Molly Pitcher

Molly Pitcher 1744-1832, American Revolutionary heroine whose real name was Mary Ludwig Hays or Heis, b. near Trenton, N.J. As the wife of John Hays or Heis, she carried water for her husband and other soldiers in the battle of Monmouth (1778) and earned her nickname. The legend that she manned her husband's gun is apocryphal and possibly rose from confusion with Margaret Corbin . After her husband's death, she married George McCauley, and in 1822 she was pensioned by Pennsylvania.

Bibliography: See W. S. Stryker, The Battle of Monmouth (1927).

Pitcher, Molly (1744? or 1754?–1832) Revolutionary War hero and patriot. The facts of Pitcher's early life are uncertain, including the identity of her first husband, who may have been John Hays of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She became famous because of her actions during Monmouth, in June 1778, when, on a blazingly hot day, she carried pitchers of water to her husband and his fellow soldiers (hence her nickname); when he fell, wounded, she took his place, helping to load his cannon. After the war, the Hayses returned to Carlisle, where Molly Pitcher was twice widowed and remarried once. In recognition of her services, in 1822 Congress awarded her a $40 grant and a $40 annuity.