JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
Not the army commissary, a sutler's row at Petersburg. " Cigars Oysters Soda Water ", one sign. The traveling tail attached to both armies included an awful lot of commerce and those who engaged in it. There are no photographs of the gamblers, pillagers, swindlers and less savory elements making up the all-encompassing term ' camp followers '. And you thought it meant prostitute.
What's in a picture? Transpires a ton of stories.
I know what you thought. The term ' camp follower ' gets attached to women, the proverbial soiled doves of lore. Why, out of the thousands opportunists chugging along behind armies women get pegged is beyond me. Lore indeed. Yes, of course somewhere in the civilian throng trailing armies like a vast tail were homeless women who discovered there was only one way to eat. The term ' camp follower ' was certain;y a kind of swear word during the ACW. It meant a mostly rag tag group of opportunists whose purpose was to ensure army paychecks stopped at their mobile establishments first, or scavenged war torn towns, kept an eye open for nefarious deals in contracts or a swift pillage through plantations.
1863
It really was a problem. After the first outrage over the shambles at Bull Run became a dull roar the finger pointing began. Dangers associated with allowing civilians within a mile of an army were highlighted. It hadn't been cowardly soldiers or even the infamous picnic basket spectators who'd been unwittingly complicit in clogging routes. Blame eventually swung around to that stupid tail, camp followers. That was 1861. The problem persisted.
"..has become a mass of corruption "
Please no one become upset with me- sutlers were included in the list of objectionable creatures constituting descriptions. Reenactors, no offence intended. When Patrick issued one of quite a few general orders intended to solve the problems associated with what amounted to a civilian army following the military, an entire tail was cut off and sent to Washington, DC, baggage to follow. I'm not including black civilians who followed the Union Army after escaping bondage- that's a whole, 'nother story. They were quite simply homeless.
An hilarious albeit confusing close up from the LoC image below, a sutler's establishment. Can't remember where ( someone here on CWT will know )
Seems to be a lot of drinking, some display of wares ( guy's holding an umbrella? ), men toasting a guy in civilian toggery whose gold chain should tell us something. Not picking on sutler's although they're accused of selling goods priced up 2 and 3 hundred times. Account from one wharf ( White House Landing? ) where sutlers were holding clearing sales on the dock before bolting as McClellan cleared out. Like I said, no one seems to have gotten photos of the genuine ' sharks ' ( as described by a report on the problem of camp followers ).
Slightly more romantic idea of a sutler's tent, Harpers, I think 1862. ( spend a lot of time in public access sources, don't always remember to log dates )
It was a problem for both armies. Numbers range- there's a much printed report on General Price's 15,000 man army, between 2,000 to 5,000 camp followers straggling on behind. Guessing it was probably closer to 2,000, outrage causing those numbers to rise as the story was reprinted.
Here's another general order, General Hunter 1863's solution. Pretty funny.
They were to be scooped into the army, drafted on the spot as it were. An inventive and partially effective solution.
Author of this piece ( there are dozens, in dozens of newspapers between 1861-1865 ) is outraged for Southerners stripped of possessions by the swarm. " The rascals cheat the government as readily as they do the rebels ".
Once in awhile I'll find an account where a female soldier is discovered and thrown in jail as a prostitute and accused of being a camp follower but I can't find a single mention otherwise where ' camp follower ' meant er, hooker. Like I said they were there, just not en mass as were the forms of humanity illustrated in these articles.
That's a big chunk of soldier paychecks/tax dollars.
And sometimes they rubbed elbows with each other in Old Capitol Prison.
Haven't done enough research on it but really should. I began poking around to see if any women's stories could be traced. Typing ' camp follower ' in search engines was enlightening although not for the reasons I'd thought. I was trying to find some stories of displaced women who'd been forced into a hateful trade. What I found was this phantom army we never see and rarely hear of when discussing the ACW. The tawdry side had a lot of faces.