Margaret Cochran Corbin
"[Corbin] had [courage] enough to supply the place of her husband after his fall in the service of his Country..."
WHO SHE WAS: Margaret Cochran Corbin took her husband's place when he was killed in the battle of Fort Washington at the tip of Manhattan in New York. She is one of a few women from the Revolutionary War who are are sometimes known as "Molly Pitcher" because they gave aid to the soldiers. Molly is occasionally used as a nickname for Margaret. She was born on November 12, 1751 in Pennsylvania. While Molly was still young, her father was killed by Native Americans and her mother was kidnapped. She and her brother were raised by her uncle. She would have never visited England. She was a very tall woman for her time, standing five feet, eight inches tall. She married John Corbin around 1772, when she was around 21 years old.
Like many other wives of soldiers, she went with her husband when he joined the army. The women helped the soldiers cook, cleaned their clothes, and helped the sick. In many ways, it was like these women joined the army as well. Their regiment was defending Fort Washington on the Northern tip of Manhattan in New York when the British soldiers attacked. Molly's husband's job was to load a cannon. When the man who fired the cannon was killed, John started firing and Molly took over loading. Then, her husband was killed and she was faced with a decision, Should she continue to fire the cannon? It is possible that Molly knew that the battle was not going well for American soldiers. She may have considered the fact that she could surrender to the British rather than continue fighting. As a woman, it was possible that she would be treated fairly. Instead, she chose to keep the cannon firing and was wounded was loading and firing a cannon when he was killed by the British. Molly continued to load and fire the cannon until she was hit in the shoulder by grapeshot. Grapeshot is a cluster of small iron balls that were fired by a British cannon.
The American side lost this battle and had to surrender the fort. Molly's life after the battle was difficult. She was permanently disabled from her wounds and was not able to earn a living. She had to rely on government assistance to survive.
WHAT WAS SAID ABOUT HER: In 1780 the Continental Congress granted her half the monthly pay that an injured solider received. When they did this they said: As [Corbin] had [courage] enough to supply the place of her husband after his fall in the service of his Country, and in the execution of that task received the dangerous wound under which she now labours, the board can but consider her as entitled to the same grateful return which would be made to a soldier in circumstances equally unfortunate." Because of this act, she is considered the first woman to receive veterans benefits in the United States."
