Molly Pitcher

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Pitcher, Molly (1744?/1754?–1832), Revolutionary War heroine.The legend of “Molly Pitcher” is based at least in part on the actions of Mary (Molly) Ludwig Hays McCauley; the nickname may have applied to her alone, or may have been used collectively to describe all female “camp followers” who assisted the Continental army.

The daughter of German immigrants who settled in New Jersey, by 1769 Mary Ludwig was a servant of Dr. William Irvine in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In that year she married a barber, John Casper Hays. He initially served in Col. Thomas Proctor's First Pennsylvania Artillery (1775–76), then reenlisted, in January 1777, as a private in Dr. (now Col.) Irvine's Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment. Sometime later, Mary joined him in camp.

On 28 June 1778, Mary Hays made a name for herself in the Battle of Monmouth, in New Jersey. She had been carrying buckets, or pitchers, of water to her husband's artillery crew; when he fell wounded, she replaced him at the cannon, helping to serve the gun for the remainder of the engagement.

John Hays died several years later, and Mary Hays married another veteran, John (possibly George) McCauley, around 1792. After being widowed a second time and experiencing increasing financial difficulties, she petitioned for a soldier's widow's pension; the Pennsylvania legislature on 21 February 1822 instead awarded her a $40 annuity in recognition of her own services during the Revolution. After her death she became a legendary figure, and a monument was later erected at her burial site in Carlisle.
[See also Revolutionary War: Military and Diplomatic Course; Women in the Military.]

Bibliography

William Davison Perrine , Molly Pitcher of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and Captain Molly of Fort Washington, New York, 1778–1937. 1937.
Linda Grant De Pauw , Women in Combat: The Revolutionary War Experience, Armed Forces and Society, 7 (1981), pp. 209–26.
Janice E. McKenney , ‘Women in Combat’: Comment, Armed Forces and Society, 8 (1982), pp. 686–92.

Holly A. Mayer

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.

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).