Every revolution needs its heroes and history is full of names and feats.
Molly Pitcher, the most famous heroine of the US Independence War, has a special place among all of them. The only problem; How it never existed.
A walk however in Pennsylvania will convince even the most skeptical of its existence. In less than a day, travelers can have breakfast at the Molly Pitcher Waffle Shop in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, go a little further north to see her tomb and statue in nearby Carlisle, and quench their thirst with a beer at the Molly Pitcher Brewing Company.
And if she drives east for a few hours, she will be able to find herself at her glorious monument in Monmouth Battlefield State Park, the site of her supposed heroic deeds.

At the end of the journey, she will have a good feeling for the passionate warrior who took up arms when she saw her husband crumbling before her eyes at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778.
Only this biographical information is not true. The same traveler will need to consult history books and American museum websites to learn that Molly Pitcher never lived and never acted.
Only then will it be known that History today considers “Molly Pitcher” a mere nickname. A name that was born in the blood and death of the US national liberation struggle, when everyone was looking for symbols.
But there is another uncomfortable truth in history. The most authoritative US institutions, such as the National Archives, we are told that Molly Pitcher is actually Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley.
But even this is most likely a product of the revolutionary imagination…
How to make a heroine

When looking for Molly Pitcher, one does not encounter the American Revolution, but some nuggets of American imagination.
Its history, after all, is one that has been described more visually than verbally. It was in 1854 that the Irish-American historian Dennis Malone Carter made a monumental canvas with Molly Pitcher in the center, in front of a cannon and with her dead husband at her feet.
A little later, Molly Pitcher’s lithographs would flood the USA. They all showed her next to a cannon, whether rich or poorly dressed, with a jug of water and her dead husband permanently around.
Her stories gave and took now and the folk tales did not stop. But when serious historical research began to paint a different picture, everyone had to fold.
Molly Pitcher was now a symbol, a composite image of all these heroic women who took part in the War of Independence (1775-1783) and distinguished themselves.
This is at least what historians have been saying, since until then, in a wave of questioning of her identity, some had identified real women who could have been the basis for his myth of Molly.
And none of them seemed more likely than Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley.
Molly Pitcher like Mary Hays?

Countless books and American museums like the National Museum of Women’s History, the National Archives and the Museum of American History, we are now told that while Molly Pitcher never existed, the real woman who nurtured the legend was Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley.
On June 28, 1778, as the established history demands, Mary (born 1744) carried water for the thirsty soldiers on the battlefield. Hence the nickname “Pitcher”, as the water carriers called it.
There, at the Battle of Monmouth, her husband, William Hays, a barber by profession and eventually a gunman in General George Washington’s Continental Army, also fought. Mary had been following him on his war adventures since 1777, spending the winter with him in military camp.
She was one of the women soldiers who had been organized by Martha Washington, the wife of the general and a virgin First Lady of the United States later. When not washing clothes and blankets, they acted as nurses for the injured.

However, when he fell seriously injured on the battlefield against British forces (either from injury or overwork), Hays replaced him worthily in his position in the cannon. Her bravery and self-sacrifice were such that after the battle she was praised for her bravery by Washington himself.
As the legend demands, bullets from the British muskets or even cannons passed under her feet, tearing at one point a part of her skirt. Hays continued unabated loading the cannon, commenting indifferently at one point: “Well, it could have been worse.”
When it got dark and the battle was over for the day, he supposedly looked for it and found it. Washington, as he saw with his own eyes the cannon working. After praising her, he made her a non-commissioned officer of the Continental Army and since then she would be known as “Sergeant Molly”.
The problem with McCauley’s story is that it is not confirmed anywhere. There is no evidence or record to place her on the battlefield of Monmouth.
Her heroism only emerged after her death in 1832 and some rushed to associate her with the legend of Molly Pitcher. However, there are testimonies of soldiers from this particular battle who talk about a woman who took up arms, without giving us a name.

The most famous of these was worn by the veteran of the American Revolution, Joseph Plumb Martin, in his memoirs in 1830 “A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier”.
He speaks of a “woman whose husband served in the Artillery” soldier, describing the anecdotal incident with enemy bullets passing under her dresses. But without names.
Martin was not the only one to talk about the heroine of the Battle of Monmouth. Author William Stryker cites in his diary of the 1927 battle (“The Battle of Monmouth”) the diary of surgeon Albigence Waldo, who had heard the same story from a wounded soldier.
The woman grabbed the cannon of her wounded husband and as a “Spartan heroine fought with amazing bravery”. Albigence Waldo was a real military surgeon and his diary (written between 1777-1778) has survived to this day. Without, however, the specific passage.
Captain Molly

The folk tale about the woman who took the place of her husband in Artillery was established in the US by none other than George Washington Parke Custis’ adopted son (and Martha Washington’s grandson from her first marriage).
He was the one who recalled in a newspaper article in 1840 the story of the woman he called “Captain Molly”. A woman carrying water to soldiers in Monmouth and when her husband fell dead “threw down the pitcher and cried over his corpse ” stay here, sweetheart, I will avenge your death ”, taking his place at cannon”.
The next morning, Washington sought her out to reward her for her bravery, Martha’s grandson tells us. Even for him, however, historians claim that despite having primary access to the marshal’s stories, his testimonies were rarely family stories.
No one knows how McCauley came to be associated with the fictional heroine Molly Pitcher, but we do know that the connection took place several decades after her death. After the War of Independence, Mary returned to the city of Pennsylvania with her husband, who was not killed on the battlefield but died in 1786.

She remarried in 1793 a war soldier and probably a friend of the deceased.
In 1822 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania awarded her an annual pension as a veteran spouse, but the paper noted that the pension was honorary for “her services in the war.” When she died in 1832, she was buried in cemetery of Carlisle named “Molly McCauley”.
In fact, when her son died in 1856, she wrote at his funeral that he was “the son of a prominent heroine, the great” Molly Pitcher “. In 1876, as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the American Revolution, an association erected a memorial to Molly Pitcher with the cannon inside the cemetery where McCauley was buried.
The persistent problem

But if the relationship between Molly Pitcher and Mary McCauley is so arbitrary, why do so many respected institutions continue to call it that? Perhaps this is what historian Ray Raphael claims in a 2013 article that debunked the myth: “Molly Pitcher needs a woman with flesh and blood to go down in history books, where mythical figures are forbidden.”
Modern American historians now argue that the United States does not need fictional narratives to mention the contribution of women to the national liberation struggle. Long-term research has even identified other Molly Pitchers. The most prevalent is Margaret Corbin, for whom there is more credible evidence that she did catch arms.
On November 17, 1776, John Corbin’s husband was one of 600 U.S. soldiers defending Fort Washington in northern Manhattan from 4,000 British troops.
She herself was a nurse and could thus be on the battlefield. Margaret decided she would not let her husband fight alone. He was constantly by his side while he operated one of the two cannons of the fortress. When he fell on the battlefield, Margaret Corbin took his place and fought until he was seriously injured, losing her left arm.
Corbin actually became the first woman in American history to receive an honorary lifetime pension from Congress for its military action. How did it become known? As “Captain Molly”!

We now have a third candidate, Molly Pitcher, and her own story is perhaps even more remarkable. Deborah Sampson from Massachusetts disguised herself as a man to enlist in the Continental Army and fight for the independence of her homeland.
He joined the army in 1782 as “Robert Shurtliff” and fought for 17 whole months. But his colleagues mockingly called him “Molly” because he was petite and had a very shrill voice, almost feminine.
They discovered that she was a woman only when she became seriously ill and had to be examined by a doctor. After the war he married and became only the second woman to ever receive an honorary life pension as war veteran (after Corbin).
Molly Pitcher may not have been flesh and blood, but at least 7,000 women who took part in the American Revolution are vying for the title.
There were so many that he made George Washington himself complain in 1777 that “the multitude of these women… is an obstacle to any movement.” Even the marshal, however, knew full well how important women were in the rear of the revolution.
And sometimes, even in the front line of fire…

Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.