PITCHER, MOLLY

born c. 1753 died Jan. 22, 1832, Carlisle, Pa., U.S. Molly Pitcher, coloured engraving. byname of Mary McCauly heroine of the Battle of Monmouth Court House during the U.S. War of Independence. Molly Pitcher first enters the historical record in 1778. Her original surname is unknown, though she is thought to have been Irish. Military records indicate that her first husband, William Hays, enlisted as a gunner in a Pennsylvania artillery regiment in 1777. The nickname Molly Pitcher arose during the Battle of Monmouth Court House in New Jersey on June 28, 1778, when Molly repeatedly carried water to cool both the cannons and the exhausted and wounded soldiers in her husband's regiment. Popular legend also has it that, when Hays collapsed from the scorching heat that day, Molly took her husband's place at the cannon, serving heroically for the remainder of the battle. When Hays died about 1788, Mary (as she was then called) wed John McCauly. Her second husband died about 1813, and thereafter Mary was employed largely as a nurse. On February 21, 1822, Pennsylvania awarded her an annual pension of $40 in recognition of her heroism at Monmouth. Monuments near the Monmouth battle site and at her grave recognize Molly Pitcher's contribution to American independence. Some sources claim that her original name was Mary Ludwig, that she was of German immigrant stock, and that her first husband was John Casper Hays. Others claim that Molly Pitcher is purely legendary, a conflation of several similar stories of heroic women of the period.