Called the "red armed women of the west", laundresses scrubbed their way into history as they took on the task of keeping the army their whitest and their brightest. 

These pages contain information about who the laundress was, laundry methods, soap making, etc.

At Fort Scott, evidence indicates that the laundresses had rooms in the barracks. Today, in the reconstructed dragoon barracks, one room is restored as a laundress quarters.

Those who were married might have stayed in tents with their husbands close to the riverbank, a situation which made their job easier. These rows of tents were often referred to as "soap suds row".