Continental Army women, usually three to six per company, were most commonly wives, mothers, and daughters of the men in rank. Historian Linda Grant De Pauw estimates that these "Women of the Army" who traveled with and drew pay and rations over a seven year period numbered 20,000. (In 1802, and act of Congress attempted to limit women's numbers and define their formal place within the military system.) The women in the Continental army received pay and drew rations for themselves and their children. According to historian, Linda Grant De Pauw, these women were held subject to military discipline, which meant they underwent court-marital and endured punishment when convicted of specific offenses. The orderly book of general encamped Valley Forge, in the winter of 1778, notes one Mary Johnson was charged with plotting to desert the army. She was found guilty, received a sentence of one hundred lashes and was "drummed out of the army by all the fifes and drums of the division." Besides doing a lot of women's work such as cooking and washing, the main duties of the women fell into two divisions, the Medical Corps and the Artillery Corps. General Washington employed women as nurses when a smallpox epidemic broke out in Valley Forge. On May 31, 1778, he issued the following order: "Commanding Officers of the Regiments will assist the Regimental Surgeons in procuring as many Women of the Army as can be prevailed on to serve as nurses and will be paid the usual price." There was to be one nurse for every ten patients and a matron for every hundred sick. The nurses were paid two dollars a month and the matrons were paid fifteen a month. Their duties included cooking, washing, foraging for supplies and horses, preparing the dead for burial and digging latrines. A record for a six month period of the total strength of force encamped at Valley forge averaged 23,539 but typically only 7,556 soldiers were fit for duty, 6,881 were sick, 3,032 lack clothing and or weapons and ammunition, and the remaining 4,814 were AWOL. In the Artillery Corps, the women were water carriers to the gun crews. Waters was considered more important for the artillery than for the soldiers. After each firing, the cannon had to be swabbed with water to douse any sparks that might cause the next load to explode. (The soldiers drank grog of highly diluted rum, which was thought to present heatstroke more effectively than water) Some women moved from being water carriers to actually loading and firing weapons, as the situation demanded it. The two women we know the most about are Margaret Cochran Corbin known as "Captain Molly" and Mary Ludwing Hays McCauley, known as "Molly Pitcher." When Margaret Corbin's, husband, John enlisted in Captain Francis Proctor's 1st Pennsylvania Artillery, Margaret accompanied him to the front. The Corbins found themselves in the Battle of Fort Washington in 1776. The British forced the army to give up this key strategic point in well-coordinated attacks. Corbin's husband was in the thick of the battle. When he fell, tradition has it Margaret took over for him loading and firing his cannon. One reason Margaret's actions on the field are so well recorded is wounds from grapeshot were serious enough for her to lose use of one arm. In June, 1779, the Supreme Council of the State of Pennsylvania passed a bill in which it acknowledged Margaret had become disabled while she "heroically filled the post of her husband, who was killed by her side serving a piece of artillery." The council allocated her thirty dollars in immediate relief and recommended her case to the Continental Congress's Board of War. The Continental Congress resolved that Margaret should receive, for the rest of her life, a monthly pension amounting to one half a soldier's pay and a suit of clothes a year. In 1780, Congress enrolled "Captain Molly" as the only women in what was called the "Invalid Regiment." She was stationed at West Point essentially on guard duty for three years. The Invalid Regiment was disbanded in 1783 but Captain Molly remained in West Point. She depended on the mercy of the army the rest of her life even drawing her supplies from the West Point Commissary. Captain Molly's cantankerous personality caused West Point's Captain William Price to write to General Henry Knox in 1786: "I am at a loss what to do with Captain Molly. She is such an offensive person that people are unwilling to take her charge." Captain Molly died in about 1800. The West Point officials gratefully recalled her service to the Continental army at Fort Washington, but they probably also heaved a collective sigh of relief. Mary "Molly Pitcher" Hays McCauley followed her husband, John, when he joined the army. During their seven years of service together in the Pennsylvania State Regiment of Artillery, she cooked and carried water. John and Mary were involved in several battles, the most important being the battle at Monmouth, New Jersey in June of 1778. This is where Molly Pitcher rose to fame. The Continentals were engaged with the British force commanded by Lord Cornwallis. At the point her husband was wounded, Molly Pitcher took his place on the hot battlefield. In a journal entry dated July 3, 1778, Dr. Albigence Waldo makes mention of her: "One of the camp women I must give a little praise to. Her gallant, who she attended to in battle, being shot down, she immediately took his gun and cartridges and like a Spartan heroine fought with astonishing bravery, discharging the piece with as much regularity as any soldier present." Forty years after the battle, the legislature of Pennsylvania responded to her petition for funds with an immediate lump sum of forty dollars as well as a lifetime pension of forty dollars per year. Despite her pension, after the death of her second husband, Molly Pitcher like Margaret Corbin struggled to support herself. According to historian, Edward Biddle, an old book was found in the Cumberland County, Pennsylvania Commissioner's office in 1920. This record contained a number of entries pertaining to payments made to Molly Pitcher for custodial word. An entry dated March 29, 1811 read: "Molly Mcauley, for washing and white washing public buildings---15 dollars." Although Molly Pitcher spent the last decades of her life doing menial labor, her obituaries in 1832 respectfully focused on her contributions to the patriots' cause. More American Revolution Women Warriors Introduction Lydia Darragh Sybil Ludington Deborah Gannet Sampson Women in the Continental Army Civilian Women's Roles Back to Cry Havoc #31 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com