Military Wife History
By Kelcey Petersen
In the 19th century, the Army protected settlers moving west and secured borders. Women braved the journey and living on the frontier to be with their husbands.
When relocating, wives rode ox-drawn or horse-drawn carts and wagons — sometimes even walking. They confronted the harsh climate — and disease and Indian attack — while coping with military life.
A family arrived at a station on the frontier to find make-shift quarters and few amenities. Housing was improvised, converted from abandoned mess halls or arsenals. Married enlisted quarters could consist solely of a tent.
Few personal belongings were moved, and a family might have to wait for Army carpenters to fashion furniture, depending on their neighbors. Like today, those moving often left behind materials much appreciated by newcomers
There was little privacy, and some complaints may sound familiar to those in military housing today.
As the wife of a first lieutenant put it upon reaching her new home at Camp Supply in Indian Territory in 1872, “It is impossible to make the rooms look homelike, and I often find myself wondering where in this world I have wandered to!”
Commissaries, which could be open as little as one day a week, offered little more than canned foods and dried beef.
Army duties on the frontier included patrolling the outlying areas, scouting expeditions and fighting Indian tribes.
Army wives were frequently alone in this dangerous and foreign environment. They depended on one another not only for comfort and company, but also for safety in numbers.
True & False
Q. Members of the Continental Army who remained enlisted or commissioned after the Revolutionary War and traveled west to protect the frontiersmen were the start of the regular Army.
A. True. A regular Army consisted of those making a career out of the military, in contrast to returning to civilian life after volunteering in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. These were the men who secured the frontier for settlers.
Q. Army wives accompanying their husbands on the frontier were never permitted to handle firearms.
A. False. Women learned to shoot as a matter of personal security and survival.
Q. If a higher-ranking officer arrived at a fort in need of housing, those of a lower rank could be evicted with as little as three hours notice.
A. True. Called “ranking out” or “falling bricks,” this policy of bumping a junior officer from housing to make way for an officer of higher rank continued into the 20th century.
Q. Army wives were left solely to their own devices in setting up and maintaining a home on the frontier.
A. False. Enlisted soldiers, called “strikers,” were paid extra to work in officers’ homes during their off-duty hours to cook and clean.
Sources: Campfollowing: A History of the Military Wife by Betty Sowers and Bonnie Domrose Stone and Army Letters from an Officer’s Wife by Frances Roe, Frances