servants could earn $5 or $10 a month for their work and were relieved of some of their routine duties. The competition for a good striker could be fierce. A striker was especially useful in the bachelor officers' quarters, but was just as much in demand in the home of married officers. In the single officers' quarters, a striker would hear the official talk of the post and be ahead of the rest of the soldiers of the post in that respect.
The striker was not allowed to cook for himself, but was allowed to eat from the officers' table after the officers were through. The striker picked for this duty would be the one with the proper uniform, shined buttons and proper manners, as he was a butler as well as a cook and housekeeper. Because of his performance, a good striker may have eventually been promoted to noncommissioned officer (corporal or sergeant). He was in great demand as a domestic and hated by the garrison. In fact, he was known as the "dog robber".
The text on this page was taken from a publication, The Girl I Left Behind Me (used by permission), produced by staff at the Frontier Army Museum in Fort Leavenworth: and Sabers and Soapsuds: Dragoon Women on the Frontier by Dana Prater(used by permission.
©2005 Bard & Wika, Inc.,
James V. Acker, Pres.
