Vivandière Vivandière or Cantinière is a French name for women attached to military regiment s as sutler s or canteen keepers . Their actual historic function of selling wine to the troops and working in canteen s 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 like 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 . Origins . 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 , and 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 . Role . As servicing soldiers vivandiers were often too busy with their military duties to spend much time selling , so their colonels granted them permission to marry . Their wives became de facto ‘ vivandières ’ ( the female version of ‘ vivandier ’ ) . The reason that this private enterprise provisioning operation was needed was that 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 . France . Revolutionary period . The French Revolution of 1789 destroyed the rigid , aristocratic structure of the French army . Many noble officers left the country , and those that remained were politically suspect . Thousands of common soldiers also deserted in the general chaos . When France went to war with the monarchs of Europe in 1792 , the army was a shell of its former self . One key problem was that discipline and order had broken down . Thousands of women , many of them girlfriends or prostitutes , traveled with the armies , eating rations , consuming supplies , and taking up space . A small number of female soldiers , or femmes soldats also enlisted in the ranks and fought openly alongside the men . In addition , the usual ( and vital ) vivandières also continued to accompany the army . At the same time , women ’ s political groups in Paris such as the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women agitated for more equal rights for women now that the men had been freed by the Revolution . The male revolutionaries were rarely very radical when it came to women ’ s rights ; they wanted to make the armies more efficient , but they also wanted to crush women ’ s political aspirations and keep French women in a subservient role . The result was a series of laws from April through October 1793 . The Law to Rid the Armies of Useless Women passed the National Assembly on April 30 , 1793 . It banned all women from the armies , including female soldiers . This suited the political agenda of the government , since military service was equated with citizenship . However , the law specifically allowed women to remain with the army if they fell into one of two categories : laundresses ( “ blanchisseuses ” ) and vivandières . The term ‘ cantinière ’ came into use around 1793 , since vivandières ran a ‘ cantine ’ in barracks and garrisons , and in their tents on campaign . The new word quickly replaced the old ‘ vivandière ’ among most French combat troops , but the War Ministry continued to use a mix of the two words ( often interchangeably ) until 1854 . Napoleonic Wars . Cantinières expanded their numbers greatly during the Napoleonic Wars , gaining fame for battlefield heroics as well as for nursing the sick and wounded . They fought in every French campaign and battle of the era , creating a legend that survived long afterwards . It was common for cantinières to provide food and drink to the troops while under fire ( generally at no charge on days of battle ) , nurse the wounded , and generally stiffen morale . Some cantinières reportedly carried muskets and fought in the ranks . Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy . After Napoleon I ’ s defeat in 1814 - 15 , the returning Bourbon Monarchy eliminated the title of cantinière and restored the word ‘ vivandière ’ . The Bourbons also tried to make vivandière appointments contingent on political loyalty to the monarchy . Soldiers continued to use ‘ cantinière ’ though to protect their cantinières from being removed . Cantinières accompanied French troops into Spain in 1823 , and into Algeria in 1830 . It was in Algeria that these women began to fashion military uniforms for themselves , a practice that rapidly spread throughout the entire army . The overthrow of the Bourbon Monarchy of Charles X and the establishment of the July Monarchy in 1830 brought in a new government that was less hostile to the ideas and terminology of the French Revolution . While the new government continued to use ‘ vivandière ’ in regulations , ‘ cantinière ’ again became almost universally used by the troops , and by the cantinières themselves . These women were present in combat in Algeria throughout the period 1830 - 1848 and beyond . Second Empire . During the Second Empire the cantinière achieved a popular , if romanticised , image as a virtual icon of the French military . Napoleon III doubled their numbers in 1854 , and they served alongside their units in every campaign of the Second Empire , notably in the Crimean War , the Second Italian War of Independence , the French intervention in Mexico , the Colonization of Cochinchina , and the Franco - Prussian War . Cantinières were present on both sides during the Paris Commune . Third Republic . With the adoption of a short - term conscript army under the Third Republic , the cantinières were phased out and replaced by civilian workers who were employed at the regimental depot only and did not wear uniforms . This process began in 1875 with a reduction in the permitted numbers of cantinières , and culminated in 1890 when the War Ministry forbade cantinières to wear uniforms , requiring them instead to wear a simple grey civilian dress and an identifying arm plaque . The new law also forbade cantinières from going on campaign or on maneuvers with their regiments . This effectively ended the role of cantinières as it had been known . In 1905 , the War Ministry finally eliminated cantinières altogether , replacing them with male cantiniers who had to be retired veterans . Women who were still serving were allowed to continue , so that some served up to and even into World War I , but they were not allowed to go into combat . The cantiniers turned out to be highly unpopular , and the army eliminated them in 1940 . The popular perception among soldiers was that the male cantiniers were greedy , unhelpful , and unpleasant , in stark contrast to the female cantinières , whom the soldiers largely perceived as generous , selfless , and friendly mother and sister figures . Uniforms . By the time of the French intervention in Belgium in 1832 , cantinières routinely wore a female version of their regiment ’ s uniform . It generally consisted of a tight - fitting uniform jacket , striped trousers , and a knee - length skirt over the wide - cut pants . This was topped off by a brimmed hat and worn with a " tonnelet " , or brandy barrel that the cantinière carried on a strap over her shoulder . A collection of colored prints dated 1859 of Second Empire cantinières by the French artist Hyppolyte Lalaisse , show their uniforms as matching the colors of their respective regiments in nearly all cases ( for example green jackets and skirts with red facings , the latter worn over red trousers , for the Dragoons of the Imperial Guard ) . American Civil War . During the Crimean War , the United States War Department sent three United States Army officers to Europe to observe the current art of war there . They brought back the idea of vivandières to the America , and during the American Civil War of 1861 - 1865 , many patriotic women on both sides served as vivandières , though exact numbers are unknown , and the practice does not appear to have had the strong and lasting official sanction that it had in France . Spain . There is documented evidence of cantinières serving in the civil wars of the 1870s in Spain . During the Second Rif War of 1909 - 1910 a photograph of " Senorita Asuncion Martos , Cantinera of the Talavera Battalion in Morocco " was published in the Illustrated London News , under the heading " The vivandière still a factor in modern warfare " . In the photograph Senorita Martos wears a female version of the tropical uniform of the soldiers for whom she is pouring wine against a background of military tents , indicating that the classical role of the Spanish cantinière continued to a later date than that of her French counterpart . In popular culture . French vivandières and cantinières frequently appeared in popular entertainment in the 19th century , from operas and musicals to picture postcard s . In opera , the most well - known example is Marie in Donizetti ' s " La fille du régiment " - the " Daughter of the Regiment " in this case is a vivandière , though her portrayal in the opera is highly inaccurate . Even in 1840 , popular culture could present a badly distorted , romanticized view of these women . Vivandières also appear in Act 3 , Scene 3 of " La forza del destino " , and W . S . Gilbert ' s " La Vivandière " is a burlesque based on Donizetti ' s opera . Portrayals of cantinières and vivandières continue today to be popular among re - enactors , and a number of major companies and products continue to use the name or the image of these women in their advertising .