ABSTRACT
Henry Bouquet was a Swiss army officer who became an officer in the 60th Royal American Regiment in 1754. He was particularly valued for his knowledge of la petite guerre, a skirmishing style necessary to combat the native warriors and the wild terrain in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War. May’s petition came to him while she was incarcerated at the expedition headquarters in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Little can be known about how May’s petition was drawn up, but testimony at a court martial of a private soldier in Chichester in 1752 portrayed soldiers’ wives sitting in a canteen in Dover complaining about the army. Listeners recommended a sergeant with a reputation for writing strong petitions, and it is possible that Martha May might well have sought a similar sort of individual, or perhaps she wrote her own. Bouquet has been characterised as having “high personal standards”, which likely put him at odds with long-serving men like May’s husband, who was possibly used to a different code of conduct. 1 Her petition is frequently cited in histories that emphasise women’s sense of belonging and pride in their camp-following role in the army.
