Two Faces of Molly Pitcher

Moll Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth, a circa 1856 engraving by John Rogers after the original 1854 painting by Dennis Malone Carter, is one of many patriotic images popular from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century that functioned as teaching tools celebrating republican ideals of the American Revolution.
Monmouth County Historical Association (Museum Purchase, 1988)

Perhaps one of the most enduring legends of the American Revolution is that of a woman, who while carrying water to thirsty troops during the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, witnessed the death of her husband as he was manning a cannon in the heat of battle. Desperate to secure a victory, this woman takes his place, continuing to fire the cannon and inspiring the men around her to fight on as well. When the battle is over, she is taken to meet General George Washington, who gives her a gold coin in appreciation of her fearless service. The story of Molly Pitcher’s daring actions amid a raging battle, undeterred by grief at the shocking loss of her husband, is both romantic and patriotic. It encapsulates the sacrifice and perseverance of many Americans whose lives had been turned upside down by the war. Early historians, eager to commemorate the nation’s birth, celebrated Molly’s story as fact, and in so doing rendered her an enduring character of American folklore.

But was Molly Pitcher a real person? Historical evidence cannot provide a clear answer. Although there are documented instances of women participating in battle during the Revolution, it is simply impossible to say with certainty that any were the “Molly Pitcher” whose saga has been recounted in books and artwork for more than 200 years. Two Pennsylvania women, Mary Hays (later McCauley) and Margaret Corbin, stand out for their connection to the Revolutionary War and their association with the legend of Molly Pitcher.

Camp Followers and Fighters

Women have been following men into battle as long as men have been going to war, and the American Revolution is no exception. Women were present as camp followers for the duration of the war. They laundered clothing, prepared food, tended the sick or injured, and worked as seamstresses. Often impoverished because of the devastation war had wrought on their families’ livelihoods, many of these women, sometimes with children in tow, chose to follow the Continental Army for the meager wages and rations they received. Though camp followers provided much-needed services for the soldiers, they also faced criticism. In Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community During the American Revolution, Holly A. Mayer notes that in addition to “the hardships and hazards of attaching oneself to the military . . . their difficulties were compounded by the expectations and prejudices attendant on their gender and the biological consequences of their sex.” Their poor appearance and unconventional living arrangements caused some to assume these women were uncouth, unladylike, and of questionable moral character.

Women traveling with the Continental Army faced a difficult life, as reflected by Pamela Patrick White in her 2000 painting Following the Army. Often with children in tow, women nursed, cooked and laundered, and in return, they received meager rations from the Army.
Pamela Patrick White / White Historic Art

The Continental Army was notoriously underequipped, and detractors argued that the women took much-needed resources away from fighting men and slowed the army’s movement. In August 1777 Washington himself lamented that the “multitude of women in particular, especially those who are pregnant, or have children, are a clog upon every movement. The Commander in Chief earnestly recommends it to the officers to use every reasonable method in their power to get rid of all such as are not absolutely necessary.”

There are instances of women participating in battle as well. Most notable is Deborah Sampson (1760–1827) of Massachusetts. An unmarried woman of 22, Sampson disguised herself as a man and in 1782 joined the 4th Massachusetts Regiment as Robert Shurtleff. She escaped detection for more than a year until she became ill in Philadelphia and lost consciousness. She received an honorable discharge in October 1783 and returned to Massachusetts with a full military pension. In 1802 she embarked on a speaking tour, recounting her experiences.

Anna Maria Lane (c.1755–1810) of Virginia dressed as a man and fought with her husband in New York, New Jersey, Georgia and Pennsylvania. She was wounded at the Battle of Germantown in 1777 but continued alongside her husband until 1781.

Sally St. Clair (d.1782), a Creole woman, allegedly enlisted as a man in South Carolina and was killed at the Battle of Savannah, protecting her lover. Little else is known of her life. So too did Margaret Corbin and Mary Hays follow their husbands into war.

Margaret Corbin

Margaret Corbin was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, in 1751. In 1756, during the French and Indian War, her father was killed and her mother was captured in a raid by Native Americans. Margaret and her brother, who were not present at the time of the attack, were raised by a nearby uncle.

In 1772 Margaret married a farmer named John Corbin. Following their marriage, the Corbins made a living farming in Franklin County until October 1775, when John enlisted in Capt. Thomas Proctor’s 1st Company of Pennsylvania Artillery as a matross, a soldier who assists artillery gunners in loading, firing, sponging and moving the gun. When the unit was posted to Philadelphia, Margaret chose to accompany John.

Margaret Corbin, as imagined here by Herbert Knoetel, circa 1955, was often described as a coarse and difficult woman. She received a set of clothes each year from the government, which likely included a soldier’s frock coat.
Courtesy of the West Point Museum Collection, United States Military Academy

John Corbin was killed in 1776 during the Battle of Fort Washington, and Margaret purportedly took his place along the firing line. Fought on November 16, 1776, Fort Washington was the final conflict in Washington’s New York campaign, a series of battles fought for control of the port of New York and the state of New Jersey.

As the battle raged, Margaret herself was seriously injured by grapeshot and then captured by the British. For the next two years, she was held as a prisoner of war in Philadelphia. Historical records disagree as to the exact nature of Margaret’s wounds, but they were serious enough to render her permanently disabled and in need of care.

In June 1779 the Continental Congress’ Board of War addressed her situation and resolved that “Margaret Corbin, who was wounded and disabled in the attack on Fort Washington, whilst she heroically filled the post of her husband who was killed by her side serving a piece of artillery, do receive, during her natural life, or the continuance of the said disability, the one-half of the monthly pay drawn by a soldier in the service of these states; and that she now receive out of the public stores, one complete suit of cloaths, or the value thereof in money.”

In July 1780 the War Board again considered Margaret’s case: “The board having received information that Margaret Corbin . . . still remains in a deplorable situation in consequence of her wound, by which she is deprived of the use of one arm, and is in other respects much disabled and probably will continue a cripple during her life, Beg leave to report. Resolved, That Margaret Corbin receive annually, during her natural life, one compleat suit of cloaths out of the public stores, or the value thereof in money, in addition to the provision made for her by the act of Congress of July 6, 1779.”

That same year, Margaret (now known to many as “Captain Molly”) joined the Corps of Invalids, a regiment comprised of eight companies of physically disabled Continental Army veterans organized at West Point, New York. The Corps of Invalids carried out such duties as guarding ammunition magazines, hospitals and other military sites. She remained in the Corps of Invalids until the war ended, and she was mustered out in April 1783.

Because the Continental Congress had granted “Captain Molly” a pension for life, her care became the responsibility of Capt. William Price, commissary of ordnance and military stores at West Point. Price kept a letter book, now among the papers of the United States War Department, in which he recorded his correspondence on behalf of Margaret Corbin, for whom he struggled to provide adequate resources.

In her later years, though respected for her service, Margaret developed a reputation for having a sharp tongue and a quick temper. In January 1786, Price wrote to Secretary of War Henry Knox, lamenting the situation: “I am at a loss what to do with ‘Captain Molly’. She is such an offensive person that people are unwilling to take her in charge. This woman informs me she cannot keep her longer than the first of March, and I cannot [find] any that is willing to keep her for that money and find her anything to eat and drink. If you should think proper to extend one or two rations to her, it will be better than money and may induce persons to keep her.”

Margaret Corbin died in poverty at age 48 on January 16, 1800, of complications from her wartime injuries. She was buried in a private cemetery approximately 3 miles from West Point. All the known details about Margaret Corbin’s involvement with the Continental Army and her life afterward seem to indicate that her role in the war went beyond that of a devoted camp follower.

Mary Hays

The story of Mary Hays’ participation in the Revolutionary War is far less straightforward. Little is known of her life before or during the war. Her date of birth, listed on her grave in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is October 13, 1744; however, she may have been born as late as 1754.

Pennsylvania marriage records indicate Mary Ludwig married a Carlisle man named William Hays in 1777. Soon after, William enlisted as a gunner in Proctor’s Artillery, the same unit with whom John and Margaret Corbin served.

No contemporary sources capture specific details of William’s (or Mary’s) wartime service. After the war, the Hayses settled in Carlisle, where tax records show William worked as a barber. He died in 1787, and in 1793 Mary married John McCauley, or McKolly. In 1806 Mary received a land grant for Revolutionary War veterans in the name of William Hays; however, by 1822 she was again widowed and had sold the land grant. Apparently living in poverty, Mary petitioned the Pennsylvania legislature for financial relief, based on the Revolutionary War service of her first husband.

On February 21, 1822, Mary Hays McCauley, identified here as “Molly McKolly,” received a pension of $40 per year for her service and heroism during the Revolutionary War. She is one of three women to receive a pension for her service.
Pennsylvania State Archives, RG-26

On February 16, 1822, the legislature considered “An act for the relief of Molly McKolly [“Molly” was a common diminutive for “Mary”], widow of a soldier of the Revolutionary War.” The bill was read twice and on the third reading amended as an “An act for the relief of Molly McKolly, for her service during the revolutionary war.”

Gov. Joseph Hiester signed the act into law on February 21, 1822. It provided Mary the sum of $40, equivalent to a widow’s pension or a soldier’s half-pay. Unfortunately, the act does not indicate the type of service Mary provided during the war, nor do records indicate why the legislature amended the bill to recognize Mary for her own service rather than that of her husband.

News of Mary’s pension appeared in the Carlisle American Volunteer newspaper on February 21, 1822. The announcement stated that “this heroine had braved the hardships of the camp and dangers of the field, with her husband, who was a soldier of the revolution, and the bill in her favor passed without a dissenting voice.”

A similar notice appeared in the March 1822 Philadelphia Chronicle. Newspapers in New York and Washington, D.C., also reported Mary’s newly awarded pension. The New York Advocate reported on March 7, 1822, that Mary was “well-known to the general officers as a brave and patriotic woman. She was called Sgt. McCauly and was wounded at some battle, supposed to be the Brandywine, where her sex was discovered. It was a common practice for her to swing her saber over her head and huzzah for ‘Mad Anthony’ as she termed General Wayne. It was an unusual circumstance to find women in the ranks disguised as men, such was their order [ardor] for independence. Elizabeth Canning was at a gun at Fort Washington when her husband was killed and she took his place immediately, loaded, primed, and fired the cannon with which he was entrusted. She was wounded in the breast by grapeshot.”

A nearly identical report ran in the Washington National Intelligencer on March 15. Neither report identifies sources for their story, which appears to conflate Mary/Molly McCauley with an unknown woman named Elizabeth Canning whose story is remarkably like Margaret Corbin’s.

Mary Hays McCauley died on January 22, 1832. The Carlisle Herald newspaper ran an obituary for her, noting, “Her first husband’s name was Hays, who was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. It appears that she continued with him while in the army, and acted so much the part of the heroine, as to attract the notice of the officers. Some estimate may be found of the value of the service rendered by her, when the fact is states, that she drew a pension from government during the latter years of her life.”

Like the notice of her pension, Mary’s obituary has no source. Despite her alleged Revolutionary War heroism, Mary was buried in the Carlisle cemetery in an unmarked grave.

Captain Molly to Molly Pitcher

Neither Margaret Corbin nor Mary Hays McCauley were ever referred to as “Molly Pitcher” in their lifetimes. Margaret Corbin without a doubt lost her husband and manned a cannon at the Battle of Fort Washington, as shown by the records documenting her care. How Mary Hays McCauley became associated with the Battle of Monmouth is unclear. Though there are no historical records, it is certainly possible that she and her husband were there, but William Hays survived the battle and the war. There are no firsthand accounts written at the time of the battle that mention women at all. Two accounts written by men who were at the battle exist, and both allude to female participants, but both accounts are problematic.

In 1830, half a century after the battle, veteran Joseph Plumb Martin (1760–1850), who had fought with the 17th Continental Regiment, anonymously published a narrative of his wartime experience. In the narrative, he recalls seeing a woman and her husband firing a cannon at Monmouth: “A cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any other damage than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat, — looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed, that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher for in that case it might have carried away something else, and ended her and her occupation.”

Martin’s account is problematic because he recorded it after many years had passed, by which time his memory may have been faulty. Further, the story possesses the bawdy undertones often found in tales told by soldiers entertaining themselves in the field.

In a 1927 history of the Battle of Monmouth, William Stryker quotes the diary of Albigence Waldo (1750–94), a field surgeon present at the battle. According to Stryker, Waldo’s diary entry for July 3, 1778, records the following: “One of the camp women I must give a little praise to. Her gallant, whom she attended in battle, being shot down, she immediately took up his gun and cartridges and like a Spartan heroine fought with astonishing bravery, discharging the piece with as much regularity as any soldier present. This a wounded officer, whom I dressed, told me he did see himself, she being in his platoon, and assured me I might depend on its truth.”

Intended to hang in the U.S. Capitol, Battle of Monmouth (oil on canvas, c.1840) by George Washington Parke Custis depicts the artist’s step-grandfather George Washington on a white horse and Molly Pitcher at the cannon, in the background.
National Park Service

As quoted, Waldo’s diary appears to provide solid evidence of a woman manning a cannon at Monmouth. Unfortunately, Waldo does not record the name of the officer who told him the story. Further, while Waldo kept a well-known diary of his time at Valley Forge the preceding winter, the volume from which Stryker quoted the above passage has apparently been lost to history.

Details in the Martin and Waldo accounts of a woman firing a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth bear striking similarity to the story of Margaret Corbin; however, she was already an invalid by the time of that battle. Is it possible that their memories of Monmouth became entangled with stories that may have been circulating about Corbin?

Twenty-six years after the death of Margaret Corbin and four years after Mary Hays McCauley received her pension, George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857) began publishing recollections of his beloved step-grandfather, George Washington. Known widely for his literary and oratory skills, Custis, who was 18 at the time of Washington’s death, played a major role in preserving his memory and possessions. These “Recollections of Washington” first appeared in the Washington United States Gazette in 1826 and were reprinted in the Washington National Intelligencer in 1840. After Custis’ death in 1857, his daughter, Mary Anna Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee, gathered the articles and published them in book form in 1859.

The subject of one of Custis’ articles is “Captain Molly,” a brave woman who carried pails of water to thirsty soldiers at Monmouth, and who after the death of her husband heroically fired his cannon. After the battle, George Washington gave Captain Molly a gold piece in recognition of her service. It is unclear when Custis first wrote this particular “recollection,” nor does he state whether Washington told the story directly to him or if it had been relayed to him by someone else who had witnessed the event. Captain Molly’s full name is not given, but her story again bears striking similarity to Margaret Corbin’s and to the notices published about Mary Hays McCauley.

In 1837 an article appeared in the New-Jersey State Gazette that recounts a similar story. In this account, Captain Molly received a sword from Washington for her service. The article is a reprint of one that originally appeared in the New Brunswick Times, but no further source is given. Stories about Captain Molly persisted throughout the 1840s and 1850s. In 1844 historians John W. Barber and Henry Howe included such a story in their Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey.

Moll Pitcher Being Presented to George Washington (oil on canvas, 1856) by Dennis Malone Carter depicts Molly Pitcher as a demure, well-dressed, ultrafeminine figure, in stark contrast to earlier descriptions of “Captain Molly,” the gruff, coarse woman who followed her husband to war. Carter’s depiction of Molly reflects the ideals of Republican Motherhood popularized in the decades following the Revolution.
Monmouth County Historical Association (Gift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1941)

Four years later, in 1848, historian Benson Lossing began seeking material for inclusion in a book he planned to publish entitled The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution. While collecting material for his book, Lossing spent time in the Hudson Highlands near West Point, New York. There, he encountered three women who claimed to have known or seen a woman called “Captain Molly.” One of these women was Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (1757–1854), the elderly widow of Alexander Hamilton.

Lossing’s interview with Hamilton relates her recollections of having met a woman called “Captain Molly” in 1782. Hamilton said the woman was the Irish wife of a cannoneer who had been killed at Monmouth, and at the time of their meeting, the woman, dressed in a sergeant’s coat and waistcoat over her petticoats, was living near Fort Montgomery in upstate New York. Throughout her long life, it is possible that Hamilton told others of this meeting, including George Washington Parke Custis. Though she claims the woman she had met in upstate New York had fought at Monmouth, it is likely the woman she described was Margaret Corbin, who in 1782 was indeed living in New York.

During his travels, Lossing also visited George Washington Parke Custis. In 1850 Custis showed Lossing The Field of Monmouth, a painting he created that depicts George Washington and Captain Molly together on the battlefield. Lossing included the story of Captain Molly and an engraving of Custis’ painting in his book.

The stories circulating about Captain Molly throughout the early to mid-19th century are all similar, but none refer to the brave woman at the cannon as “Molly Pitcher.” Molly, whomever she may have been, did not receive the moniker “Pitcher” until 1848, when American lithographer Nathaniel Currier produced a painting entitled Molly Pitcher, The Heroine of Monmouth. Currier’s painting depicts a determined woman with dark windswept hair bravely preparing to fire a cannon, her fallen husband lying at her feet. The painting was widely reproduced as a lithograph and is the first image to give “Molly Pitcher” a face.

How did Captain Molly of the legend become Molly Pitcher? In his book Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past, historian Ray Raphael suggests that the name change was necessary to refine Molly’s image. “Captain Molly” was a poor, coarse, perhaps vulgar camp follower, carrying water to quench hot cannons. “Molly Pitcher” was far more feminine, carrying water to aid thirsty soldiers and forced into battle by the untimely death of her husband.

Originally published in 1848, this Currier& Ives print is the first work to call the heroine of Monmouth “Molly Pitcher.” Most often, at that time, she was called “Captain Molly.”
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

The name change and romanticization of Molly’s image helps to place her in line with the ideology of Republican Motherhood popularized following the Revolution. Fullerton College professor Emily Teipe, in an article titled “Will the Real Molly Pitcher Please Stand Up?” suggests that women like Captain Molly, whether Margaret Corbin or Mary Hays McCauley, were “likely regarded by Republican society as coarse, unfeminine, and of loose morals because they had cohabited with the soldiers. Their wartime exploits were not exemplary of Republican womanhood, not something to boast or write about, and certainly not the sort of thing a lady would tell her grandchildren.”

Forced out of their traditional roles as wives and mothers by the upheaval of the war, these women excelled in roles men of the time could not have imagined: organizing boycotts, defending their homes, and aiding in battle. The ideology of Republican Motherhood sought to return these women, who had performed so capably during the Revolution, to the domestic sphere by assigning them responsibility for educating their children (namely, their sons) to uphold the values of liberty, personal rights and the rule of law.

Perhaps the growing influence of Republican Motherhood explains why little evidence exists of Mary Hays McCauley’s wartime service and why Capt. William Price struggled to find someone to care for the gruff and disabled Margaret Corbin. Though both were awarded pensions for their Revolutionary War service, these women did not have a place in the genteel postwar republic.

Mary Hays McCauley’s grave remained unmarked until 1876, when Carlisle native Wesley Miles wrote a newspaper article lamenting her ignoble burial. Inspired by the article, residents collected funds to erect a monument in her honor, to be dedicated on the centennial of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1876. The monument erected originally erroneously recorded her death date as 1833. In 1885 the monument was corrected.

Over the next 124 years, various entities further decorated her grave. In 1905 the Patriotic Order Sons of America placed a cannon at the site, and in 1916 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania erected a monument featuring a large bronze statue and a plaque describing her biography and purported military service, stating that she married John Hays and had manned a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. In 2000 during the 250th anniversary celebration of Cumberland County, the United States Field Artillery Association erected new plaques that corrected some of the information on the commonwealth’s plaques, most notably removing her maiden name and correcting her marriage to William, not John Hays.

Mary “Molly” Ludwig Hays McCauley was originally buried in an unmarked grave in Carlisle. A stone marker was placed in the Old Public Graveyard in 1876, and the bronze memorial, sculpted by J. Otto Schweizer of Philadelphia, was erected in 1916.
Photo, PHMC

Margaret Corbin’s gravesite in New York quickly became overgrown and was largely forgotten until 1925, when the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) New York State Organization determined that if her grave could be located, she should be reinterred with honors at West Point. After a period of extensive research, DAR members felt confident they had located her grave. Workers exhumed a skeleton and reinterred the remains at West Point near the Old Cadet Chapel. On April 14, 1926, the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Fort Washington, the Daughters of the American Revolution unveiled a monument dedicated to Margaret Corbin at the site.

In 2016 construction workers disturbed her gravesite at West Point during a project to enhance the area surrounding the monument. Subsequent archaeological and forensic investigations determined that the remains buried at the site in 1926 were not Corbin’s but those of an unidentified male. The actual location of Corbin’s grave remains unknown. The monument to Margaret Corbin at West Point is the only one on the site dedicated to a woman. Corbin is also honored in New York City at Fort Tryon Park, the site of the Battle of Fort Washington.

Legends like that of Molly Pitcher are rarely true, but Molly’s story is rooted in the lives of real women like Margaret Corbin and Mary Hays, both of whom were recognized for their contributions during the Revolutionary War. Eager to bolster the newly formed and fragile American republic, citizens organized commemorative ceremonies, created artwork, and erected monuments that helped instill the virtues of liberty, inalienable rights and civic responsibility. Amid this fervor, the facts behind the story of Molly Pitcher became intertwined with mythos, and the heroine as we know her was born. Although we may never be able to definitively say who Molly Pitcher really was, this legendary figure stands to represent the many American women whose sacrifices aided the revolutionary cause.

Further Reading

Custis, George Washington Parke. Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington. New York: Derby & Jackson, 1860. / Lossing, Benson J. The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution. New York: Harper & Bros., 1860. / Martin, David G. A Molly Pitcher Source Book. Hightstown, NJ: Longstreet House, 2003. / Mayer, Holly A. Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community During the American Revolution. Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1996. / Raphael, Ray. Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past. Rev. ed. New York: New Press, 2014. / Teipe, Emily J. “Will the Real Molly Pitcher Please Stand Up?” Prologue 31, no. 2 (Summer 1999).

Jennifer Eaton is the curator at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg. Her previous article for Pennsylvania Heritage, “Run-Up to the Revolution: Philadelphia’s Response to the Taxation Crisis,” was published in the Fall 2021 edition of the magazine.