Campfollowers and Sutlers by Charles Knutson

Contents Introduction and Bylaws Interpretive Clothing Scottish Culture History Music and Dance Military Life Language Bibliography, Sources and Library Materials

In spite of the huge ratio of campfollowers compared to soldiers during our period, we have found relatively little written about the sutlers and campfollowers. What we do know has primarily been gleaned from military histories and descriptions of the logistics and supply problems of a Renaissance army. Thus, if Clann Tartan is to improve its historical accuracy with regards to the baggage train and campfollowing, we have no alternative but to embark on a course of original research. Because historians have not deemed the baggage trains, sutlers and campfollowers as "important" as armies, strategies and tactics, we must create a description of them. This is part of the challenge of living history - to present the day-to-day life that people lived - the details that have been ignored or that can bring added meaning to the political histories or history’s "Great Events" and "Great Men" as they have been recorded. Therefore, the Editor (4th edition) sees the replacement of this article as the research challenge for the next edition of the manual. It will require "original" research -looking at primary sources that were written during our period of focus, since we have found no secondary sources (someone who has already studied the subject in detail) for this information. There are a number of facsimile reproductions of period books such as military manuals, which may include regulations, and orders that may be used to paint the picture we need. I would suggest these as a possible starting place. Until then let us share some of the gleanings we have found. Unlike modern armies that have supply units organized just to provide for the needs of the combatants, the soldiers of our period were provided for by private sutlers, victualers, or suppliers who followed the army in the baggage train. Some of these were the craftsmen, armorers, and farriers to tend horses and wagoneers who may have been contracted by the army. Others were simply "freelance" people who provided the support services of an army on the move. News of a recruiting campaign would spread quickly and the assembly of a crowd of soldiers possibly equivalent to the size of a small town would immediately cause supply problems. Sutlers with their carts and tents soon materialized in the area and began outfitting the soldiers for war. A new recruit was often required to buy his own weapons, clothes and food from his enlistment bounty (money paid to help him reach the mustering center).  Certain trades such as food service, metalworkers, cloth and leather workers, or "entertainment" were able to make a quick profit before the soldiers moved out. "Even before the war, a regiment of 3,000 men was followed by a crowd of 4,000 non-combatants on foot and in carts. In the last year of the war, there were 40,000 men entitled to draw rations in the Imperial-Bavarian army, while the more than 100,000 soldiers' wives, whores, man servants, maids and other camp-followers had to feed themselves... A regiment was followed on foot or in hundreds of carts by a baggage train which included the families of soldiers and officers, their servants, sutlers, soldiers no longer fit for military service, deserters from far away, tricksters, whores, gipsies, Jewish 'hucksters' and so on - in short, a whole crowd of individuals who made a living from the daily needs, the gambling, the booty, and the pleasure-seeking of the soldiers. Reports from the district of Ulm indicate that large numbers of children and young people were to be found in military camps." -Herbert Langer, The Thirty Years' War. From this description it is easy to see that during the course of the war a baggage train became far more than merely the supplies and support necessary to an army on the march. Imperial officials estimated that the Swedish army destroyed or damaged 2,000 castles, 18,000 villages, and 1,500 towns -about one third of all of the housing in Germany at the time. The worst losses were in rural areas, creating what were known as "war deserts." Following the soldiers became the only way of life for many of the refugees of the war. After a battle they would flock onto the field like ravens to loot the dead of whatever valuables remained. In the occupation of lodgings they occasionally moved faster than the soldiers and would have to be rousted by the "Wenchmaster" and his men to insure the priority of the soldiers. The soldier "was generally responsible for taking care of his equipment, his weapons, his clothing, and his horse. The rations, too, were left principally to the purveyors, and they were controlled by fees established by the provost.” “Philip of Hesse himself sold the necessities to his mercenaries and thus hoped to get back half of the soldiers' pay, that is, as is called in modern industry, an exchange system. If Philip himself had nothing to sell, he exacted a toll from the purveyors in order to be indemnified." "With the growth of armies, we hear more and more references to rations. In the Officials' Book, or the War Regulations, which was composed at the end of the 1530s and broadly disseminated and extensively used... In the Kriegsbuck of Duke Albrecht of Prussia. It applies to an army of 90,801 combatants and estimates for that number for five days (was required) 490 bread wagons, 383 wagons with bacon, butter, salt, peas and oats and barley, 433 wagons with 100 barrels of wine and 1000 kegs of beer. In addition there were the oats for 45,664 horses...” "The French army in 1515 was already taking along its own field bakeries. For his campaign in Bohemia in 1620, Duke Maximilian of Bavaria had supply depots set up." -Delbruck, Hans. The Dawn of Modern Warfare.