Margaret Corbin: Manned the Cannon When Her Husband Fell at the Battle of Fort Washington

Troiani's Battle of Fort Washington
Hessians storm Colonel Rawling’s Redoubt of Maryland & Virginia Riflemen and three cannon. Margaret Corbin, who manned a cannon after her husband was killed, is featured in Don Troiani’s painting of the Battle of Fort Washington.

By Harry Schenawolf, author of the Shades of Liberty Series about African American soldiers in the American Revolution.

Margaret Cochran Corbin (November 12, 1751 – January 16, 1800), nicknamed ‘Captain Molly’ by the troops in her husband’s company, like her counterpart Mary Ludwig Hays, aka ‘Molly Pitcher’, was an incredibly brave person who had history thrust upon her. Both ‘Mollys’ were married to artillerymen. Both were camp followers and affectionately given the name Molly, as were many wives and female companions who accompanied their men to war. They helped with the domestic chores such as laundry, mending, cooking, as well as tending to the sick and wounded. And it is quite likely that Corbin, like Hays, was called Molly Pitcher at one time or another for they both carried water to thirsty soldiers and doused the cannon when they became too hot. But for these two women, that which bound them together in their own unique legacy, is that they both witnessed their husbands cut down by enemy fire. And in the heat of action, in that critical moment of fight or flight, when neither could stand by and watch helplessly as their men faced the hell of combat, both took it upon themselves to man the guns. They did so skillfully and with as much determination as any other soldier on the field of battle. In fact, both women grew up in the same region and whose husbands were in the same artillery unit. And early in the war, before postings throughout New York City divided the company, in all probability, the two Mollys were acquaintances, perhaps even friends.

Molly Pitcher
The popular folklore of Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778

Molly Pitcher’s maiden name was Mary Ludwig. Born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, by all accounts she had a normal childhood and married John Hays. Captain Molly’s maiden name was Margaret Cochran who so too was born in western Pennsylvania. She also married a John, John Corbin, who was from Virginia, but settled in the same region of Pennsylvania as John Hays. Their men enlisted in the same artillery company as soon as war broke out in 1775; Captain Thomas Proctor’s 1st Company of Pennsylvania Artillery. Mary’s husband was a sergeant in his train of artillery. Margaret’s was a maltross – those who assisted the gunners in loading, firing, and sponging the cannon. When the company was stationed in Philadelphia soon after they formed, Mary and Margaret accompanied them. So too in the spring of 1776, when the company was sent to New York to counter a British invasion, the two women remained by their husbands’ side.

Corbin 5

Two years would separate the battles that made both women famous, Mary’s Molly Pitcher more so than Corbin’s Captain Molly. Molly Pitcher’s husband would be wounded at the Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778. She would take over his duties firing the cannon and at the conclusion of the battle, nurse her husband to health. After the war, she would lead a long and full life with her family, remarrying and dying at age 89. Fate was not be so kind to Margaret for tragedy followed her throughout her life. Like Molly Pitcher, Captain Molly’s husband fell wounded during battle and she took his place, but that is where the similarities end. For Margaret, her brush with death occurred two years before Mary Hays. She would fight at the Battle of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776, making her the first woman soldier of the war. Unlike Mary’s husband, her John was killed, as were many of his cannon crew. Margaret not only sponged out the cannon after each firing, but loaded and aimed it. For over an hour, her destructive fire was so well placed, that the enemy soon converged over a dozen cannon on her position, pouring in solid shot and grape. Just before her redoubt was stormed, grape shot tore into the left side of her body and jaw, wounding her seriously. She would never recover from the disabling wounds that crippled her for the remaining twenty-three years of her life, leaving her subjected to constant care and reliant upon a small half-pension for meager substance until her death at age 48.

Early Life

Wilderness settlement

Little is recorded of Margaret Corbin’s early life or her time with her husband prior to the war. She was born in western Pennsylvania at Chambersburg in present day Franklin County on November 12, 1751. Her parents were Scots-Irish immigrants. Her father was Robert Cochran (circa 1720 – 1756). According to internet sites, her mother was named Sarah, however, that is incorrect and research indicates that her mother’s name was Jane. Historians also are in agreement that in 1756, during the French & Indian War, Robert Cochran was killed in a raid by Native Americans and his wife was taken captive, however she may have been killed during the raid. This occurred on June 11, 1756 when Margaret was aged four years and seven months. Records indicate she had a brother John who was around four years older than Margaret. It appears both children were not present during the attack for they were not taken captive along with their mother. Historian C. Hale Sipe, in his 1929 text The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania, documented events surrounding the raid and listed an article printed by the Pennsylvania Gazette in June 24, 1756 that reported the assault and listed names of the casualties.

Chambersburg, the site of Margaret’s birth, was about forty-five miles south of a stockade called Fort Bigham (some references list it as Bingham), Tuscarora Township in Juniata County, just north of Franklin County. It was named for Samuel Bigham who built it in 1754 on the Traders Path to protect trappers and newly arriving settlers and farmers from frequent Native American attacks. This was a tumultuous time as British and French interests throughout the wilderness areas of western Pennsylvania clashed involving hostile Delaware and Shawnee native tribes. Raids upon isolated farms became quite common, mainly west of Carlisle and about 150 miles from Philadelphia. As the French & Indian War escalated, hundreds of settlers and their families were killed and scalped or carried off by their captors to be sold or adapted into a tribe. On June 11, 1756, while some of the local men were away at Carlisle for supplies and salt, the stockade at Fort Bigham and surrounding farmlands was raided by a large party of Delaware under chief King Beaver.

Many wilderness homesteads were attacked during the French & Indian War. Families were killed, homes burnred, with many taken captive.
Many wilderness homesteads were attacked during the French & Indian War. Families were killed, homes burned, with many taken captive.

Accordingly, all occupants of the fort, including those who had gathered in the fort for protection, had either been killed or captured. The Pennsylvania Gazette, thirteen days after the attack, listed those who were confirmed dead and missing. “The following is a list of persons killed and missing at Bingham’s Fort…Some of these are supposed to be burnt in the fort, as a number of bones were found there…Susan Giles was found dead and scalped in the neighborhood of the fort. Robert Cochran and Thomas McKinney found dead and scalped. Alexander McAllister and his wife, James Adams, Jane Cochran and two children missed. McAllister’s house was burned and a number of cattle and horses driven off. The enemy was supposed to be numerous, as they did eat and carry off a great deal of beef they had killed.”[1] Because of the time of death of the father and location in respect to Franklin County, the known region of Margaret’s parents’ residence, and evidence that indicates the likelihood that Robert and Jane Cochran had a farm in northern Franklin County and the Fort Bigham region, it appears certain that the Robert Cochran, for whom the article refers to having been killed, is the same Cochran who was Margaret’s father and the Jane Cochran mentioned as being missed, along with two children, was her mother.

Captives traded and sold to European soldiers during the French & Indian War
Captives traded and sold to European soldiers during the French & Indian War

Sipe wrote that “the prisoners were taken to Kittanning and from there to Fort Duquesne [future Fort Pit and Pittsburg], where they were parceled out and adopted by the Indians…”[2] Most of the prisoners were accounted for over the years, either sold to the French or assimilated into the tribes, some returned years later after the war. Jane Cochran was never reunited with her children, nor was she ever seen or heard from again. Either she had been purchased and settled in northern Canada, adopted by a remote tribe to the west, or perhaps she had been killed along with her husband Robert. The stockade was torched after the raid and several bodies were left to be consumed by the fire. Her bones may have been mixed with those found at the burnt-out stockade. Eventually, it was determined that perhaps five were killed and eighteen taken captive, however again, some of those assumed to have been taken captive were never heard from again, their ashes and charred remains could have been part of the stockade’s burnt out rubble. As to the two Cochran children referred to in the article, Margaret and John, one can assume the newspaper presumed that they were present and taken captive, or perhaps were killed, their bones within the burnt stockade. Historians have found no exact reference as to why Margaret and John were safely away from home during the raid. It is believed that they were visiting with their maternal uncle who later adopted and raised them for the remainder of their childhood.

Marriage and War

english-six-pounder-gun-web artillery
Artillery crew with six-pounder field piece.

Little is known of the time Margaret spent living with her uncle, the town she grew up in, or how she met her future husband. In 1772, at the age of 21, she married a Virginia farmer named John Corbin. There is no record of her or John living in Virginia. When the American Revolution began, John enlisted in October, 1775, in Captain Thomas Proctor’s 1st Company of Pennsylvania State Artillery as a moltross in a cannon crew. It is highly unlikely that he would have enlisted in a Pennsylvania company of artillery had he moved his wife to Virginia. It can be assumed that he had met Margaret in Pennsylvania where he had relocated, married, and settled down to farm.

Margaret did not remain at home when John Corbin’s company was posted to Philadelphia. Instead, she became a camp follower and accompanied him as one of the many women who remained by their husbands and companion’s sides to help with domestic chores. Often, once at camp, the women also aided the men in some of their duties, particularly artillerymen, where the wives observed and at times stepped in to lend a hand during drills and maintenance of the cannon. Gruff, strong, and unfeminine, at five feet eight inches tall, in a time when the average male height was five feet, five inches, Margaret fit right in among the cannon crew. Possessed with a forceful personality, she made few friends among the women in camp, instead feeling more at home smoking and conversing with the other soldiers who affectionately called her ‘Captain Molly’.

British invasion fleet begins to arrive New York Harbor in July, 1776.
British invasion fleet arrives New York Harbor in July, 1776. After several battles on Long Island and northern Manhattan, Washington’s forces pulled back to Westchester County, New York c/o the Mariner’s Museum.

By August of 1776, a second company of Pennsylvania artillery was formed. Captain Proctor was promoted to major and the 1st Penn State Artillery was put under Captain John Martin Strobach (Heitman lists his name as Strobagh), and the 2nd Penn. Artillery, under Capt. Thomas Forest. By July, the 1st Penn. Company, which included John Corbin, positioned part of their company at newly constructed Fort Washington, north of Manhattan Island on the banks of the Hudson. Margaret and John would remain at the fort throughout the summer and into the fall. When General Howe moved his army into Westchester County and Washington evacuated the American lines at Harlem Heights to counter his enemy’s move to get behind him, the garrison at Fort Washington was left behind. After the Battle of White Plains on Oct. 28, 1776, Howe gave up pursuing Washington and turned his attention to capturing Fort Washington. On November 5th, he marched his army south and prepared a strong force of 8,000 British and Hessian forces to assault the garrison comprised of approximately 2,800 men, about half militia and many recently sent over the Hudson from the Flying Camp Reserves in New Jersey.

Battle of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776

Margaret Corbin 1

Colonel Robert Magaw commanded the garrison on Mount Washington, the highest point on Manhattan Island, with Major General Greene in overall command from Fort Lee across the Hudson River. Greene and Magaw were convinced that Fort Washington would hold any concerted attack by the enemy until December. And if needed, the men and supplies could be withdrawn across the Hudson River at any time during a siege. Though Washington was skeptical, he delayed abandoning the fort until he had a chance to make a personal evaluation of the situation. He did so on the morning of Nov. 16th, but as he and General Greene were crossing the river, the British attack had begun and it was too late. Greene and Magaw were disastrously proven wrong. General Howe began his assault at 7 AM and by 2 PM that day, the garrison would surrender with the total loss of men, cannon, and critically needed supplies.

Howe's map of battle plans to take fort washington
British Gen. William Howe’s map of battle plans. Margaret’s cannon was postioned at Rawling’s redoubt, upper portion of map. Three thousand Hessians assaulted approximately 300 American riflemen and artillerymen. Ten to one odds, and they still held them off for two hours.

Magaw kept a strong detachment in the fort and posted most of his small force along three fronts: about a mile and a half south on the old Harlem Heights defenses that Washington’s army had occupied until shifting north, about half a mile to the east on Laurel Hill along the Harlem River, and about a half mile north of the fort at the ridge overlooking a steep drop upon which the enemy would have to approach. Lt. Colonel Rawlings commanded about 250 riflemen from Maryland and Virginia and hid them among the rocks and fallen timbers at the top of the ridge. A redoubt was constructed that included gun placements for three cannon and their forty or so crewmen. John Corbin, with Margaret at his side, was on the gun crew for one of the three fieldpieces when the attack began.

Maragret Corbin 2

The battle opened with a barrage of enemy cannon from a battery across the Harlem River and the HMS Pearl, anchored on the Hudson. The Pearl focused her big guns on Rawling’s redoubt crashing solid shot into the barriers and layered fortification. By 10 AM, three thousand Hessians troops were in position to attack in two columns, Colonel Johann Rall lead the right and Major General Martin Schmidt commanded the left. Major General Wilhelm Knyphausen was in overall command and accompanied Schmidt’s column on the left. Prior to attack, they wheeled their ten to twelve field pieces into position and began to shell Rawling’s redoubt with grape and solid shot. This attack proved to be the fiercest and most protracted assault of the day, along with the highest number of killed and wounded. For over two hours, the Hessians clawed their way up the steep incline. All the while the stubborn defenders aimed their highly accurate rifled shot down upon their attackers while the cannon crews relentlessly loaded and fired grape and solid shot, plowing bloodied paths through the German mercenaries.

artillery
Ten to twelve Hessian fieldpieces were drawn forward to pound Rawling’s riflemen and three cannon, one manned by Margaret Corbin atop of the hill. Artwork by Don Troiani.

The persistent British shelling from batteries along Harlem River and the Pearl continued to rain down on Rawling’s position. Musketry poured up from below along with grape shot from the dozen Hessian cannon aimed at the redoubt to try and silence the American cannon. Over time, many of the cannons’ crewmen were cut down. It is believed that Margaret took over the duty of sponging and loading the cannon when so few men were left to man the gun. Eventually, her husband, working alongside her, was killed, however Margaret kept on fighting. After helping to reload, she began to aim her cannon. She inflicted such devastation upon the attacking Hessians that they eventually focused their field pieces on her lone position. It took two hours of constant fighting for the assaulting troops to near the top of the ridge. Two cannon were destroyed leaving but one. Eventually, Margaret was cut down by a well-aimed blast of grape shot. The hot metal balls tore into her shoulder and left breast, nearly severing her arm while also carving into her jaw. Severely wounded, Margaret lay beside her cannon while the Hessian troops swarmed over the top of the ridge and pushed back the remaining riflemen to the fort.

Militia and british soldiers
Americans are driven back from their defenses.

During the intense battle for Rawling’s redoubt, the other two forces of mainly British troops drove back the militiamen from Laurel Hill and the Americans from the trenches along the old Harlem Heights lines. The rebels desperately made their way to the fort and there, crowded into a space designed for a quarter of the men now trapped by the encroaching enemy. With no cover from shelling, they were basically sitting ducks. Colonel Magaw realized he had no choice but to surrender. Nearly 2,800 Americans would be marched to makeshift prisons in New York City and onto prison hulks anchored in the harbor. Only eight hundred of them would be alive eighteen months later due to malnutrition and disease from the sordid conditions forced upon them. British doctors treated Margaret for her wounds and she was soon paroled. There is no account of how she made her way to Philadelphia and to a hospital for convalesce.

Corps of Invalids

wounded soldier
Wounded soldiers were offered to serve in the invalid corps that garrisoned forts, patroled cities, guarded prisoners, and served as military instructors – a precursor to West Point.

Margaret’s wounds were very serious and left her with chronic pain and no use of her left arm for the rest of her life. She remained in Philadelphia throughout 1777 and into 1779. Alone and without family, there is no record if she received special treatment as a woman while residing in the city. Because of her wounds, she could not support herself and applied for help from the government. On June 29, 1779, the Executive Council of Pennsylvania granted her $30 to cover her present needs and passed her case on to Congress’ Board of War. The Board reported that Corbin “still remains in a deplorable situation in consequence of her wound, by which she is deprived of the use of one arm, and in other respects is much disabled and probably will continue a cripple during her life.” They stated that “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 labors, the board can but consider her as entitled to the same grateful return which would be made to a soldier in circumstance equally unfortunate.” On July 6, 1779, the Board, sympathetic to Margaret’s injuries and impressed with her service and bravery, granted her half the monthly pay of a soldier in the Continental Army, about $3.30 per month, the first woman to be offered a half-pay pension.

On July 25, 1780, Congress voted to give her a complete suit of clothes every year for life and in 1780, she was allowed to enroll in the Corps of Invalids. On June 23, 1777, the Corps of Invalids was established by Congress. It consisted of eight companies to be employed as their health permitted in garrisons and guard duty in cities as well as locations where magazines and arsenals stored military equipment. The Invalid corps also manned hospitals and served as instructors at the first military schools “imparting military knowledge to Young Gentleman.” On June 13, 1781, Washington authorized the entire Invalid Corps to be stationed at West Point, New York, supplying a precursor to the famous military institution now present at West Point.

West Point on the Hudson
West Point, the gateway to the Hudson Highlands.

By Sept. 11, 1781, the corps was fully established at West Point. Corbin was allowed to enroll in the corps by August of 1780 and in 1781, was at West Point in Capt. John Reiley’s company, drawing her hospital supplies and sustenance from the commissary stores. In 1782, she had remarried, but her husband’s name was not mentioned in the records and she was still referred to as Mrs. Corbin. Her husband, also a cripple with the invalid corps, was little help to Margaret who required constant care. Capt. Samuel Shaw, aide to General Henry Knox who commanded at West Point, took note of Margaret’s pitiful condition and wrote in 1782 to Colonel Tench Tilghman. He asked for more liberal treatment of Mrs. Corbin for “her present husband is a poor…invalid who is no service to her but rather adds to her trouble…” Within a year after her marriage, Corbin was once more alone; her husband having either died from his wounds or the two were separated. She remained in the invalid corps until the end of the war and was mustered out in April 1783.

Last years of her life

Once mustered out of the army, Margaret did not have the capacity to earn a living on her own, requiring the aide of others “for her bodily cares.” She remained in the West Point area and moved to Highland Falls which formed the southern boundary of the garrison. Captain William Price, Commissary of Ordinance and Military Stores at West Point, made many attempts to help aid Margaret’s condition. He was cognizant of her pitiful state and saw to her needs while he wrote several letters to his superiors on her behalf. By the fall of 1785, he arranged for Mrs. Elizabeth Swim, who resided about three miles from West Point, to care for Margaret at 12 shillings per week. Mrs. Swim supplied poor to minimal care and Margaret’s condition worsened, many believing she would not live out the year.

Price removed her from Swim’s residence on Sept. 27, 1786, and into the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Randal who lived in Buttermilk Falls, present day Highland Falls near West Point. Correspondence between military authorities indicated that Margaret was a helpless and troublesome invalid and difficult to manage. Mrs. Randal was very patient and managed to provide minimal care for Margaret from the small financial aid the government paid directly to her. Records indicate that Randal kept her until Aug. 24, 1789, but she probably stayed under Randal’s care longer, the records having ended at that date. There was never enough money to provide for Margaret’s needs. West Point occasionally issued old tents and moldy bed sacks (also called ticks – large cloth bags into which straw was stuffed for mattresses) to Mrs. Randal to supply material to clothe her. During these years, Secretary of War Henry Knox corresponded with military authorities to provide better care for her constant needs, but it was never enough to provide comfort.

Corbin 4
For the remainder of her life, Margaret was often seen wearing an artillery coat over her dress.

Benjamin J. Lossing, author of the Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, visited the Highlands in 1848 and interviewed old residents, many of whom remembered Corbin in the last years of her life. Beverly Garrison, a man of 87 years living near the north end of Lake Sinnipink (present Bear Mountain Lake), remembered “the famous Irish woman called Captain Molly…she generally dressed in the petticoats of her sex, with an artilleryman’s coat over,” he said. Rebecca Rose, of eighty years, recalled Captain Molly “living between Fort Montgomery and Buttermilk Falls.” Captain Faurot shared what his grandfather said of Molly, that she had a sharp tongue and quick temper, was not always particular about her dress or person, yet was commanding and haughty. He said that when she was not present, people referred to her as ‘Dirty Kate’, especially by those who incurred her displeasure. But when face to face, she was saluted as Captain Molly; and that in spite of hard things said about her, she was held in high esteem by all.[3]

There was compassion for Margaret’s condition, but never enough money to provide the care she needed. Edward Hall, her early biographer, reminded us that her deplorable condition was not due to her own fault writing, “In addition to the shock in her childhood of having her father murdered by the Indians and never seeing her mother again, she saw her husband killed by her side and had been terribly lacerated by Hessian grape-shot, losing the loss of one arm and having been so completely disabled that she could not take care of herself. She had no relatives to give her the loving attention she needed, but was dependent on the tender mercies of others, and lived on the miserable pittance of $3.30 a month, supplemented by one new suit of clothes a year and an occasionally old tent canvas for a cape. No wonder that her nervous tension was great and her temperament high; and that she became the ‘offensive person,’ and disagreeable object’ that Commissary Prince’s letters indicated her to have been.”[4]

Death, Forgotten, Reinterment with full military honors

Margaret Corbin's memorial at West Point
Margaret Corbin’s memorial at West Poi

Margaret eventually succumbed to complications from her old wound and died on a cold winter morning, January 16, 1800, aged 48. Her original grave was one of several in a little unenclosed cemetery on the estate which was acquired by J. P. Morgan, Sr., and which was called ‘Cragston.’ This site was about 3 ¼ miles south of the Parade Ground at West Point. The cemetery had become overgrown and forgotten to all but a few local residents. Her grave was marked by a low, rough headstone, without inscription, and a small foot-stone, like the other graves. The stump of a cedar was visible that had been planted by her grave decades ago. She rested here for one hundred and twenty-six years until in 1926, her remains were removed from an obscure grave along the Hudson river to the West Point Cemetery, where she was buried with full military honors. J. P. Morgan, Sr. had died and in 1925 and his relatives thought the cemetery land might be developed. They approached the New York State Society of Daughters of the American Revolution and in so doing, brought Margaret Corbin’s name into the limelight and garnished new interest in her life. Extensive research was begun by the DAR that included local historians and physicians to identify Margaret Corbin’s burial site and to confirm that the remains in the grave were indeed Margaret’s.

Fort Tryon monument to Rawling's and Corbin
Monument recognized Rawling’s Redoubt where Margaret was wounded. After the battle, the redoubt was renamed Fort Tryon by the British.

Margaret’s military records were verified including her service to her country. The body was exhumed and examined by a physician who confirmed it was hers based on the injuries on her skeleton, which were consistent with the reports of the injuries she had received while servicing her husband’s cannon. She was re-interred on April 14, 1926, this time with full military honors, and at a new location, in the cemetery behind the Old Cadet Chapel at West Point, becoming one of only two Revolutionary War soldiers to be buried there. The Daughters of the American Revolution erected the Margaret Corbin Monument over her new gravesite, to commemorate the bravery and patriotism of a remarkable woman. So too, Margaret is recognized in New York City at Fort Tryon, the renamed redoubt which she had defended along with her husband’s cannon crew and Maryland and Virginia riflemen. A tablet praises Margaret Cochran Corbin as the “first woman to take a soldier’s part in the war for liberty.”

Corbin 1926 photo
DAR representatives in 1926 photo of what was believed to have been Margaret Corbin’s remains.

Margaret’s re-interment was not the final chapter of her life and story.  Dolly Stolze wrote an informative article that was published on the web on July 4, 2018 that details the mix-up concerning Margaret Corbin’s remains. “A contractor tasked with constructing a new retaining wall for the Molly Corbin Enhancement Project at the West Point Cemetery disturbed Corbin’s burial in October of 2016. Michael Trimble, the chief archeologist for the Army Corp of Engineers, supervised the excavation of mortuary artifacts and skeletal remains from the burial in 2016. Forensic anthropologist Elizabeth DiGangi, from Binghamton University (SUNY), examined the bones. Dr. DiGangi announced, almost a year later, that the bones ‘were biologically consistent with a tall, middle-aged man alive between the colonial period and the 19th century. Therefore, the remains are not that of Corbin, but rather an unknown male.’”[5] When the British burned Washington during the War of 1812, many records were destroyed. The 1925 DAR research found no official report as to where Corbin was buried and had to base their research on folklore from local residents – key at the time was the stump of a cedar that was reported to have been planted beside the grave when she was buried. When the physician in 1926 concurred that the skeleton was a woman who showed signs of a shoulder injury, it was enough for the DAR who concluded they had found Captain Molly. “The bones of the unknown man unearthed from Captain Molly’s West Point crypt in 2016 were reinterred elsewhere at the West Point Cemetery. Margaret Corbin’s remains are likely still in the Highland Falls Cemetery. The Daughters of the American Revolution continue the search for Molly’s real grave.”[6]

Though her remains may never be found, the memory of what she did that fateful day on November 16, 1776, when faced with the brutal reality of war, united with her fellow soldiers in a desperate struggle, lives on. After having lost her husband and her health in the service of her country, painful disabling injuries that plagued her for the rest of her life, she never received the care and comfort that was her due. That will forever remain a disgrace.

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SOURCE

Ancestral Findings. Who’s Who in the American Revolution: Margaret Corbin. ancestralfindings.com/american-revolution-margaret-corbin/

De Pauw, Linda Grant. Founding Mothers, Women of the Revolutionary Era. 1975: Houghton & Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.

Hall, Edward Hagaman. Margaret Corbin, The Heroine of the Battle of Fort Washington 16 November, 1776. 1932: The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, New York, NY.

Heitman, Francis. Historical Register of the Officers of the Continental Army During the War of Revolution, April 1775 – December 1783. 1914: The Rare Book Publishing Company, New York, NY.

Johnston, Henry P. The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn. 1878: S. W. Green, New York, NY.

Kneib, Martha. Women, Soldiers, Spies, & Patriots of the American Revolution. 2004: The Rosen Publishing Group, New York, NY.

Lossing, Benjamin. Pictorial Fieldbook of the Revolution in Three Volumes. 1860: Harper Brothers Publishers, New York, NY.

McCullough, David. 1776. 2005: Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.

Sipe, C. Hale. The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania… Tragedies of the Pennsylvania Frontier. 1929: The Telegraph Press, Harrisonburg, PA.  pg. 286

Stolze, Dolly. Where is the grave of Revolutionary War hero Captain Margaret Corbin? strangeremains.com/2018/07/04/where-is-the-grave-of-revolutionary-war-hero-captain-margaret-corbin/

Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution. 1952, 2011 edition: Skyhorse Publishing Company, New York, NY.

Wells, Barbara. 18c Women. “Margaret Cochran Corbin (1751-1800) from Camp Follower to Wounded Revolutionary War Soldier.” https://b-womeninamericanhistory18.blogspot.com/2018/09/margaret-cochran-corbin-1751-1800-from.html

[1] Sipe, pg. 286.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Hall, pg. 31.

[4] Ibid, pg. 32.

[5] Stolze.

[6] Ibid.