MOLLY PITCHER.
Reading edition
In all our school histories—that is, histories of the United States—honorable mention is made of Molly Pitcher, who did good service as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. None of these text-books gives us any clew to Molly's origin, but nearly all of them tell us that the brave woman lies in an unmarked grave, after having passed away without the recognition of her ungrateful country. Sometimes she is buried on the banks of the Hudson, but as a general thing the historians leave us to infer that the location of her grave is entirely unknown. This is all wrong, and I hope that the compiler of the next school history of our country will read what is here told of the heroine, and after verifying the facts, give in his book such attention to the true story of her life as her services entitle her to.
Mary Ludwig was the daughter of Pennsylvania Dutch parents, industrious people with a large family to support. In 1768, when about twenty years old, Mary "hired out" as maid of all work in the family of William Irvine of Carlisle, and on July 24th of the following year became the wife of John Casper Hayes, the town barber. Seven years later, when the war broke out, Hayes enlisted as a private in the First Pennsylvania Artillery, but was afterward transferred to the Seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, commanded by Colonel William Irvine, his wife's former employer. When the artillery regiment was ordered to go to the front Molly marched with it, having obtained the authority of the Colonel (Thomas Proctor) to serve in her husband's battery as cook and laundress. At the battle of Monmouth (Freehold), New Jersey, Hayes was wounded while serving his gun; but his place was soon filled by his wife, who rushed to the front when she heard of his fall, picked up the rammer he had dropped, and till the battle ended did as good service in loading the piece as could have been done by the best-drilled man in the battery. When the fight was over, Molly busied herself in carrying water for the wounded, and it was from this service she came by the pet name "Molly Pitcher."
Molly's husband did not die on the field, but when he recovered from his wound he entered the infantry regiment mentioned above, and remained with it till peace was declared. A few months after reaching Carlisle, Molly was left a widow, but a year later she married John McCauley, who seems to have led her an unhappy life. On Washington's birthday, 1822, when Molly was nearly seventy-five years old, the Legislature of Pennsylvania voted her a gift of forty dollars and pension of forty dollars a year for her noteworthy services during the Revolutionary war.
Molly lived to be nearly ninety. She died on the 22d of January, 1833, and was buried as a soldier, "with the honors of war," in the old Carlisle cemetery. More than forty years afterward—that is, on the Fourth of July, 1876—the citizens of Carlisle erected a handsome monument, over the heroine's grave. It bears this inscription: