1st US Infantry Regiment
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Officers' Ladies by Sally Colford Bennett

Picture
Cragfont, 2018, Ladies tea hosted by Mrs. Bennett, far right.

    The wife or daughter of an officer was a middling class lady.  She would have been educated, most likely having attended a female academy where she learned needle arts (including embroidery, tambour work, drawing, and painting), domestic arts (sewing, cooking, knitting, marking or putting initials on clothing, etc.), and education in the subjects of composition, geography, history, math, natural and moral philosophies, to name a few.   She might also have attend a dancing academy to learn to dance, which would also enhance her posture and deportment. 
        Many officers chose to take their wives and families with them to the westward country (which included the Old Northwest, that include Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the Louisiana Territories, such as Missouri) or to the southern territories (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee as well as the southern half of Louisiana).   These isolated places posed hardships for raising a family as well as having some sense of a social life, but having a family near was a boon for an officer ,who would otherwise face loneliness or be drawn into taking on a mixed blood or a Native American woman for companionship even though these illicit relationships were forbidden by military regulations. 
        For the wife who accompanied her husband westward, she would face the loneliness of female companionship.  The officers' wives and daughters  spent their days working on sewing for themselves, their children, and infants, from undergarments to dresses and clothing for husbands from cravats to shirts to drawers; knitting; writing letters back home to family, to other officers' wives at other forts if they knew any;  keeping a diary or journal; and reading, particularly novels and history.  Recreational activities might include taking walks, collecting wild  flowers, and horseback riding (side saddle, of course). 



Sally Bennett, Fort Osage, October 2016
Kimberlee Berezuk Fort Osage October 2016
Michaela Harris and Kat Rosewitz, Fort Osage, October 2016
Michaela Harris and Sally Bennett, october 2016 Fort Osage
Trisha Noak, January 10, 2015, New Orleans
Sandra Altman, Ann Wass, Sally Bennett, January 11, 2015, Antoines, New Orleans 200th
Ladies Salon, January 9, 2015, New Orleans.
Kat Rosewitz, New Orleans, January 2015
Rhegan Tanner, Cindy Harris, Jan Sheets, Sally Bennett at the Ladies Salon, January 10, New Orleans.
Emily Rosewitz, New Orleans, January 2015
Kat Rosewitz, New Orleans, January 2015
Grand Tactical, 2006. L to R: Molly Lundgren, Sally Bennett Gail Simmons, Mary (Bennett) Carlson, Mother (Simmons.)
2004, St. Charles, Missouri. Young Ladies attending school outdoors, with the matron and School Master looking on.
Ladies "taking tea with Mrs. Bennett" at Mississinewa, 2007
Antoines, January 11, 2015, New Orleans. Sally Bennett and Mrs. Twist.
Antoine's, Becky and Sally. January 11 2015, New Orleans.
Ladies Salon, New Orleans.
Sally Bennett and Ann Wass at Fort Massac, School of the Soldier
2007, taking tea with Mrs Bennett at Mississinewa
1-20-2005 Sally and Mary Bennett, New Orleans NPS.
2005, Boones Village, Sally Bennett
Sally Bennett and Marcia Smith, sewing at the Military Time Line, Fort Osage.
Young ladies at Grand Tactical
The VERY Silly Gals, 2006, Grand Tactical
Fort Niagara
December 6, 2014 Christmas at Fort Osage, Sally Bennett
2007, taking tea at Fort Niagara
Sally Bennett and Tracy Mathews, Fort Osage 34th annual Fall muster, 2021
Jackie and Eric Wallace and son at Fort Osage 34th Muster, 2021
Sally Bennett, Officers quarters, Fort Osage 2021
Picture
Kimberlee Berezuk, Washerwoman. 2021, 34th Annual Fort Osage Muster.
Women of the Company by Sally Colford Bennett
 

Washerwomen: from about 1800 to 1815, this is the most commonly used term for women who did laundry in the historic record of this era, not laundress.   The duties of the washerwoman was to wash the clothing of the soldiers. They earned .12 for every 12 pieces they washed when soldiers supplied the soap and .18 "without soap." Washer women or company tailors could eared .33 for making a "Ruffle shirt" or a "A plain shirt, (soldier) 20 cents."  Hospital Matrons: this term should not be confused with nursing care as we now know it.  The hospital matron was not a nurse. 

Belle Fontaine Aug 29 1807   Morning Orders   Margaret White not being a suitable person to attend the sick  in the Hospital the Colonel directs that she be turned out, and Kitty Goodjer is appointed in her Room."
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