The battle of Monmouth, N. J., was fought June 29,
1778. It was the first battle the Americans had
with the British after the terrible winter at
Valley Forge. It would have been a signal victory
for Washington's troops had General Charles Lee
obeyed Washington's orders. Notwithstanding Lee's
acts, the American troops held their ground till
nightfall, when the British quietly retreated.
At the battle of Monmouth, a young Irishwoman,
wife of an artilleryman, played a very notable part
in the working of the American cannon on that eventful
day in June.
Molly was born with the soul of a soldier, and although 5
she did not belong to the army she much preferred going
to war to staying at home and attending to domestic affairs.
She was in the habit of following her husband on his various
marches, and on the day of the Monmouth battle she was
with him on the field. 10
The day was very hot. The rays of the sun came down
with such force that many of the soldiers were taken sick
and some died; and the constant discharges of musketry
and artillery did not make the air any cooler. Molly devoted
herself to keeping her husband as comfortable as 15
possible, and she made frequent trips to a spring not far
away to bring him water; and on this account he was one
of the freshest and coolest artillerymen on the ground.
In fact, there was no man belonging to the battery who was
able to manage one of these great guns better than Pitcher. 20
Returning from one of her trips to the spring, Molly
had almost reached the place where her husband was
stationed when a bullet from the enemy struck the poor
man and stretched him dead, so that Molly had no sooner
caught sight of her husband than she saw him fall. She 5
ran to the gun, but scarcely had reached it before she heard
one of the officers order the cannon to be wheeled back out
of the way, saying that there was no one there who could
serve it as it had been served.
Now Molly's eyes flashed fire. One might have thought 10
that she would have been prostrated with grief at the loss
of her husband, but as we have said, she had within her
the soul of a soldier. She had seen her husband, who was
the same to her as a comrade, fall, and she was filled with
an intense desire to avenge his death. She cried out to 15
the officer not to send the gun away but to let her serve it;
and scarcely waiting to hear what he would say, she sprang
to the cannon and began to load it and fire it. She had so
often attended her husband and even helped him in his
work that she knew all about this sort of thing, and her 20
gun was managed well and rapidly.
It might be supposed that it would be a very strange
thing to see a woman on the battlefield firing a cannon;
but even if the enemy had watched Molly with a spyglass,
they would not have noticed anything to excite their surprise. 25
She wore an ordinary skirt, like other women of
the time; but over this was an artilleryman's coat and on
her head was a cocked hat with some jaunty feathers stuck
in it, so that she looked almost as much like a man as the
rest of the soldiers of the battery. 30
During the rest of the battle Molly bravely served her
gun; and if she did as much execution in the ranks of the
redcoats as she wanted to do, the loss in the regiments in
front of her must have been very great. Of course all the
men in the battery knew Molly Pitcher, and they watched
her with the greatest interest and admiration. She would
not allow anyone to take her place, but kept on loading and 5
firing until the work of the day was done. Then the
officers and men crowded about her with congratulations
and praise.
The next day General Greene went to Molly--whom he
found in very much the condition in which she had left 10
the battlefield, stained with dirt and powder, with her
fine feathers gone and her cocked hat dilapidated--and
conducted her, just as she was, to General Washington.
When the commander in chief heard what she had done,
he gave her warm words of praise. He determined to 15
bestow upon her a substantial reward; for anyone who was
brave enough and able enough to step in and fill an important
place, as Molly had filled her husband's place,
certainly deserved a reward. It was not according to the
rules of war to give a commission to a woman; but as 20
Molly had acted the part of a man, Washington considered
it right to pay her for her services as if she had been a man.
He therefore gave her the commission of a sergeant and
recommended that her name be placed on the list of half-pay
officers for life. 25
--_Stories of New Jersey._
1. How did Molly come to be on the battlefield?
Describe her as she looked in an artilleryman's
garb. Relate briefly her deed of heroism. How was
it rewarded?