AWIART-05 - Molly Pitcher

The Continental Army’s growing pains through the first years of the war caused Washington considerable irritation. Professional armies cannot be developed overnight, and the fits and starts of the Continental Army’s creation is illustrated most clearly in the establishment of the artillery. The United States had to build its artillery from scratch, but impressively by 1778 this branch of service was well regulated and effective.

Although the Continental Army’s artillery units were not affected by the uniform regulations as much as the infantry had been, there were still several different uniforms pre the 1778 regulations.

The change imposed on the artillery by the regulations was to make all four of the Continental regiments uniform in appearance as a branch of service and do away with distinctions between the regiments. This happened in October 1779.

Prior to this, the artillery arm of the Continental army had been noted as mainly wearing dark blue coats, usually faced red.

The wife of William Hays of Proctor’s Artillery Regiment, Mary was in her mid twenties, common in appearance but compact and strong. There was probably little to distinguish her from the many hundreds of other women attached to the army, except exchanging the role of water bearer ( a role performed by many camp followers of the army during combat) for that of combatant. Thus Mary Ludwig Hays became “Molly Pitcher”

She had joined her husband at the Army’s winter camp at Valley Forge in 1777, and was present at the Battle of Monmouth, where she served as a water carrier. Her husband fell and she took his place swabbing and loading the cannon, and was later commended by George Washington.

The incident was recorded by Joseph Plumb Martin in his memoir published in 1830.

“A woman whose husband belonged to the artillery and who was attached to a piece in the engagement, attended with her husband at the piece the whole time. While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her feet as far before the other as she could step, a cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any more damage than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away something else, and continued her work”

Molly Pitcher has become a symbol of women’s contributions to the American Revolutionary War. While her story has been romanticized and may contain elements of legend, it highlights the vital roles women played in supporting the war effort.

Countless more women whose names we may never know, served at the battlefront as nurses, cooks, laundresss and camp followers.

Historian Holly Mayer estimates that perhaps 7,000 women accompanied the American troops during the war.

Goerge Washington was to complain in 1777 that “the multitude of women in particular… are a clog upon every movement”. But he knew that the soldiers would desert without them, and that their labour was necessary.

The name “Molly Pitcher” has come to represent all women who served in various capacities during the war.

Brand: John Jenkins