“Amazons and military maids:” An examination of female military heroines in British literature and the changing construction of gender

Women’s Studies hr. Primed in the USA.

Forum,

Vol.

IO,

No.

5, pp.

489-501,

0277~539m7 s3.00+ .oo 0 1987 pCr@mon Journals Ltd.

1987

“AMAZONS AND MILITARY MAIDS:” AN EXAMINATION OF FEMALE MILITARY HEROINES IN BRITISH LITERATURE AND THE CHANGING CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER JUHEWHEELWRIGHT University of Sussex. Brighton, East Sussex, U. K.

Syaagais-Women played an important role in the British military, performing a wide range of services until the mid-nineteenth century. In the eighteenth-century stories, songs and ballads about female soldiers-women who in real life dressed as their male counterparts to go to war or sea-enjm an enormous popularity and serve to challenge our contemporary notion that Florence Nightingale was the first woman to work in a modern combat situation. The Amazons’ stories, however,changed over time and by the nineteenth century had to be sanitized to conform to a more genteel and fii concept of femininity. Gender had incrwsing4y become identified as a biological entity rather than a social and sternal construction. Thus the female soldiers came to be regarded as aberrations of nature rather than slightly risque heroines and military historians rewrote earlier armies into all-male institutions. These changes can be traced through the various printed versions of Christian Davies’ story as they appeared between 1740 and 1693. This reteIling of Britain’s most famous Amazon’s story in the nineteenth century also coincided with the reorganization of the Viiorian army which saw women excluded from a variety of servicee they had traditionally performed. These changes lent credence to the newly forged linh between gender and military ideology.

Women have always played an important role in the British military. Their functions were only officially recognized and subsequently organized in the mid-nineteenth century. Such was the strength of Victorian gender ideology, however, that Florence Nightingale’s performance in the Crimea in the 1850s could be hailed as unprecedented (Gribble, 1916: 324). When it was acknowledged that other women had gone before, some in other capacities, Nightingale was hailed as a heroine because she had carved out a proper female place in a den of male vice. Gnly six years before Nightingale’sorganization of volunteer medical services the British navy made a brief attempt to award her predecessors. The Admhlty Guzette directed that ail those who prove their presence at the battle of ‘Bafalgar should received a medal “without restrictions as to sex.” No woman ever mceived the Naval Service Medal, however, because ‘many people in the fleet were equally useful,’ and it would be unfair to make distinctions on the basis of performance. The women who had made claims were referred from Queen Victoria who quietly supported their request (Bowbotham, 1937: a 366). 489

Women’s presence at Britain’s largest military battles in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is well-documented. Sergeant Major Edward Cotton in a footnote to his account of the battle of Waterloo mentions the women who died on the field: ‘Many women were found among the slam . . . as is common in the camp, the camp followers wore male attire, with nearly as martial a bearing as the soldiers, and some even were mounted and rode astride.’ Women also sailed with the ‘first rates’ during the Napoleonic wars and performed ‘male’ jobs during large-scale operations. A few of the women survivors applied for medals after the battle of the Nile in 1798 because they had served as part of the five person crews needed for each musket holder (Berckman, 1973: 10). That the British navy considered rewarding these women as late as 1847 stands as testimony to the dramatic rewriting of history that subsequently took place. In addition to women’s long and diverse performance of auxiliary functions within the military, the stories of women who served as soldiers and sailors were also erased from the record or reduced to the occasional footnote: (Bnloe,

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1983:4)’ The female soldiers who were hailed as heroines, albeit exceptions a century earlier, became portrayed as amusing freaks of nature and their stories examples of ‘coarseness and triviality.’ (Dowie, 1893: xvii). Although recognizing the difficulty of verifying the authenticity of the female soldiers’ biographies they do reveal much about changing concepts of gender between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Thus the ‘Amazon’ phenomenon can be examined on the level of fact and fantasy using documented and fictional cases of female soldiers to explore the changing social perceptions of their behaviour. In the modern period these ‘women on top’ as popular figures provided an example of alternative behaviour for women. During a period of constant warfare, women could live out a fantasy of joining their husbands in the fray through ballads and stories. These strong, independent heroines can also be read as symbols of social protest and a defiance of increasingly restrictive gender roles. By the nineteenth century, when these definitions had become more solidly entrenched, the sexual disorder that the female soldiers represented could no longer be tolerated. With the concurrent change in gender ideology were real changes in women’s role within the military which was being streamlined to make it more acceptable in terms of Victorian morals. Ultimately, the women’s real history of participation in this newly-defined masculine institution was lost. (Trustram, 1984: 3). Florence Nightingale emerged as the socially acceptable alternative to the camp follower and the growing separation of male and female spheres and increasing division between military and civilian was neatly reinforced. The following quote from Gribble is typical of its juxtaposition of Florence Nightingale one pole and the female soldiers on the other. ‘On earth her name is the greatest among the names of women whom war has brought into prominence. She was the last woman to whom it would have occured to try to transcend the limitations of her sex. Her aim, while keep-

‘For aramplcsof how the role of women is excluded from contemporary military accounts see Hacker (1981) for a comment on this process and Best (1982: 18). ‘The men of Europe near the end of the ancien re8ime (we need not concern ourselves with the women, who had very little part in our story) knew themselves to be socially ordered in a series of strata.’

ing within those limitations, was to attain tc absolute efficiency herself and bring other as near as might be to her high standarcr (Gribble, 1916: 322). The female soldiers’ stories are also rich social documents revealing much about eighteenth and nineteenth century attitudes towards female sexuality, prostitution, marriage, women’s work, class concepts, and the day-to-day functioning of army camp life. These concepts and details can be traced in the changing versions of Britian’s best-known female soldier’s story as it appeared between 1740 and 1893. Other stories of female soldiers and sailors during this period affirm this evolution in gender definitions. The theme of women dressing as men to gain access to male power and privilege has been common throughout European folk literature. Beginning with the-legendary Amazons, a tribe of women who vowed to defend themselves and to forsake marriage when their husbands were slaughtered in battle, female soldiers’ stories have been written to amuse and thrill their readers for centuries. However, it has been argued by anthropologists and historians that these stories of gender reversal also perform an important function within their given social context. Sexual inversion as a widespread form of cultural play in literature, in art, and in festivity has served to disrupt and ultimately to clarify sometimes fluid or evolving concepts of gender (Davis, 1975: 130). Simon Shepherd argues that women warriors in seventeenth century English drama also upset the ordered scheme that depended upon each sex maintaining its proper role because dress and appearance operated as political shorthand. During this period of enormous economic, social, and political transition the women warriors were symbols of threatening female aggression -part of the world gone topsy-turvy (Shepherd, 198 1: 69). But although these characters rebelled against women’s position in society, they were ultimately resigned to it and accepted marriage as a preferable alternative to prostitution which was considered the only option for sexually independent women. Female warriors were thus advocates of change but not revolution and served to clarify gender roles. By satarizing or mocking deviants the drama served to define norms. By showing a woman acting as a ‘man’ and therefore behaving inappropriately the audience

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learned what appropriate female behaviour was. It can be argued that the eighteenth century female soldiers’ stories operate on the same level. Except that, unlike the dramas, these stories are often presented as ‘biographies’ based on interviews with their subjects. It is extremely difficult to assess the validity of the female soldiers’ stories. An examination of the relevant military records to verify their stories would be a fascinating undertaking but addressing this question is not the purpose of this paper. Bather, these stories will be examined from the perspective that some female soldiers did exist and in the eighteenth century their stories were believed to be true. It is doubtful that the biographies which are attributed to the women themselves are entirely factual. But if this issue can be left aside the stories still stand as important reflections of social attitudes and as descriptions of day-today army camp life. The stories enjoyed a huge popularity and, as can be argued, quite possible inspired other women to throw off the social constraints of being ‘female. The first edition of Christian Davies’ story, Britain’s most famous female soldier, appeared in 1740 published by Richard Montagu and was reissued in 1741 indicating its considerable success. Although Christian’s given motive-to follow her husband- is highly conventionalized the more subtle desire to enjoy male power is clearly evident. Born Christian Cavenaugh in 1667 to a brewer and his wife on a farm near Dublin, her early life is described as happy. Her father, although not a Catholic, sold their standing corn and raised an army to defend King James’ Irish forces. After his death from an injury incurred at the battle of the Boyne, the family property was seized and Christian went to live with an aunt. Her exceptional behaviour and good humor endeared her to the woman who left her a public house upon her death in 1687. Christian married her employee Richard Welsh who managed the pub and in the first four years she bore two sons. However, Richard disappeared one day after setting out to pay a bill. He met an enlisted school friend who invited him for a drink aboard his ship. Richard passed out and woke up, en route to Holland, without funds and so enlisted to earn his passage home. Christian learned of this in a letter 12

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months later and she, in turn, enlisted to find him: I cut off my hair and dressed me in a suit of my husband’s having had the precaution to quilt the waistcoat to preserve my breasts from hurt which were not large enough to betray my sex and putting on the wig and hat I had prepared 1 went out and brought me a silver hilted sword and some Holland shirts. (Montagu, 1740: 20, part I)* Two things are striking about the story even at this point. One is that the author can depend on the reader to accept that a woman would want to masquerade as a man even though it is made more acceptable because her motive falls safely within the bounds of wifely devotion. The other is that Christian’s ability to act independepltiy goes unquestioned and it becomes apparent that she takes to her soldier’s life with alacrity. In Montagu’s story, Christian was easily recruited into Captain Tichboum’s company of foot as Christopher Welsh and trained at Landen. ‘Having been accustomed to soldiers, when a girl and delighted with seeing them exercise, I very soon was perfect and applauded by my officers for my dexterity, he wrote, (Montagu, 1740: 21, part I). She took on her male identity with enthusiasm and appeared to use it with a vengeance. This was most often manifested with women. Stationed at Gertruydenberg for the winter repairing dykes, she began to court a wealthy burgher’s daughter, employing all the language and actions that men used when flirting with her. Although she was later contrite about her ‘frolics’when the young woman fell in love with her, during the course of the romance Christian demonstrated that she knew exactly what the girl wanted to hear. As I had formerly had many fine things said to myself I was at no loss in the amorous dialect; I ran over all the tender nonsense (which I look upon as the lover’s heavy cannon, as it does the greatest harm with raw girls), employed on such attacks: I squeezed her hand whenever I could get an opportunity, sighed often in her comZForfurther dizms&m of the eighteenth cattury fascination with masquerade see Dub (1985: ll):~The rise of the female warrior coincides with a cultural pmoccupation with disguise, performance and appmtamx.

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parry; looked foolishly and practiced upon her all the ridiculous airs which I had often laughed at, when they were used as snares against myself. (Montagu, 1740: 27, part I) The military metaphor consistently underscores Christian’s male identity and is used throughout the book: Her passionate language is ‘the lover’s heavy cannon’; it is a ‘snare’ leading to an ‘execution’; and she is on an ‘attack.’ This passage and other occasions when Christian would visit brothels delicately refered to as ‘houses of civil conversation’ perform two functions. They confirm her ‘masculinity’ at a crucial juncture-her sexual relations-and thus imbue her disguise with legitimacy. By flamboyantly flirting with and duelling over women she becomes divorced from any identification with them. These passages were perhaps also designed to titillate audiences and to trivialize the female soldiers. The narrator is quick to state that her infatuation with the burgher’s daughter is merely platonic although when Christian attempted to seduce her and was rebuffed, she was also delighted. I own that this rejection gained my heart and taking her in my arms I told her that she had heightened the power of her charms by her virtue . . . I was now fond of the girl, though mine, you know, could not go beyond a platonic love. (Montagu, 1740: 27, part I). This theme was not unique to Christian Davies’ story. Hannah Snell, Mary Anne Talbot, and Susanna Cope were all female soldiers and/or sailors who had female admirers and this was a popular element in eighteenth century ballads (Palmer, 1977: 166).l In these stories and songs the sexual play between women fulfills the same function. The female soldiers always play along with their admirers until questions of marriage are raised and then they fabricate an excuse to deny a commitment and flee. Christian Davies even claimed to have fathered an illegitimate child by a Dutch prostitute. This behaviour always reinforces the soldier’s masculine identity in the narrative )For example, The Female Drummer’ which dates from 1793 and is based partly on the adventures of Mary Anne lirlbot features her as the object of other women’s desires.

so that when Christian Davies’ sex is revealed and her bed-mate is questioned, he could claim: ‘he never knew I was a man or even suspected it; it was well known that (I) had a child lain to (me) and took care of it.’ Susanna Cope ‘played amongst several lasses who supposed her to be a man, and fell in love with her, by which means she got store of putting the bilk upon the maids, widows and wives.’ Cope’s deceit is a consistent theme as well: women were to be taken advantage of and it was their fault if they allowed it (Anonymous, 1810?: np). That these women greatly enjoyed their male status is made clear when their identity is discovered and they are forced to return to their former gender. When Christian met her husband Richard after her twelve year search she demanded that they live ‘as brothers’ until the Duke of Marlborough’s campaign had ended, much to Richard’s dismay. Significantly this was Christian’s decision and Richard was portrayed as having no option but to comply with it putting her in a superior position of power. Hannah Snell never remarried and continued to dress as a man after her retirement from navy life. ‘[She is] resolutely bent to be lord and master of herself,’ wrote her 1750 biographer, ‘and never more to entertain the least thoughts of having a husband to rule and govern her and make her truckle to his wayward humour’ (Snell, 1750: 128). Mary Anne ‘IBlbot never married but had a constant female companion, and attempted to support herself making jewelry and performing at the Drury Lane Thespian Society. She continued to dress as a man and even joined the Odd Fellows’ Hall in male attire. When Christian Davies was found out, as was the case with Hannah Snell and Mary Anne lhlbot, her identity continued to be male-identified. On several occasions she dressed as a man because it allowed her more freedom and security of movement in her occupation as camp sutler. The officers listened to her opinion and she commanded a respect no other soldier’s wife could. Given this status, we get some inkling of the difficulties facing other military wives and the incentive to demonstrate your allegiance with the men. On more than one occasion, despite her elevated status, Christian Davies was sexually harassed. Portrayed as a physically strong woman, she always fended these men off and harshly criticized their behaviour. At these points Christian would speak as the voice of

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male conscience even though she had indulged in similar abuse herself. When Lord Al -- le attempted to rape her she stated that it was a situation she would have avoided ‘by telling him I would send him the prettiest girl in the camp to give his lordship a fall.’ She left the tent and ran into Dolly Saunders, ‘a very pretty girl’ and directed her to the lord’s tent where he would give her a dozen shirts to make, presumably leaving Dolly to fend for herself (Montagu, 1740: 31, part I). Christian, however, also criticized men as ‘unmanly who treat a woman ill,’ especially if they seduced her with a promise of marriage- ‘a practice too customary with our cloth.’ (emphasis in the original) (Montagu, 1740: 64, part I). As a former soldier who continued her army career as a sutler supplying food and drink to the troops, Christian appeared to shun domestic responsibilities for more lucrative pursuits. She was portrayed as an inveterate scavenger who marched ahead of the regiment which was the most dangerous but fruitful position for looters. Her priorities were clear. When she asked, for example, to look after a sick child, she firmly refused to accept this as her responsibility. I filed the child’s belly, filled her apron with victuals and taking her with me, left her with her father . . . who was ill with ague. . . he would fain have me taken care of her but I would not undertake the charge. (Montagu, 1740: 45, part I) Other female soldiers shunned the ‘domestic’ role and traded on their male experience. Mary Anne ‘Ihlbot wore her sailor’s clothes when she sought out her former mess mates in the pub and when she experienced difficulty getting her pension from the Naval Pay Office. She was granted an audience with Queen Victoria dressed as John ‘lhylor and received a half-year’s payment under this name. The rewards of adopting a masculine persona were great; as a woman Mary Anne ‘lhlbot would have been cut off from her former social life and denied financial assistance. Her story also emphasizes the eighteenth century social understanding of gender roles. If a woman dressed, worked, and behaved as a ‘man’ she was accepted as such by other men and women although this acceptance was qualified by its military context. But how did other women respond to the defrocked female soldiers? Though the sto-

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ries tend to concentrate on women as suitors, there are a few intriguing examples of women who responded to former soldiers as men. Out of uniform Christian Davies still had female admirers. On a trip from London to West Chester by wagon with eight women (described in Montagu, 1741) Christian kept her companions amused by telling them stories of her adventures. They refused to believe her until they met an old soldier who knew Christian. in Flanders and supported her claims. They were then more pleased with my conversation than before and came to an agreement, as I had formerly passed for a man, to consider me still as one; and merrily declared that as such, I should be treated by them all the rest of my journey to Chester according to the custom where there is but a single man in the company to several women. I easily agreed to their proposal, telling them . . . if I were in reality a man, I would choose a fresh bedfellow every night till I had enjoyed them all round. (Montagu, 1740: 16, part I) Christian further proved her manhood by knocking a highwayman from his horse and saving the day. A few weeks later a female admirer, hearing of Christian’s bravery, sent her a poem calling her ‘the glory of the age’ and declaring ‘the Amazon race begins again’ (Montagu, 1740: 17, part I). However, aside from enjoying their male status, the female soldiers had practical motives for their disguise. Although women occupied a role within the military until the mid-nineteenth century the number of wives attached to a regiment was regularly controlled after 1650. A soldier had to get his officer’s permission to marry and therefore a woman’s virtue and reputation had to be stressed since several women might be competing for relatively few places. A camp follower’s life had little to recommend it: women were not only subject to harassment but were constantly on the move, often in danger, fed meagre rations, could come under military discipline and faced numerous hardships. Ironically, when Christian Davies attempted to dissuade the burgher’s daughter from marrying her, she drew a grim picture of army life as a deterrent. She argued: ‘How could I bear to see you . . . stripped of all the comforts of life, exposed to hardships and insults to which women who follow

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camp are liable?’ (Montagu, 1740: 32, part I). Single women in the camp who were not soldier’s daughter’s, wives or widows were assumed to be prostitutes. Christian referred to the high value placed on women’s virtue giving a strong indication of eighteenth century English society’s equation of women with property. A single woman, even a widow, who was no man’s property was placed in an extremely difficult position. All the ancillary services for the army were often performed by the female members of a soldier’s family. Washing, cooking, sutling, mending, and sewing were jobs that served to supplement their husband’s income and it was very difficult for a woman to survive on her own. After Richard was killed Christian remarried after only eleven weeks which was considered ‘a very protracted period for a woman in her circumstances’ (Gleig, 1839: 285). Marital transgressions were often severely punished in the military which reflected the importance of these relations. When Christian Davies was first reunited with her husband she discovered him with another woman. Christian made her husband swear never to see the woman again even though he had initiated the relationship after giving up hope of returning to Ireland. But the Dutch woman followed Richard to Ghent and Montagu’s story describes Christian attacking the woman with a knife and cutting off her nose after seeing the woman and Richard having a drink together. However, it was not Christian but the offending couple who were punished. The Dutch woman was put in a turning stool and ‘with great ceremony conducted out of the gates of the town.’ (Montagu, 1740: 84, part I) Richard was imprisoned and only released after Christian had pleaded on his behalf. Part of Christian’s vehemence must have come from her economic dependence on her husband. Without a husband’s income and protection life for a woman in the army was extremely difficult. That the Dutch woman was so severely punished serves as evidence that the army not only recognized this but punished a married man’s attempts to keep a mistress. Morality may have played only a small part in this though. During the nineteenth century the army waged a continuous battle to protect itself from the demands wives and children might make on a married soldier’s resources. The prospect of a soldier’s pay being stretched to cover his stop-

pages (regimental debts), and pay for his wife and possibly mistress and illegitimate children could not be tolerated. (Trustram, 1984: 50). The only way for a single woman to move freely and securely, to enjoy a steady income and to gain respect in the army was as a man. When the female soldier pleaded a search for a missing husband as a reason for her disguise her motive seems entirely plausible in its eighteenth century context. The female soldiers stood as examples of strong, independent women who could dictate their terms of behaviour, even with their husbands and other men. Within the military environment their self-assertion and control were defined as assets rather than liabilities. It could be argued then that a relationship exited between the ballads, dramas, and stories about the female soldiers and their reallife counterparts. Christian.Davies is a case in point. She drew inspiration from a family friend. At the battle of the Boyne Christian’s father befriended a Captain Bodeaux and they returned to the Cavenaugh farm house together one evening. Their stay was brief because of fears that the enemy was in sight drove them from their beds early in the morning. Captain Bodeaux was killed at the English seige of Limerick when her true sex was revealed. The 1741 edition of Christian Davies’ story begins with an introduction addressing the sticky question of ‘how a woman could so long perform a certain natural operation without being discovered.’ On the night that Captain Bodeaux fled from the farm house, she left a ‘silver tube . . . a urinary instrument’ behind in the bed. This is what Christian used as part of her disguise and what inspired her to enlist (Montagu, 1741: xvi). Christian Davies served for twelve years in Lord Orkney’s regiment as a man and her story had wide currency in the mid-eighteenth century. Presumably her story, because of her association with Orkney’s regiment, would have been known in the islands themselves. In 1806 a young Orkney woman, Isabelle Gunn, dressed as a man and signed on as a labourer with the Hudson’s Bay Company (North America’s largest fur trading operation). After working in the Northwest for two years without detection her secret was dramatically revealed when she gave birth to a son at a North West Company post on the Red River, 1,800 miles inland from the Bay. Although there is no evidence connecting the

Amazons and Military Maids

two women that Isabelle Gunn drew inspiration from Christian Davies does not seem farfetched (Tale of 1807, 1922: 3). The female soldier stood as a symbol of resistance to confmement and danger making thii an option available to all eighteenth century women. However, few chose to live it out. Just as young women currently look to pop singers Madonna or Annie Lennox for inspiration to defy social expectations women two centuries ago may have seen the female soldiers in the same light. While men may have read the stories for titillation, women may have responded to these heroines’ as rebels against increasingly restrictive behavioural expectations. By the end of the century stories of female soldiers had taken on a different meaning. The stories which had portrayed them as rough, independent warriors who courted other women and controlled their husbands had undergone changes. Christian Davies had become less a war hero and more a source of crude amusement. Victorian women, it was argued, had no need to masquerade as men because now they could go ‘adventuring’ in the cold seriousness of skirts. By this period gender was no longer something determined by society but by nature further inhibiting the possibility of such adventures. The very expression of a woman’s desire to behave in a ‘masculine’ way was considered unnatural. The Victorian middle classes now associated the stories with the world of the undeserving poor where sexual disorder and political chaos threatened social stability. The stories had become more challenging in an age when higher stakes were placed on maintaining rigidly defined class and gender boundaries. The flirting she-soldiers stood in glarhrg contrast to the new female heroines who more closely resembled the ideal of the desexualized ‘angel of the hearth.’ The soldiers’ only narrowly escaped condemnation for their sexual independence by their authors’ placing heavy emphasis on their heroine’s wifely devotion. There were also organizational changes within the British army during the Victorian period that directly affected the lives of military women and were reflected in the female heroines’ stories. The militarization of support services transformed the traditional world of camp and train. Women who had been a vital part of the military world for at least four centuries were suddenly shut out. Some of the women who had performed a

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variety of service functions, moving in and out of the military environment, found themselves permanently excluded. The bureaucratization of the military in the midVictorian period marked a turning point for women’s involvement. By this time Florence Nightingale had emerged as the ideological counter to the traditional camp followers. Many commentaries on the female soldiers claimed that they belonged to another age and a woman’s proper place in the contemporary military was in a hospital nursing wounded soldiers. But even this presented contradictions because much of the work traditionally done by army wives including nursing had been reorganized thus disenfranchising them. (Hacker, 1981: 645; Ifustram, 1984: 105-115) Even Florence Nightingale had to fight for the right to have women, albeit middle and upper class ‘ladies’, as volunteer nurses. During the nineteenth century the understanding of sex roles underwent significant changes. Although it is difficult to detect any dramatic change in the telling of the female soldiers’ stories in the early nineteenth century, the change Is clearly discernable by its close. Mere appearances were no longer enough to determine a person’s sex; it was biological nature that dictated behaviour, intellect, emotions, physiology, and appearance. This shift was reflected in the female heroine’s story. In 1819 James Caulfield published a two volume set of ‘remarkable persons’ that included, along with famous murderers, conjurers and thieves, the life histories of several Amazons. Caulfield devoted seven pages to Christian Davies’ story concentrating on her military career. He traced her thirst for battle to her childhood when she ‘exhibited proofs of a romping disposition and masculine propensities.’ When she went in search of Bichard, Christian was portrayed as actually returning to her former masculine habits by appearing ‘to change the nature of her sex.’ (emphasis mine; Caulfield, 1819: Vol. II, 44). Hannah Snell came under the same scrutiny. At age ten, Caulfield said she demonstrated proof of her ‘natural’ heroism and declared that she would be a soldier. She organized her female friends into an army that paraded the streets of Worchester and was dubbed ‘Amazon Snell’s company.’ It was this martial spirit that carried Hannah Snell through her battles. This, however, is

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not inconsistent with the 1750 version of her story. It too described her childhood inclination toward the military but her masculine leanings were attributed to something else (Snell, 1750: 19). ‘She boldly commenced a man, at least in her dress, and no doubt she had a right to do so since she had the real soul of a man in her breast.’ When Hannah decided to enlist she ‘gave a full scope to the genuine bent of her heart,’ assuming her brother-in-law’s clothes and name. .In the eighteenth century it was possible to describe a woman having the right to pursue a ‘masculine’ occupation. A woman could dress and behave as a man without condemnation as unnatural under certain circumstances (Snell, 1750: 19). Caulfield, however, is careful to tell his readers that Christian Davies and Hannah Snell ‘pleaded the tender passion as an apology for assuming masculine pursuits and habits’ (Caulfield, 1819: 112). For the first time these female heroines are described as ‘apologizing’ for their adventures rather than being praised because of them. They are portrayed as being caught between their natural inclination to fight and social expectations of feminine behaviour. In Hannah Snell’s case it is a mistake to claim she was motivated to enlist by love for her husband: according to earlier accounts he had abandoned her when she was eight months pregnant, was a known criminal and her search for him appears to be motivated more by economics than love. Attributing their military careers to wifely passion also downplays Hannah and Christian’s enjoyment of male status. Although the 1750 version of Hannah Snell’s story emphasizes her aversion to female dress and her vow to remain single, Caulfield claims she ‘threw off her male attire and resumed the petticoats.’ Christian Davies is criticized for being a negligent mother although in Montagu’s 1741 edition she described her separation from her children as a great sacrifice. Here Christian says to Richard when they are reunited in Holland, ‘What a comfortable reward I have met with for . . . leaving my babes . . . I might have continued in easy and happy circumstances . . . and done my duty to my children in taking care of their education, and settlement instead of leaving my poor infants exposed to the hardships of being brought up by vagabonds (Montagu, 1741: 60, part I). Already the female heroines were begin-

ning to be criticized for behaving in an ‘unfeminine’ way and were presented as deviations from the norm. Rather than being allowed the freedom to pursue a masculine occupation, the female soldiers were portrayed as pleading an acceptable female excuse for their transgression. The Soldier’s Companion published in 1824 presents a more ‘feminine’ picture of Christian Davies. Under the chapter heading ‘Female Courage’ she is described as having been very useful in a battle or siege supplying her comrades with food and water, even under dangerous circumstances. ‘Courage’ has thus become a male characteristic and instances of women proving their bravery are cited as exceptional. It is ironic that in this book women are praised for their individual valour at a time when women still played a vital role in the military, many serving under hazardous conditions. That women who showed courage in battle are cited as ‘peculiarly interesting’ is a further indication of gender metamorphosis. This collection also includes the flip side to the female soldiers; they are soldiers’ or officers’ wives who keep their petticoats on and are celebrated as model mothers and wives. (For stories about women who represent the new military heroine who is the perfect wife and mother see

Soldier’s Companion, 1824: 73, 349.) The question of nature resurfaces in Rev. G.R. Gleig’s Chelsea Hospital and Its Tmditions, published in 1839. Gleig warned his readers that he was presenting Christian Davies’ story ‘in defiance of the shock which its peculiar phraseology may give to minds as sensitive as my own.’ He did, however, devote 43 pages to the story beginning with Christian’s childhood (Gleig, 1839: 264). Rather than describing her as having youthful masculine inclinations Gleig says her juvenile habits ‘entirely acquitted her of all undue leaning to the weakness bodily and mentally, of a woman’s nature’ Here rests an uneasy contradiction; women by nature are physically and mentally weak but they can unlearn these weaknesses which suggests that sex roles are both biologically fixed and socially variable. Even more confusing is the fact that Christian’s masculine habits win her ‘an exhalted niche in the temple of fame.’ Gleig appeared to deal with these unsettling incongruities by rewriting Christian into a more ‘feminine’ character (Gleig, 1839: 266). In Montagu’s 1741 version, Christian is portrayed as a woman of great passion. She

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swore, raged, loved and fought with great spirit and independence of mind. She dictated the terms of her relationship with her husbands and was never shown seeking their approval of her behaviour. She was a woman in control. Even though she might have claimed that her husband had a ‘right to do what he pleased and it would be (her) duty not to resist him,’ in fact, the reverse was true (Montagu, 1740: 21, part I). The woman presented by Gkig was quite different. When Richard disappeared from Dublin, Montagu’s editions said Christian’s grief for his loss was ‘equal to the tender affection she bore him and made her unfit to look after the house.’ She recovered and resumed management of the pub after a few months. Gleig, however, described Christian taking command of her household so moved by concern for her children’s future that she ‘regained mastery over inonlinate sorrow, (and) put on widow’s weeds’ (Gleig, 1839: 270). Christian’s passion was evidently inappropriate to her loss and served to reinforce her femininity as did her donning of widow’s weeds and worry about her children. Black dresses and family concerns are not part of Montagu’s 1741 edition that Gleig alludes to as his ‘-source(Gleig, 1839: 27 1): Christian’s military prowess was downplayed throughout Gleig’s story. Montagu’s edition described her training at Landen as something she undertook enthusiastically. ‘I very soon was perfect and applauded by my officers for my dexterity in going through it.’ (Montagu, 1740: 59, part I). Gleig merely stated that ‘in a few days she was fit for duty and took her turn in both guards and outposts.’ Gleig’s own scepticism about Christian’s military exploits is perhaps revealed most clearly when he describes the revelation of her disguise to her commanding officer at Ramilies (Gleig, 1839: 271). When surgeons who dressed Christian’s wounds after she was carried from the battle field discovered her sex the news was immediately conveyed to the regiment’s commander. Gleig stated: The Brigadier, however, would not credit the report. ‘The thing is impossible,’ cried ~ldp (1839) often use the phrase, ‘my authority gives me the following . . .’ and then quotes Montagu’s 1740 and 1741 editions exactly. He does. homvcr. offer information that 1 hew found in no other source from that or an artier period.

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he: ‘Welsh is the prettiest fellow and the best man in the corps. I will not believe that a woman has or could have acquitted herself as I have seen this prctcnded mimcle do.’ (emphasis mine; Gleig, 1839: 279) The original reads quite differently. In it the surgeons informed Brigadier Preston that his ‘pretty dragoon’ was actually a woman. ‘He was loath to believe it and did me the honour to say he had always looked upon me as the prettiest fellow and the best man he had.’ Preston then sent for Richard who was posing as Christian’s brother and said, ‘Dick, I am surprised at a piece of news these gentlemen tell me; they say your brother is in reality a woman.’ When Lord Haye heard about the discovery he was amused and declared that Christian ‘should want for nothing and that (her) pay should be continued while under care (Montagu, 1740: 75, part I). In this version reluctant resignation replaces incredulity and amusement replaces indignation. A partial explanation for the different responses may be that they reflect audience beliefs. By the mid-nineteenth century a middle-class audience would be less willing to accept the possibility of a woman soldier and therefore, it had to be met with shock and anger. The hostility reflects the increasingly entrenched dichotomy between male and female. As Victorian sexual ideology began to rely more heavily on rigid divisions between male and female, public and private, culture and nature, transgressions could no longer be easily tolerated. Christian Davies is allowed for only because she is a historic figure who was ‘unsexed’ but moved by love for her husband to ‘unnatural’ behaviour and returned to a female occupation. There is a continual process of softening Christian’s character in Gleig’s story. For example, when Christian is described observing a group of women greet their husbands on their return from a recent battle, he wrote, ‘Her heart, not yet absolutely steeled was softened and tears began to gather in her eyes’ (Gleig, 1839: 277). The original version of the story stated that Christian ‘was amused with two very different scenes by the women . . .‘(Montagu, 1740: S9, part I). Tears were not mentioned. When Christian cut off the nose of her husband’s former mistress Gleig omitted the descriptions of the turning stool and the fear that Kit Welsh inspired in her rival. Gone too were many of Christian’s physical brawls, her duels and the

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several instances when she was sexually harassed by army officers. Incidents which served to portray Christian as a tough, independent, physically strong, and strong-willed woman and officers in a bad light are absent. Christian then emerged from Gleig’s story as an amusing rather than an inspiring figure and the officers as proper gentlemen. Although Thomas Carter’s Curiosities of Wbr and Military Studies (1860) says little of interest about Christian Davies it includes some revealing stories about other female soldiers. Augustina, a twenty-two-year-old Spanish woman was credited with fighting at the siege of Saragossa. This ‘handsome woman of the lower class of people’ was working as a sutler when an artillery man fell dead: she snatched the burning match from his hand and fired off a twenty-six pound cannon. Quoting from Sir John Carr’s Tour Through Spain, the passage stresses that Augustina is ‘perfectly feminine.’ A later passage carried an explicitly sexual tone, unlike any earlier female soldier story. Though Christian Davies and Hannah Snell may have flirted with other women, there was nothing erotic about the descriptions of their romances. Carr, however, described this Ama-zon coolly drinking a cup of coffee and warming to a military display. She was drinking her coffee when the evening gun was fired; its discharge seemed to electrify her with delight; she sprang out of the cabin upon the deck and alternatively listened to its sound. (Carter, 1860: 91) But quashing any untoward thoughts readers might have about Augustina they were informed that; ‘The sailors it may be supposed were uncommonly pleased with her,’ wrote Carr. ‘Some were heard to say with a hearty oath, “I hope they will do something for her; she ought to have plenty of prize money; she is of the right sort”’ (Carter, 1860: 91). To ensure that there was no mistake about her gender Carr stated that when Augustina chose to wear her military costume she modestly preserved her petticoat and virtue. Any potential attackers were threatened with her sword. This heroine stands in stark contrast to the earlier female warriors. Augustina was allowed an element of eroticism; she could carry a sword but she still wore a petticoat and was set apart from the men not only by her military daring but by her femininity. She

was, as we are told, ‘of the right sort.’ By emphasizing her sexual and feminine qualities Augustina as a female soldier was not a threat. She did not want to be a man but was sexually exited by the phallus/cannon - a literal and figurative symbol of maleness. Thomas Carter cited other examples of ‘women’s devotion and contempt of danger.’ These women were portrayed as model wives and mothers. Mrs. Retson, a sergeant’s wife, was at the battle of Busaco in September 1810 and took over a drummer boy’s duties when he hesitated with fear. Quoting from Sir William Napier’s account of this Napoleonic battle, he said, ‘it is difficult to say whether it was most feminine or heroic.’ During a battle on St. Vincent’s island in 1796, a woman was directed to remain in charge of the men’s knapsacks but pushed into the fray instead. The soldier’s wife acted as a military cheer leader, ‘animating and cheering the men even in the hottest fire!’ (Carter, 1860: 93). Bather than taking up arms themselves, these women unlike the earlier female soldiers, were consigned to the sidelines. Mrs. Retson takes over the drummer boy’s job-a position of extremely low status -and does it presumably moved by maternal concern for the child. Again the irony of the description is that it served to obscure the reality of women’s position within the military at that time. However, despite the feminine context in which the exemplary wives and mothers operate they were still encroaching on male territory. Where then could women make themselves useful? Thomas Carter provided an answer: ‘It was left to the nineteenth century to exemplify woman’s true sphere of duty in the battle field; -this was shown by Florence Nightingale and her devoted sisterhood (Carter, 1860: 98). Now that an ideological counter is posed the eighteenth century female soldiers appear even more deviant so far are they removed from the feminine qualities embodied by Nightingale. Wifely devotion or patriotism could no longer be called upon to justify a woman transgressing the boundaries of her sex-a woman’s place was in the hospital, not on the battle field. Almost twenty years later the female soldiers reappeared but again new meaning had been added to their stories. Ellen Clayton’s two-volume set of Female Warriors, published in 1879 uses their stories to counter claims of women’s innate physical and mental weakness. She challenged the asser-

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tion that women were unable to cope with defence matters. Popular prejudice, having decided that woman is a poor weak creature, crcdulous, easily influenced, holds that she is of necessity timid; that if she were allowed as much as a voice in government in her native country, she would stand appalled if war were even hinted at. (Clayton, 1879: Vol. I, 3) Clayton neatly attacks the Victorian double standard that said any woman who did not conform to the feminine stereotype of weak, timid, and dependent was ‘masculine’ and therefore unnatural. Masculine and feminine by definition could not co-exist in a gendered body. ‘Tbbrand a woman as being masculine is suppose to be quite sufficient to drive her cowering back to her broidery frame and her lute,’ she wrote. Clayton claimed that during the eighteenth century nearly every European army had one or more female soldiers who preferred to encounter the dangers and hardships of a foreign campaign rather than the miseries of separation. Women managed to - enlist without detection because no physical exams were required but ‘more especially as the female soldiers behaved themselves quite as mtrn/y as their comrades.’ (emphasis in original; Clayton, 1879: Vol. 1,2). Clayton recognized that ‘popular prejudice’ or the dominant ideology could not tolerate a woman who might not be pretty but ciaimed good sense, a strong will and noble motives for ‘acting like a man.’ Clayton appeared to recognize the changing perception of female soldiers. The Maid of Saragossa might have been forgiven for defying popular prejudice because of her erotic quality and petticoats but Christian Davies could not. This w& even more reason, Clayton argued, for telhng her story- this Amazon bullied rather than flattered her male counterparts. She was referred to as ‘the most famous woman who has ever served as a private in a modem army’ who fought valiantly at the battle of Ramilies. Although this version of Davies story highlighted her valiant performance in battle Clayton made concessions to Victorian sensibilities and left out many of the story’s bawdier aspects. Thus Christian appeared as a more palatable figure for middle class consumption. Clayton espoused the view that female sol-

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diers were a challenge to the Victorian ideal of womanhood and could be used to promote female suffrage. Menie Dowie, who wrote about the Amazons a decade later, took another tack. Dowie divorced the female soldier from the Victorian woman involved in ‘male’occupations -intellectual activities in the public sphere. ‘The socialist woman, the lecturing woman, the journalising woman-none of these must call the soldiers ancestress (Dowie, 1893: x). The stories were presented for amusement with a preface that claimed women no longer needed to imitate men to gain access to previously maledefined occupations. The contradiction in Dowie’sanaiysis also contained a strong class element. The eighteenth century female soldiers were strongly criticized not for acting as men but more significantly acting as working class men. In the end Dowie held out hope that women in the future could maintain their feminine qualities -and be equally lauded for courageous and adventurous exploits. Yet she blamed women in the past for convincing men to expect bravery, intelligence, and foresight from only an exceptional minority of the ‘softer’ sex. In her collection, Dowie reprinted edited versions of the best-known female soldiers. Christian Davies was among them and the story of her soldier’s adventures was largely unedited from Montagu’s 1741 version. Dowie’s comments about the story, however, reflect her cynicism about and contempt for a woman she regarded as a ‘dull and common wench’ (Dowie, 1893: x). The first part of her story was presented at length but the second half that consisted mainly of her adventures as a camp sutler was considerably condensed. This was done for practical reasons although Dowie shed no doubt on the accuracy and interest of the entire story. ‘I should be sorry to dedare that her career was most piquant prior to the finding of her husband but such does not seem to be the case,’ wrote Dowie. She further stated that Christian’s adventures degenerated into per* sonal squabbles with men and she was revealed as a ‘rather raffish chamcter’ (Dowie, 1893; 287). Christian was often forced to remind her former officers of her military service and to plead with officials for pensions to support herself. Dowie’s reaction to this reflected her class bias and was completely unsympathetic. She stated that Christian’s ‘account of her methods of obtaining relief are so coarse as

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to be offensive’ (Dowie, 1893: 288). The editorial comment ignored the reality of Christian’s situation. In 1706, recently widowed and pregnant, Christian returned to England and visited the Duke of Marlborough to pressure him for a petition to Queen Anne for a pension on her behalf. Only when Christian announced that she was living in a ‘house of civil conversation,’ appealing to the Duke’s conscience that a former war hero should be reduced to such circumstances, did he agree to help her. She left with a petition verifying her 12 years in Lord Orkney’s regiment. Christian visited the court the following day and Queen Anne noticing her pregnancy, said she could grant a commission to the child if it were a boy. Unfortunately it was not and Christian left with f50 and a pension of a shilling a day for life. The Lord Tleasurer, for unknown reasons, reduced this to five pence a day and it was only after a vigorous fight that it was readjusted (Dowie, 1893: 289). This story illustrates the vulnerable and precarious position working class women and retired soldiers of the eighteenth century occupied. Christian’s survival depended on the whim of these noble friends and few women of her class could claim even that. Other former soldiers fared little better. Hannah Snell received a pension of f18/5s but supplemented her income with funds from her stage performances and died in Bedlam. Mary Anne lhlbot only received twelve shillings a week, was eventually thrown in a debtor’s prison and died at age thirty (Dowie, 1893 : 194). Dowie must have been aware of the difficulties facing retired female soldiers since my information about them comes largely from her own book. It seems, however, that she had the greatest contempt for Christian Davies who did not resign herself to destitution but continued to press her former officers for money. Ignoring the reality of her situation, Dowie condemned her for having ‘few high qualities, little nobility of mind and character and no great thoughts.’ More importantly though, Christian Davies and the other female soldiers were rarely of the ‘better class’ and this lies at the heart of Dowie’s consternation (Dowie, 1893: xi). Her concern for socially appropriate behaviour and absence of sympathy seem consistent with middle class reform ideology of the period. Although Dowie claimed that adventurers had disappeared from the scene, women who displayed great bravery were still

to be found. In contrast to the soldiers, Dowie’s heroines kept their skirts on. They were women: Who have shown unexampled endurance among savages on desert islands, cast away at sea, or- who in the black moral pitch of great cities have swum strongly, and kept up not only their heads but those of the suffering strugglers they leapt in to save. (Dowie, 1893: xix) These women went about their adventures in the ‘cold seriousness of skirts’ demonstrating that women no longer had any need to dress as men to live, to work, to achieve, or to ‘breathe the outer air,’ according to Dowie. These women were soldiers in the temperance army, social regenerators, reformers and politicians. They recognized that any air of masculinity would work against their public success, claimed Dowie. Instead she advocated that women flatter men by playing at feminine stereotypes (Dowie, 1893: xxii). Dowie’s model of female virtue was a middle class one. The British female soldiers of the eighteenth century all enlisted and continued as soldiers rather than officers and were thus associated with the labouring poor. Their ‘femininity’ was called into question and their class characteristics confirmed that they were beyond the pale. It was ironic that it was by virtue of their class that these women were able to carry out their exploits. An upper class woman unused to hard physical labour would have had much greater difficulty enlisting and working effectively enough to maintain her disguise. For an eighteenth century working class woman to switch from farm labour to soldiering and from soldiering to other class bound occupations was not dramatic. By the late nineteenth century the female soldiers were no longer portrayed as heroic examples of female strength and independence; Dowie even discredited their validity and urged her readers to read them for amusement rather than as historical vignettes. An unattainable model for most working class women was now held up for praise: how many working class women could become Dowie’s ‘social regenerators’ reformers and politicians, especially when these movements often worked against their class interests? The Amazons had challenged concepts of gender by portraying women convincingly living as men and enjoying it.

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The Victorian reform movements, however, often served to reinforce a rigid class and gender hierarchy that continued to equate the working class with uncontrolled sexuality, disorder, disease, and identified women only as wives and mothers. There was no room for working class heroines who defied the social order in Victorian domestic ideology. Dowie and other middle class reformers therefore had a vested interest in discrediting these women. That the Amazons’ accomplishments were more physical than cerebral was also grounds for criticism from Dowie. Her contempt for their ‘moral and mental’ deficiency served to reinforce her commitment to their middle class counterparts. Read her story, and you will see she was of a light build-morally and mentally; and physically her toughness was half brag. She was of a coarse grimy sensuality; she had a gay and abandoned nature; loved men and ale; grumbled at privation and fought her battles best over the pint pot, or in the bliik of the dull oil footlights. (Dowie, 1893: xx) Perhaps as Dowie suggested, an eighteenth century woman intellectually challenging gender boundaries and definitions would have been more palatable. But to praise Christian Davies was to praise a working class occupation and lifestyle in a period when it was relegated to the edge of society’s moral code. As Myna ‘Bustram argues in her history of the Victorian army, soldiers’ overcrowded and communal housing, their high mobility and reputation for promiscuous sexuality were all regarded as outward manifestations of their potential or real failure to adhere to the domestic ideology. As we have seen, nineteenth century writers remoulded Christian Davies’ and other female soldiers’ stories to make them appear more acceptable to a middle class audience. The prevailing gender ideology influenced this transformation from heroines to amusing vulgar charicatures. Concepts of gender and class had become more firmly entrenched reinforcing the need to discredit the soldier’s actions and authenticity. Florence Nightingale, brave but domesticated wives and social reformers emerged as alternative heroines. It was no longer accepted that women could simply change their attire and convinc-

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ingly become men. The threat the female soldiers represented by their independence and male power was undercut by recreating them as simpletons or patriots. Their willingness to flirt with other women was replaced by a concern for their sexual purity. Middle class Victorian writers could no longer celebrate the ‘lower class’ lifestyle and bravado these women represented. Rather they turned to the image of the virginal nurse as an example of female heroism in the midst of battle. Women’s long tradition of service in the military along with the Amazons were often erased from nineteenth century society’s official version of history and the army was increasingly presented as an all-male institution. The change in the female soldiers’ stories also chronicles a change in the understanding of gender construction. Eighteenth century audiences were prepared. to believe that gender was a variable, externally determined entity that could be easily and tolerably transgressed. By the nineteenth century women in male attire had become an abomination of nature and served to challenge entrenched sexual stereotypes. In an eighteenth century context these martial heroines may have done more than challenge accepted understandings of gender. Although we have little proof the female soldiers may have inspired other women to take on the male world. They may have also opened other behavioural options for women showing what was possible for a woman to accomplish. They may truly have been working class heroines of their time. But that so little of their stories remain and that the prevailing version of military history has largely forgotten them has served to reinforce our understanding of the past as highly stratified by gender. The female soldiers and their social acceptance in the eighteenth century forces a questioning of these assumptions. REFERENCES Anonymous. 18101. The Lift and Extmoniinary Adventures of Susanna Cope; The British Fbmak Soldier.

Cheney, Banbury. Berckman. Evelyn. 1973. The Hidden Navy. Hamish Hamilton. London. Best, Geoffrey. 1982. wbr and Sockty in Revolutionary Europe 1770-1870. Leicester University Press, L&ester. Carr. Sir John. 1809. Descriptive lhwels in the Southern and Eastern Fiwts of Spain and the Bakoric Isles. Sherwood, Neely and sons, London. Carter, Thomas. 1860. Curiositks of War and Military

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Studies: Anecdotal, Descriptive and Statistical. Groombridge and Sons, London. Caulfield. James. 1819. Portmits, Memoirs and Characters of Remarkable AFtsons (Vol. II). H.R. Young and TH. Whitely, London. Clayton, Ellen C. 1879. Female Warriors: Memorials of Ismale Valour and Heroism, Fmm the Mythological Ages to the Pnesent Em (Vols. I and II). Tinsley Brothers, London. Davis, Natalie Zemon. 1975. Society and Culture in Early Modern Fmnce. Stanford University Press, Stanford. Dowie, Menie Muriel. ed. 1893. Women Adventurers: The Adventtoe Series (Vol. 15). Unwin Brothers, The Gresham Press, London. Dugaw, Diane. 1985. ‘Balladry’s Female Warriors: Women, Warfare, and Disguise in the Eighteenth Century.‘Eighteenth Century Life (Jan): I-20. Enloe, Cynthia. 1983. Does Khaki&come You? The Militarization of Women’sLives. Pluto Press, London. Ewing, Elizabeth. 1975. Women in Uniform Through the Centuries, Batsford. London. Friedli. Lynne. 1985. ‘Women who Dressed as Men’ mubie and Strife (Summer): 25-29. Gleig, Rev. R. G. 1839. Chelsea Hospital and Its Thzditions. R. Bently Publisher, Blackwood’s Standard Libra@ of Popular Modem Literature, London. Gribble, Francis. 1916. Women in War, Sampson, Low and Co., London. Hacker. Barton. 1981. ‘Women and Military Institutions in Early Modem Europe: A Reconnaissance.’ Signs 6(4): 643-67 1. Hargreaves, Reginald. 1930. Women-At-Arms: Their Famous fiploits Throughout the Ages. Hutchinson -- and Company, London.Laffin, John. 1967. Women in Battle. Abelard-Schuman, London. Montagu, Richard. 1740. The Life and Adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies, Commonly Called Mother Ross. Richard Montagu Publisher, London. Montagu, Richard. 1741. The L@s and Adventums of Mrs. Christian Davies, the British Amazon, Com-

manly CaR’d Mother Ross. Richard Montagu Publisher, London.5 Palmer, Roy, ed. 1977. The Rambling Soldier: Military Life Thnnath soldier’s Songs and Writings. Puffin Books, Ha&ondsworth. Rogers. H. B. C. 1977. The Brittsh Army in the Eighteenth Century. Allen and Unwin. London. Rowbotham, W. B. and Commander, R. N. 1937. The Naval Service Medal, 1793-1840. The Mariner’s Mirtvr: The Journal of the Society for Natuml Research, 23.340-372. Shepherd. Simon. 1981. Amazons and Warrior Women: Varieties of Feminism in Seventeenth Century Dmma. Harvester, Brighton. Snell, Hannah. 1750. The Fernare Soldier; or the Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell. Richard Walker, London. The Soldier’s Companion or Martial Recorder. consisting of biogmphy, anecdotes, poetry and misceiianeous iqhormation peculiarly interesting to those connected with the military profession. 1824. Edward Cock, London. Qle of 1807: Orkney Woman’s Trials; First White Woman in the Nor’-West.’ 1922, December 28. The Orcadian. p. 3. Bustram, Myna. 1984. Women-of the Regiment: Marriage and the Victorian Army, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

SThe other ‘author’ given for the 1740 and 1741 editions of The Life and Adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies. claims the book is ‘taken from her mouth.’ However. the editions are also listed under Daniel Defoe’s name in the British Library catalogue since he was widely believed to have been the actual author of the story. This claim, however, has never been verified so to avoid confusion I have listed the editions under the publisher’s name and identified them in the footnotes as Montagu’s works.