MOLLY PITCHER
In the days of the American Revolution a young woman lived as a servant
in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with the family of General Irving, a retired
British officer, who had fought in the French and Indian War and had
seen a great deal of service. This young woman was named Molly Ludwig
Hays, and was the wife of a barber who had been well known in the
village. He had won her hand with difficulty for Molly was a belle
throughout the countryside. She was not only handsome, but as strong as
a man, able to carry a heavy meal-sack on her shoulder; and one of the
hardest workers that the town knew. She washed and scrubbed and scoured
and baked from morning till night, and seemed to revel in the hard work
that gave the needed exercise to her strong muscles.
Throughout her life Molly Hays had admired soldiers, and more than once
she expressed herself in no undecided terms to the effect that she
wished she were a man so that she could bear arms and wear a uniform,
and be a soldier herself.
When she was still a very young woman the American Revolution for
freedom from Great Britain broke out. All the country was aflame, and
rang with the stories of what happened at Lexington and Bunker Hill.
Man after man from the village took his powder horn and musket and went
off to enlist for the war, and Molly grew more and more restless as she
saw them go.
At last her husband came to her, somewhat sheepishly, for he disliked
to tell her the intention he had in his heart; but at length he made
her understand that just because he was married was no reason why he
should remain at home with the women; and he, too, intended to enlist
that very day.
Molly consented with the utmost enthusiasm. She told him that she would
be proud to be the wife of a soldier, since she could not be one
herself, and bade him farewell with the admonishment to do his part
bravely and to bear himself like the man she knew him to be. And she
stood at the door of their home waving good-by to him with a cheerful
face that gave no hint of her aching heart.
When her husband had departed Molly returned to the Irving household
where she worked as well as she had before her marriage, trying to find
relief in the heavy labor from the pain of having lost her husband and
the aching desire to go and do her part beside him even though she were
a woman. Fate, thought Molly, had made a sad mistake, in making her a
woman, for she knew that in spite of her petticoats she could soldier
as well as the men,--and if she had only been a man she believed she
could have risen to an important position in the army.
The tide of the struggle wavered and battles with the red coats were
fought and won. It was hard to get the newspapers in those times and
news of the armies and their doings was often weeks behind the actual
events. Molly hoped and waited, but for weeks at a time she went
without word from her husband and did not know whether he were alive or
dead.
One day a messenger called for her at the Irving household. He had a
letter from John Hays for Molly, and it not only told her that he was
alive and well, but was in camp not far off from her former home in
Trenton, New Jersey, where her aged parents were still living. The
letter ended by telling her to come to Trenton and live with her
parents, for he would be able without doubt to get leave from his
command and see her often.
Soon the war itself was being fought in the neighborhood of her home.
The Americans attacked the British near Princeton killing and capturing
a large number. Then Washington with his small force withdrew from that
region before reenforcements could be brought against him.
And now Molly found that there was something that she could do--namely,
go and care for the wounded who were still lying where they had fallen
on the field of battle. The British General Cornwallis and his men were
approaching, but that did not worry her a whit, and she went to and fro
upon the battlefield carrying water for parched throats and binding
wounds until the British soldiers were actually upon her.
Then Molly saw a cannon pointed in the direction of the British, and to
her surprise it was loaded and there was a fuse still smoldering and
lying near at hand. She studied the cannon carefully and it seemed to
be aimed right at a group of the enemy that was approaching. The brave
girl dropped the pail of water that she had been carrying, picked up
the fuse and applied it to the touch hole. With a loud roar the charge
was fired and the cannon leaped backward on its wheels.
At this the British halted in amazement. They had believed that the
Americans were far away, and here this gun gave warning that they were
still near at hand, or at any rate had left a strong rear guard with
artillery to delay them in their pursuit. Hastily they crossed over the
field and surrounded the gun which was deserted. Molly had left and had
taken with her a wounded American soldier whom she carried on her
shoulder.
[Illustration: THE CANNON BALLS FIRED BY MOLLY PITCHER FELL SQUARELY IN
THE BRITISH LINES]
The British had seen her go, but it had not occurred to them that a
woman had fired the shot that caused so much disturbance among them and
aided the retreating Americans so greatly by delaying their pursuers.
If they had realized that Molly herself was the cannoneer, she would
have had but little chance of mercy at their hands, and would at once
have faced a firing squad or been hung to the nearest tree. As it was
they thought she was only some country girl who had perhaps lost some
relative in the recent battle and was carrying his dead body back to
her home. And so they paid no attention to her.
Molly, however, by firing this shot had materially aided General
Washington, for any delay of the British, even a slight one, gave a
great advantage to the Americans who were hurrying from superior
numbers to put themselves in a good tactical position as soon as they
could.
On a hot day of July in the following summer it chanced that
Washington's forces were again not far away from Molly's home, and she
took a difficult journey on the chance of seeing her husband. Her first
step in soldiering had been taken when she fired the cannon at the
British in the preceding year. A far greater adventure lay before her,
for she fell in with the American soldiers just as they commenced the
severe battle of Monmouth.
This battle had considerable importance, as a comparatively large
number of troops were engaged in it. General Washington was in command
of the Americans and the English were led by Sir Henry Clinton. The
English had been retreating from Philadelphia, across New Jersey,
followed by Washington, and the American general had decided to launch
an attack on the left wing of the retreating forces and General Lee was
ordered by Washington to attack the English on the flank and hold them
in battle until he himself could come up with the bulk of the American
Army.
General Lee, however, proved to be a poor man for this task and his
indecision and semi-cowardice left Washington exposed to the brunt of
the enemy's attack before he was prepared to meet it and against the
intentions of the American commander. The situation was saved by
General Greene, who saw what had happened, changed his own plans and
diverted the attack of the British to his own position from which he
poured in a heavy artillery fire that caused them terrible losses.
John Hays was one of the cannoneers of Greene's artillery and he worked
all day loading and firing his piece. It was a terribly hot day and
many men in both the British and the American armies fell exhausted and
even died from the heat of the sun.
All this time Molly Hays had been caring for the wounded and carrying
water to the thirsty gunners, using for the purpose the bucket that was
attached to her husband's cannon for cleaning purposes. Tirelessly she
continued her efforts to care for the wounded and comfort the fighting
soldiers, heedless of the bullets that came her way or of the general
turmoil of battle. As the day wore on the men would greet her coming
with: "Here comes Molly with her pitcher!" And gradually this was
changed to "Here comes Molly Pitcher." And this was the name that
history has adopted in regard to the brave woman for whom it was so
used.
At last John Hays succumbed to the heat and fell unconscious beside his
gun. The sun had proved too much for him.
Molly stopped carrying water to care for her husband. She bathed his
head and moved him into the shade, returning to her duties just in time
to hear General Knox give orders that the cannon be removed, because he
had no other gunner cool enough and skilful enough to work it in its
present exposed position. At this Molly sprang forward crying out:
"Leave the gun where it is. I can fire it. I am a gunner's wife and
know how to load and fire a cannon. I'll take the place that my brave
husband has left!" And running to the gun Molly commenced to load and
fire so determinedly and skilfully that a gasp of amazement ran through
the men that saw her.
For many weary hours she toiled at the gun, until the British were
driven back and the battle was claimed as an American victory. And then
the young woman found herself the darling of all the soldiers in the
army, for word of her actions ran like wildfire through the ranks and
cheers reechoed wherever she went. Before she left her cannon General
Greene himself came over to where she stood and grasping her hand
thanked her in the name of the American Army.
This was not all the triumph she received, however, for word was soon
brought to her that General Washington himself wished to see her. She
was in her ragged grimy clothes in which she had fought and succored
the wounded through the whole of that hot day, and she now put on a
soldier's coat in which to meet the General.
Washington praised her highly and before a large number of his officers
and men, and more cheering reechoed through the ranks when he gave her
the brevet rank of Captain in the American Army.
And not only the Americans did her honor, but the French as well, for
the Marquis de Lafayette with his own hand presented her with a purse
of golden crowns.
In this strange way Molly Hays' desire to be a soldier came true, and
the name of Molly Pitcher, as she was ever after called, became one of
the great names of American History.
After the war was ended she lived with her husband until he died, and
later she married again. But in her whole life the battle of Monmouth
stood out as the great day on which she realized her ambition and
helped the American forces in battle.