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The story of Molly Pitcher is one of much question and mystery. Who is Molly Pitcher exactly? As legend goes, the woman known as Molly Pitcher is actually a woman named Mary Ludwig Hays. Molly was a common nickname for women named Mary in the Revolutionary time period. Born in New Jersey around 1744, it is unlikely she would have learned to read or write during this time, and was a homebody. She went on to do a lot more in her life than simply clean and cook though...
Molly pitcher
THE LEGEND OF MOLLY PITCHER
In 1777, William Hays, Mary's husband, enlisted in Proctor's 4th Pennsylvania Artillery. During the winter, Mary joined her husband at the Continental Army's winter camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She was one of a group of women, led by Martha Washington, known as camp followers, who would wash clothes and blankets, and care for the soldiers who fell ill or were near death. Hays and other camp followers served as water carriers, carrying water to troops who were drilling on the field. Also, artillerymen needed a constant supply of fresh water to cool down the hot cannon barrel, and to soak the sponge on the end of the ramrod, the long pole which was used to clean sparks and gunpowder out of the barrel after each shot. It was during this time that Mary Hays probably received her nickname, as troops would shout, "Molly! Pitcher!" whenever they needed her to bring fresh water.
Battle of monmouth
 The Battle of Monmouth was a Revolutionary War battle fought on June 28, 1778 in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Hays attended to the Revolutionary soldiers by giving them water. Just before the battle started, she found a spring to serve as her water supply. Hays spent much of the day carrying water to soldiers and artillerymen, often under heavy fire from British troops. The weather was well over 100 degrees on this day, and sometime during the battle, William Hays collapsed, either wounded or suffering from heat exhaustion. As her husband was carried off the battlefield, Hays took his place at the cannon. For the rest of the day, in the heat of battle, Mary continued to "swab and load" the cannon using her husband's ramrod. At one point, a British musket ball or cannonball flew between her legs and tore off the bottom of her skirt. 
eyewitness testimony confirms legend
Joseph Plumb Martin, a witness to the legend of Pitcher, describes the scene of the husband and wife working together: "A woman whose husband belonged to the artillery and who was then attached to a piece in the engagement, attended with her husband at the piece the whole time. While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her feet as far before the other as she could stemp, a cannon shot from the enemey passed directly between her legs without doing any other damage than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away something else, and continued her occupation."
AFTER THE WAR
In late 1786, William Hays died. In 1793, Mary Hays married John McCauley, another Revolutionary War veteran and possibly a friend of William Hays. The marriage was reportedly not a happy one, as McCauley had a violent temper. It was McCauley who was the cause of Mary's financial downfall, causing Mary to sell 200 acres of bounty land left to her by William. Sometime between 1807 and 1810, McCauley disappeared, and it is not known what happened to him. Hays died in 1832 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A statue of her stands next to the grave, forever a tribute to her. 
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