Historians believe “Molly Pitcher” was based on a real
woman—Mary Ludwig Hays—who followed her husband, a Continental soldier, to the
Battle of Monmouth in 1778. As soldiers dropped in the heat, she ran pitchers
of water to cool them down. When her husband collapsed at his cannon, she
stepped up and took his place.
A soldier who witnessed it wrote: “She attended the piece during
the whole time; and in the sight of the enemy, she fought as manfully as her
husband.”
After the war, the state of Pennsylvania awarded her an annual
pension for her heroism. Her tombstone says: “Molly McCauley, the heroine of
Monmouth.”
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