The French army's official female auxiliaries, known as cantinières, lived, traveled and fought with their combat units on battlefields across the globe, providing food and drink to the soldiers. Tens of thousands of women served in these positions. Cantinières became casualties in many locations too. During the Crimean War, cantinières displayed great ingenuity in erecting comfortable magazines and shops, where one could get a cup of coffee and a cigar, in out-of-the-way parts of the ruined city of Sevastopol. The capital was bombarded by the Allied Navy on 9 April 1855. 'The whole establishment of a cantinière went smash the other day through the operation of a shell, and the poor proprietress lost her hand and an immense amount of crockery, comestibles, and customers.'
From: Thomas Cardoza, Intrepid Women. Cantinières and vivandières of the French Army (Bloomington 2010)