[Kuo Xie]

Please forgive this somewhat rambling question on the logistics of medieval camp life. I've always wondered how the medieval foot soldier carried his gear around. Of course most of the army supplies are transported on wagons in the baggage train, but what items did the medieval soldier carry on his person, and how did he do it? Stuff like bedroll, rations, spare clothes, plunder, personal effects, etc. I've never seen a medieval backpack in a museum but they certainly must have existed, right?

For those infantrymen who had personally owned armor, where was it stored when not being worn? I wouldn't like to trust an expensive mail shirt or helm to a baggage cart where any other light fingered soldier could filch it. On the other hand, if a soldier functions as an archer, does he march with bow/crossbow in hand and a bag of arrows or does he leave that stuff with the baggage and draw ammo only when battle is imminent?

How do these guys carry their food and cooking equipment? At what level of the army are the cookpots, tripods, portable ovens, etc. organized? Is there a centralized commissary or do smaller units handle their own cooking? For that matter, what proportion of the rations come from an actual logistics train, vs. scrounged from the surrounding land?

I'm not talking about knights or mounted men-at-arms, here. I assume if you were rich enough to afford horse and armor, you could also afford personal baggage animals and/or personal servants to take care of your gear.

I know that there is not going to be one answer that covers the entire Middle Ages, but I would appreciate any info on specific times and places or reading recommendations you can give me.

[Jean Henri Chandler]

It's not precisely medieval but there is a lot of information (and a lot of period images) covering this for the context of Landsknechts.

One thing seems to be having your girlfriend or camp follower carrying stuff for you












More seriously, Landsknechts, and earlier incarnations of similar mercenaries, were pretty well organized. Theft from another soldier probably wasn't unheard of but would be punished severely (execution) and therefore pretty rare. But there was a lot of specialization for people to keep track of things like supplies, food, ammunition, and so on.. there was even a 'whores sergeant' in most Landsknecht companies who was in charge of the prostitutes and camp followers. A lot of gear was carried in the wagons, sometimes even the main weapons like the pikes (and in some famous cases this caused problems). I think generally though most soldiers carried their own main weapons and the equivalent of a few shots worth of ammunition, this depended on which army in which place.

As far as personal individual kit like purse, bedroll, eating spoon and so on, some re-enactors can probably help more than I can.

If you look at the 15th Century Swiss Chronicles, like this one, you'll find a lot of portrayals of their supplies and kit, which seem to be well organized. There are some depictions of things like distributing ammunition, making things like flaming crossbow bolts, and feeding the troops, distributing pay, field kitchens and everything.

http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/bbb/Mss-hh-I0001/13

There are also a lot of pretty detailed records from Burgundy on soldiers kit and supplies and so on from the 14th and 15th Centuries. You might want to look for companies of ordinance. Some of the Osprey books give you some visual representations of this kind of stuff.

From the images I've seen the individual soldiers don't seem to be marching with a ton of kit, in the way modern infantrymen sometimes are, but just armor, weapons, and maybe water. Looks like most of the other stuff goes in the wagons.

For an example of what goes in the wagons,

..."a small army from Regensburg on campaign in 1431. The force which consisted of 73 horsemen, 71 crossbowmen, 16 handgunners, and a mixed group of smiths, leatherworkers, a chaplain, pike-makers, tailors, cooks, and butchers, for
248 men in total.

They brought 6 cannon, 300 lbs of cannonballs and 200 lbs of lead shot. Forty one wagons carried powder and lead, 6,000 crossbow bolts, 300 fire-bolts, 19 handguns, cowhides, tents, and horse fodder for six weeks. Supplies for the 248 men included ninety head of oxen, 900 lbs of cooked meat, 900 lbs of lard, 1200 pieces of cheese, 80 stock-fish, 56 lbs of uncut candles, vinegar, olive oil, pepper, saffron, ginger, 2 tuns and 73 “kilderkins” of Austrian wine, and 138 “kilderkins” of beer. The total cost of this campaign was 838 guilders..."




Jean

[Pieter B.]

Pepper and Saffron? The stuff brought into Europe on a camels back?

As for the infantryman. It's quite likely he could wear most of his armor while on the march, of course no one likes carrying things so it is within the realm of possibility that he dumped parts of his gear on a wagon if he could.

As far as I am aware the majority of medieval soldiers had to provide food for themselves during a campaign which would mean they bought it from the supply train of merchants, cooks and butchers following the army. Maybe there were occasions in which a central supply system was established but I am not aware of it. A soldier would carry money with him to buy food and whatnot at his army camp/lodging. An eating knife and perhaps a wooden cup/bowl and a canteen were carried by soldiers from the Roman empire to modern day and I see no evidence suggesting medieval soldiers didn't carry their personal eating utensils.

I do not know if a modern day backpack design with two shoulder straps was around in the medieval period. Landsknecht era depictions do show solid frames being used to carry goods such as this one, however I cannot determine how many straps are used.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rMNK6F69qI8/Uzs_q5I...Train.jpeg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T2hqJB_lWVA/Uzs_o4V...an+(2).jpg

There is also pictorial evidence from this period showing snapsacks which have one strap and are worn diagonally over the shoulder.

Loot division was sometimes stipulated in a contract and sometimes it wasn't, it really varied and of course some just hid what they looted. However hiding a silver platter/chandelier is harder than hiding a few coins which can be carried on your person. If one couldn't carry loot himself and could not arrange transport than there was always the option of selling your loot to the merchants accompanying the army, though the sum it would fetch could be lower than the real price.

[Kuo Xie]

[Lafayette C Curtis]

[Lafayette C Curtis]

[Pieter B.]

[Dan Howard]

Usually it involved a lot of:

"Hey woman/servant/slave! Hurry up with my stuff and don't drop anything."