Glittering Misery: Series 1, Part 2

At twenty-seven years old, Martha Summerhayes fell in love. She did not fall in love with a man, or a place, or a career of her own. Instead, she fell in love with the Army.

Martha’s introduction to the Army was unusual, to say the least. In 1871, Martha’s family agreed to let her go to Germany and live with an old Hanoverian general and his family, the Westes. By this time, Prussia had taken over Hanover and had deposed Hanover’s King George (5). As Martha wrote, General Weste accepted this fate “philosophically” but yet remained “loyal in his heart to his King and to old Hanover” (5). Despite the political situation having changed in Germany, Martha had a thorough introduction to the German Army during the year she spent with the Westes. Not only did the family spend a great deal of time with other German officers, but also the general’s wife, Frau Generalin, told Martha countless tales of her life with the military. Reflecting on these stories, Martha wrote: “Thus I came to know military life in Germany, and I fell in love with the army, with its brilliancy and its glitter, with its struggles and its romance, with its sharp contrasts, its deprivations, and its chivalry” (7).

To a young woman, fascination with the Army was compounded by the relaxed, stately, and luxurious way of life she encountered in Germany. Before traveling, Martha had spent many “barren winter evenings at Nantucket” studying German literature and wishing to visit that old country (9). How she came to have the opportunity or means of finally travelling there in 1871 and living with the Westes is not explained in her book, nor in any secondary sources that I have read. Still, it is enough to say that her year in Germany did not disappoint. In addition to learning about the Army through the aforementioned stories and interactions with officers, her time was filled with other pleasures, such as going to the theatre, walking around town, and enjoying coffee with cream and rolls with fresh butter while sitting at the Zoological gardens and knitting (7-8). Coffee was a particular favorite, apparently (a fact which endears Martha to me even more!). When local officers joined Martha and the Westes “at the various gardens for after-dinner coffee,” Martha made a point of stating that the coffee was served in “generous coffee-cups, with plenty of rich cream. Every one drank at least two cups” (9-10).*

This thoroughly pleasurable year at last came to a close and Martha sorrowfully sailed back to Massachusetts. After enduring a dreadful storm that nearly cost the lives of everyone on board, Martha’s spirits were buoyed by the welcome she received from her “old friend Jack” (11). Jack, or John Wyer Summerhayes, had served in the Union Army during the Civil War and still held the rank of second lieutenant (1, 11). Martha did not describe how she first met Jack, nor the courtship that followed her return to Nantucket; instead, she simply wrote that he “seemed so glad to have me back in America, that I concluded the only thing to do was to join the army myself” (11). I wonder how her much her decision to marry Jack was a product of her falling in love with the Army while in Germany. Curiously, Martha’s language is far more effusive when writing of her love affair with the Army than with that of her husband! However, this could be a consequence of her own modesty, her New England sensibilities, or of Victorian ideals of morality. Whether or not her love of the German Army induced her to accept Jack’s proposal, she was unprepared for just how different the U.S. Army was from the German Army.

In 1874, the Army moved the couple to Fort Russell in Wyoming, which Martha thought was “the wildest sort of place” when compared with Europe (11). One of Martha’s first and perhaps most humbling experiences of Army life was of finding housing at Fort Russell. After being welcomed to the post by Major and Mrs. Wilhelm, Martha was shocked to learn that finding a house for herself and Jack would require evicting a lower ranking officer and his family! Martha was understandably dismayed. Major and Mrs. Wilhelm sympathized, but the Major reassured Martha that this was simply the custom in the Army: “”it’s always done — by virtue of rank. They’ll hate you for doing it, but if you don’t do it they’ll not respect you. After you’ve been turned out once yourself, you will not mind turning others out”” (13).

The very next day, Martha happened to pass by the Lynch home, which was soon to be her own. Poor Mrs. Lynch’s household belongings were being removed from the house, and Martha “turned away in pity that such customs could exist in our service” (13). Mrs. Wilhelm, who was accompanying Martha at the time, reassured the inexperienced army wife that moving was not really so dreadful and that “army women were accustomed to it” (13). I am truly glad to say that the Army no longer requires higher ranking officers to remove lower ranking ones from their homes during a housing shortage! I have heard my fair share of army housing horror stories, but I have never heard of an eviction due to rank, thankfully. Even so, Mrs. Wilhelm was right – regardless of the reason for a move, army women are indeed very accustomed to moving.

As Martha began to adjust to her rural surroundings and to the inglorious and sometimes unjust ways of the Army, she likely recalled a conversation she had with Frau Generalin while in Germany. Reflecting on how much she fell in love with the German military, Martha wrote: “I used to say, “Oh, Frau General, how fascinating it all is!” “Hush, Martha,” she would say; “life in the army is not always so brilliant as it looks; in fact, we often call it, over here, ‘glaenzendes Elend'”” (10). In English, the phrase translates to “glittering misery.” Martha wrote that the words struck her deeply and she remembered them “over and over again” years later “on the American frontier” (10). As future posts will soon reveal, it seems likely that Martha thought the Army was filled with more misery than glittering charm for a good long while. Together, we will see how her opinions shifted and changed throughout her many years as an army wife.

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*Stay tuned for a historic recipe post soon! It will feature a delightful dessert best enjoyed with a generous cup of coffee with “plenty of rich cream” (9).

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Bibliography

Summerhayes, Martha. “Chapter 1: Germany and the Army.” In Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life by a New England Woman, 5-10. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. First published 1911.

Summerhayes, Martha. “Chapter 2: I Joined the Army.” In Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life by a New England Woman, 11-13. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. First published 1911.