Women in the Artillery: Molly Pitcher? Mary Hays?

A few women fought in the ranks of the Continental Armies by disguising themselves as men, since enlistment of women was forbidden. Deborah Samson is the best known and best documented, having enlisted as Robert Shurtliff. Other women simply followed their husbands into battle, giving rise to the sometimes speculative stories of "Molly Pitcher." There were an estimated 400 camp followers with the 11,000 soldiers encamped at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778. There may have been over 1000 following the opposing British army.

Soldiers were in the habit of calling any woman Molly, and when thirst during battles became extreme, calling for "Molly" to bring them the "pitcher" of water. One of the best known inspirations for the tales of the patriotic Molly Pitcher was Mary Ludwig Hays, whose husband enlisted in 1777 in the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment. But in 1775 he had enlisted in the 4th Continental Artillery Regiment, and at Monmouth, he was detailed to one of the cannon. It was more common for a wife to follow the army than to enlist, performing nursing of the sick and wounded, washing and mending clothing, preparing meals, as well as bringing water when soldiers called "Molly, the pitcher."

At the Battle of Monmouth, 28 June 1778, General Henry Knox positioned 16 cannon on Perrine Ridge to halt General Cornwallis's forces advancing against the Americans, and engage the British artillery for a counter-battery exchange. The artillery from each army tried to destroy the effectiveness of the other. William Hays was assigned to one of the Continental guns. Fighting in 100 degree heat in direct sunlight with dust and smoke in the air, soldiers were sometimes near death from lack of water. Mary Hays was not only bringing water for thirsty soldiers -- a good deal of water was needed to cool the large gun and to swab out the interior of the barrel between firings.

At some point William was hit by a British bullet and brought off the field, wounded but alive. Some accounts say Mary saw her husband fall, others that she returned from refilling her water pitcher to find him already gone.

Either way, she took over his duties with the ramrod -- a long pole with a sponge at one end. After each firing, she swabbed the barrel of the cannon to clean out remaining sparks and gun-powder, so a new charge would not ignite prematurely. Then, as a sack of gunpowder and a fresh cannonball were loaded, she packed them tighly at the far end of the barrel so they would fire properly.

At one point a British cannon ball shot between her legs and tore her skirt, without wounding her. There are various traditions that she either remarked "That could have been worse," or "A good thing it wasn't any higher." General Washington had noticed the woman loading the cannon. After asking aides who she was, he issued her a warrant as a non-commissioned officer, inspiring friends to call her "Sergeant Molly" for the rest of her life.

There are historians who believe this entire story is false -- but it is generally accepted that there were many times during the Revolutionary War when women stepped up to replace a dead or injured member of an artillery crew. It is not certain that Mary Ludwig Hays was one of them -- but her husband was an artilleryman at the Battle of Monmouth. She herself received a military pension from the state of Pennsylvania 21 February 1822, "for her services during the Revolutionary War." The other women who stepped up in a similar way are so far nameless and unrecognized.

Mary Ludwig was the daughter of German immigrants who arrived in 1730, and by the time Mary was born around 1754, owned a dairy farm in New Jersey. Since even as an adult she signed documents with an X, "her mark," it is likely she never went to school. Most children didn't unless their families were wealthy -- from age five they were helping with chores in the home and on the farm or a family business. At 15 she went to work as a domestic servant for Anna Irvine, wife of Dr. William Irvine in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

In 1769 she married a barber whose shop was near the Irvine home, John Hays.

Hays died a few years after the war. Mary, still commonly known as Molly, married another veteran, Sergeant McKolly, sometimes spelled Mc Cauley. She seems to have outlived him by many years, dying in 1832.

In her later years, when talking about her Revolutionary War experiences, she sometimes remarked "You girls should have been with me at the battle of Monmouth and learned how to load a cannon."