Camp Follower

The Quick Knife

The camp follower trailed every premodern army, a vast train of cooks, sutlers, laundresses, wives, and children who fed, mended, and supplied the soldiers as they marched. Surviving on the harsh margins of war by scavenging and trade, they were as vital to a campaign as the fighting men. When the baggage train was attacked, these hardened followers defended it with knife and desperate cunning, asking no quarter and giving none.