From time to time, probably from the earliest of time, the bard has sung of the fighting man, his arms and his Lady. The stone thrower, the spear, the bow, the crossbow, the matchlock, the wheel lock, the miquelet, the flint, the percussion and their counterpart, the fusillier, the cannoneer, the mounted horse, the infantry man, the flag-bearer and his dedicated Lady, all these have been properly commemorated in song.

Strangely, the patron saint of artillery was a woman. In the early days the gun crews wore the insignia of the patron saint of artillery on their caps, the image of St. Barbara. Thus, they hoped to be protected against the premature explosion of their cannons. General Henry Knox, the learned Boston bookseller, knew its meaning for he had lectured to his men in order to keep up their interest. He had told how St. Barbara, the lovely maiden of Heleopolis in Egypt, was imprisoned in a tower by her father to protect her against suitors; how he flogged and ultimately beheaded her when she embraced Christianity. Instantaneously the fearful artillery of Heaven flashed and a lightning bolt scored a bull's-eye on the monstrous sire, and Barbara was elevated to become the gunner's patron saint.

A fitting background for Molly Hays, Huguenot cannoneer, heroine of the American Revolution.

Mary Ludwig, daughter of John George Ludwig, a dairy farmer near Trenton, New Jersey, was born on October 13, 1754. She was christened at The Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church, then the Church of Christ. (Records of the Church of Christ and Mon. Co. Historical Assoc.)

John George Ludwig was born in the Palatinate and landed in New York. He moved with the Huguenot migration to central New jersey. John is listed in Governor Hunter's accounts for 1710-1713. Since the Palatines were under the rule of Louis XIV and the lands were decimated in 1707 by Marshall Villais (France) for political and religious reasons and the borders of Eastern France expanded and contracted many times, the French and German names became mixed and fused in marriages. This situation is not unlike a similar situation in Alsace and Lorraine.

Mr. West of Allentown, New Jersey, pin points the origin of this good woman. "She lived just outside Allentown on the road to Maidenhead," (Lawrenceville). "She was a Huguenot alright, her mother's name was Susan Neau." (probably Suzanne)

Mrs. William Irvine, wife of a Carlisle physician, visiting in Allentown, New Jersey, met and took Mary back with her as a housemaid. Mary was fifteen years of age at the time. In recent years a confusion has occurred between Pennsylvania and New Jersey as to Mary's origin probably as a result of Allentown, N.J. and Allentown, Pa. and another Mary whom I shall take up later.

At Carlisle, Mary met and married on July 24, 1769, John Casper Hays, the village barber. Hays enlisted on December 1, 1775 and was with the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment, serving under Dr. (later Colonel) Irvine at the battle of Monmouth. Mary, who had rejoined her family at Allentown, New Jersey, now joined her husband as the Army passed over from Valley Forge to Monmouth.

It should be stated at this point that all infantry regiments, according to the plan of 18th Century warfare carried two pieces of artillery. It fortunate enough they also carried a platoon of light-horse. Hays was a gunner assigned to one of these pieces. The subversives in their attack on this woman, as part of their general attack on Americana, claim that the Mary Hays' tale is a myth because Hays was in an infantry regiment, not an artillery. The above explains it, I am sure.

It is also an interesting conjecture that Dr. Irvine may have wanted Hays with him because Hays was a Barber. It was common practice in the 18th Century for barbers to be surgeons. Napoleon's chief surgeon was a barber, Ambrose Pare. (See the West Point Museum. The Court Martial record of Major General Charles Lee.) Of course, if an Army was fortunate enough, it had several artillery regiments. We had one, commanded by General Knox and with Colonel Alexander Hamilton as second in command.

The writer has spent years in the study of this gallant woman and in the study of the Battle of Monmouth. Six of his ancestors fought at Monmouth; two were wounded, one shot through the face, a high percentage indeed. Bible records, diaries, pension records, newsprint of the time, and books written at the time and soon after, have been researched thoroughly.

Mary Hays has been so maligned that now the truth must be told and the untruth challenged.

An article not too many years ago in one of the Nation's most well-known dailys and the Sunday Supplement at that, called her a drunkard, never-married, a camp follower, and just a "no-good tramp." As recently as this last summer a feature writer for one of New Jersey's best known dailys when told to cover the proposed monument to this woman on the Freehold battlefield, reiterated these charges. They were so similar that the writer must have copied the original article, word for word, from the first paper and then signed his name. Confuse, divide, and conquer, then finally there will be no American Heritage History. Just to show the public reaction to this, there was a perceptible falling off of donations for this Battlefield Monument after this attack.

What kind of a woman was Mary Ludwig Hays? Well, the Pastor of her Church in Carlisle, in Liber II, the Church of Christ says, "Married this day Mary Ludwig to John Hays. Mary is a simple kindly child of good faith." Many of us would like this much said. Mary, according to all paintings and sculptors, was a big buxom woman Very likely she was, for she was farm-born and farm-raised.

What happened at Monmouth on that "hottest day on record?" What did Mary Hays really do? The records show that Mary was carrying water from a nearby spring on Weimrock Road; John had been wounded; General Henry Knox, the Boston bookseller, Washington's Chief of Artillery, feared the gun might be taken and so ordered it withdrawn. Mary volunteered to service the gun. General Knox accepted and according to the order book of Knox's Artillery Regiment did it so well that even though the day was the hottest on record and the battle lasted until twilight, about 8:45 p.m., Mary Hays for her service was presented to General Washington and his staff at his tent after the battle.

The next day a parade was held in her honor. Mounted horse, continentals, Jersey Blues, artillery, militia and flag-bearers; and Mary Hays stood proudly with the reviewers: Generals Washington, Knox, Wayne, Green, Cadwallader, Lafayette, Poor, Hamilton, and Colonel Irving. She was then made an honorary Sergeant for life and it was ordered that she should receive a pension for the same period. The opposition might try to erase and wipe out that record (Nat. Arch.) And was Colonel Irvine proud of his former house girl. This same Irvine is the one so defamed by Major Andre in "The Cowchase."

Where do these people get material to garble the facts? Well, there was another woman, a most unfortunate person, one Mary Corbin who came from the Hudson Valley, New York, "far below Cayuga's Waters." She was a camp follower, some say she was never married, which was false, she was "loud and sharp," and "a heavy drinker." Others say she died of the King's Evil, still others that she died a drunkard's death. She helped service a gun at Fort Washington, New York, and lost a breast and part of her arm from a cannon ball. She too was called affectionately Molly. After the war she went back to the Western New York frontier. William Davidson Perrine of Freehold has done a fine piece of work in the research of this woman. Let us see what he has to say.

"Tradition, fiction, and romance became so thoroughly interwoven they combine to crowd simple truth aside. Margaret Cochran was born November 12, 1751, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and was the only daughter of Robert Cochran, who was killed by the Indians in 1756; his wife was also taken in captivity by the Indians. Their daughter, Margaret Cochran, at that time was visiting her uncle, a brother to her mother. Margaret made her home with her uncle until 1772, when she married John Corbin of Virginia, who enlisted in the Pennsylvania Artillery Regiment under Francis Proctor. Margaret Corbin followed her husband to the war and offered her services as a nurse and aide in camp life.

Her husband, John Corbin, was killed at Fort Washington, on the upper end of Manhattan island, November 16, 1776. Then Margaret Corbin took her husband's place at the gun until she was struck by three grapeshot which nearly severed her arm and part of her breast. At the surrender she was paroled to Green's Regiment across the river at Fort Lee, and was carried with other sick and wounded to Philadelphia. Later she was formally enrolled as a member of the Invalid Regiment. In 1779, a regular pension was grant her of $30. In April, 1783, the Invalid Regiment was mustered out.

Margaret Corbin, having no home to go to, no hospital to receive her, returned to her army acquaintances back in Hudson Valley, settling at a place known as Swimtown (where she too became a domestic). Swimtown was named for one of the settlers of that locality; and in 1805, it was known as Buttermilk Falls, and later it was given the name of Highland Falls, and so it is today. Margaret Corbin was of Irish parentage, red hair, piercing eyes, sharp tongue and quick temper, not always particular of her dress or person, commanding and haughty; among those who had incurred her displeasure she was invariably saluted as Captain Molly when face to face. The wounds she received while battle at Fort Washington on Manhattan island, November 16, 1776, not having had the proper care, developed into a gangrenous nature, which caused her death about 1800. What appears to identify her place of burial is an unmarked grave on private property in a little hamlet called Swimtown, near West Point, New York. History states that Margaret was buried in a private cemetery. It was the custom in those times for the people to bury their dead on their farms in a space known as private family plots.

It's said that her grave had never been marked otherwise than by a cedar tree which grew beside it, and which in recent years had been cut down, the stump, however, was left. Later the grave had been marked with a small wooden stave on which had been engraved the letters "M.C." There, she reposed for several years, then, her remains were taken up and placed in the Post Cemetery at West Point, New York. In 1926 the D.A.R. of New York City had a monument erected to her memory, giving credit and honor to the heroine who served in the battle at Fort Washington, New York. Should you go to Highland Falls and make inquiry you will be told that Captain Margaret Corbin lived and died there, but her remains now rest in the Post Cemetery at West Point, New York. Now travel to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and you will be shown the grave of Mary Ludwig, known as Molly Pitcher, of Monmouth County, New Jersey."

Now, what happened to our Mary after the war. Mary Hays returned to Carlisle and nursed her ailing husband. It's all in the affidavits by neighbors of John Hays, his pension record, where such terms as "fine woman," "She gave John every comfort and ease," "She was an affectionate wife," "cheerful and a hard worker" are recorded. This is only a fraction. I wish my reader could read the entire pension record of fifteen affidavits and fifteen witnesses. I am sure the defamers would hang their heads in shame. Hays died of his wounds in 1790. Mary later married one George McKolly (or McAuley or McCauley). She worked at Carlisle Army Barracks and later kept store there. As women frequently do, Mary jumped from the frying pan into the fire, for McKolly was a drunkard, and Mary had a hard life. She does not deserve to have her history recorded falsely. On January 2, 1822 the Pennsylvania legislature granted her an annuity. She died January 22, 1822 and was buried in the Old Graveyard at Carlisle.

Loessing's Field Book of the American Revolution is my second bible. Loessing in 1820 traveled the length and breadth of this country interviewing veterans and observers of these eight trying years. Loessing is almost always right but in the case of Mary Ludwig he interviewed the wrong person at Carlisle, "a woman of substance" she stated and he repeated in his book "she was a scrubwoman."

She was a scrubwoman alright, for after McKolly's death she obtained a job cleaning the courthouse at Carlisle. People in Carlisle still like to repeat what their ancestors before them used to tell: how Sergeant Molly, now Colonel Molly cleaned and scrubbed the stone steps of the courthouse, and on the 4th of July and the Battle of Monmouth Day, June 28, 1778, how she put on her sergeant's coat and wore it with great pride and dignity.

Congress voted her a pension, the munificent sum of $40.00 per year and as I have told you Pennsylvania had voted her a pension, but she never received either one.

But the memory of Mary Ludwig, the Huguenot, and her deeds grow in stature with the passing years and when her monument is completed it will stand on Combs Hill right where Molly Pitcher serviced the gun. It will be a figure similar to the one at Carlisle. In addition, she will hold a bucket in one hand and a ramrod in the other. Beside her will be a cannon of the period. At the foot of the hill is still the running spring, Molly Pitcher's spring. Children for generations will come and view this Monument: To Molly Pitcher, Huguenot, Heroine of the American Revolution.