I thought you might want to know about the real Molly Pitcher. Here it is:
"Molly Pitcher" was a nickname given to a woman who may have fought in the American Revolutionary War. Historians differ on who the "real" Molly Pitcher was, or even if she existed at all. Since the various Molly Pitcher tales grew in the telling, historians now often regard Molly Pitcher as folklore rather than history. However, "Molly Pitcher" may be a composite image inspired by the actions of a number of real women. The name itself may have originated as a nickname given to women who carried water to men on the battlefield during the war. This water was not for drinking, as is popularly believed, but for swabbing out the cannons.
One candidate for the "real" Molly Pitcher is Mary Hayes McCauley (or Mary Ludwig Hays), about whom there is conflicting biographical information, including her actual name and year of birth. According to one version of the story, she was born to a German family in New Jersey, and attended her husband William Hays, an artilleryman, in the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778. When William fell wounded, possibly from heat stroke, Mary bravely took her husband's post at his cannon. According to the legend, after the battle, General George Washington issued her a warrant as a noncommissioned officer, and she was thereafter known by the nickname "Sergeant Molly".
My thanks to Wikipedia.org for that articile. Well, I hope you enjoyed that information. Please feel free to post as many comments as you like. : )
Molly Pitcher / "Sergent Molly" ; ) |
