History and Memory of Army Women and Female Soldiers, 1770s–1870s
The chapter addresses the ways women were involved in warfare on both sides of the Atlantic in the time between the 1770s and 1880s as camp followers, officially recognized auxiliaries, nurses, and cross-dressed female soldiers and how their active war support was perceived and remembered during the nineteenth century. Collective memory of these women represents a complex picture. Camp followers and officially recognized auxiliaries were long forgotten. The small number of cross-dressed female soldiers, too, fell into obscurity, especially if they survived the wars. Yet by the latter half of the nineteenth century, some of these women were rediscovered, and their public image became more positive. Their public portrayal was, however, one dimensional: they were girls and women who rose above the limitations of their sex to defend a “nation in danger.” They now became examples of extraordinary female patriotism.