How Being Married to Wartime Generals Impacted These Three Presidential First Ladies
How Being Married to Wartime Generals Impacted These Three Presidential First Ladies
Scholar Diana Carlin describes 'uncanny' similarities between the women in a new White House History Quarterly article.
The military lives of Martha Washington, Julia Grant and Mamie Eisenhower represents a unique bond these three former first ladies share like no other presidential spouses.
All three were married to military generals. They all supported their husbands through crucial wartime moments in American history—the Revolutionary War, the preservation of the Union during the Civil War and later through Reconstruction, and during World War II in the American-led defeat of the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan).
But, these three first ladies also shared other foundational aspects in common that made their contribution to the White House remarkably similar and impactful. They came from families of means, they were well educated, they married men who worked their way up the ladder to become military commanders, and they understood how savvy social skills would benefit their husbands and their lives as a whole.
“When you read how many similarities they have, it’s pretty uncanny,” Political Communication Scholar Diana Carlin, co-author of Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women, tells East Wing Magazine in a phone interview. “And, it did influence what they did as first lady.”
Today, the White House Historical Association releases "Military Roles and the White House," the 73rd issue of White House History Quarterly where Carlin, professor emerita of communication at Saint Louis University, takes readers through how the military lives of these three first ladies benefited the women while they served in the White House. In the article “The Generals’ Wives: Three First Ladies Shaped by the Military,” Carlin explains how the management approaches Martha Washington, Julia Grant, and Mamie Eisenhower brought to their roles as first ladies were influenced by their years of military life.
The issue comes just before Memorial Day, and focuses on military traditions at the White House, as well as a president’s relationship with his generals as a war unfolds, and Civil War-era letters that reveal one soldier’s own wartime experience in the President’s Neighborhood.
“From performing traditional American music to welcome a visiting head of state, to showing guests their seats in the East Room on a special occasion, to managing a State Dinner receiving line, to serving lunch to the president in the Oval Office Dining Room, every branch of the military plays a role in facilitating ceremonial and everyday White House routines,” Marcia Anderson, editor of White House History Quarterly, says in a news release.
For these three first ladies, though, war had a significant impact on them.
Martha Washington wrote letters about England stating that at that time this country had to figure out how to get along with the British.
“She didn’t want another war,” Carlin says, noting she had lived through the Revolutionary War and that her only son, John Parke Custis, who didn’t fight in the war, died in 1781 at age 26 from “camp fever” (epidemic typhus or dysentery) while serving as a civilian aid to stepfather George Washington during the Battle of Yorktown. “She’d seen the devastation. Her diplomacy skills were very important because she realized we can’t do this again.”
Likewise, Julia Grant had similar feelings about wartime. She believed that America needed to be at peace and unify so there would not be dissension from within the country again, Carlin noted.
In many ways, according to Carlin, the nonpolitical experience gained from living a military lifestyle gave Martha Washington, Julia Grant and Mamie Eisenhower an edge inside the White House that other political first ladies have not experienced.
“They learned a lot about the role of the wife and the husband’s career. Both Mamie and Julia were well aware that what they did socially was going to impact their husbands,” Carlin says.
And, Martha Washington spent time traveling to different winter encampments to join her husband, so she had an opportunity to experience life outside of managing their Virginia plantation and to meet people from different socioeconomic and education backgrounds.
When Julia Grant and Mamie Eisenhower entered the White House, they were already accustomed to entertaining, being around dignitaries and both had spent time in Washington, D.C. circles.
“It was a preparation that some other first ladies who had not spent time in Washington, or who did not have the background like governors’ wives or senators’ wives would have. And, they had an advantage,” Carlin says.
All three women had to be extremely organized, a skill honed as a result of frequent military moves, says Carlin. Julia Grant had a couple military moves in the first years of her marriage. The military life also meant the three women were skilled in managing budgets—experience necessary in the White House at a time when Congress wasn’t giving large allotments of money for White House staff, according to Carlin.
“They threw elaborate parties in the Grant administration,” Carlin says. “So [Julia Grant] had to figure out how to do all that.”
Mamie Eisenhower, Carlin notes, was “literally clipping coupons” for their personal grocery deliveries.
“They learned how to be very frugal, but do things very nicely on a budget,” Carlin says.
“They learned how to be very frugal, but do things very nicely on a budget,” Carlin says. “And they have to manage the budget in the White House.”
Ultimately, the military life experience helped these three first ladies understand the notion that even though the service is their husband’s vocation, it’s also a two-person career with the spouse as a partner in that career, says Carlin.
“A lot of political wives have been partners from the very beginning,” notes Carlin, adding that the real difference is the hierarchical structure with the military.
“The military has been an important part of shaping the men who have been our presidents,” Carlin says. “And, in turn, it’s shaped the women because they’ve lived through those wars.”
“The military has been an important part of shaping the men who have been our presidents,” Carlin says. “And, in turn, it’s shaped the women because they’ve lived through those wars.”
The full article and "Military Roles and the White House," the 73rd issue of White House History Quarterly, can be found here.
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