Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-07-14

Ing heroes, anu
doubtless will bring to the front hero
ines of which Mollie Pitcher of the
Revolutionary army was a type The
heroine of the battle of Monmouth who
served the cannon after her husband
was stricken down at the post of duty
has received brief mention in history,
and even now writers are declaring that
she was myth or locating he1 domicile
in various states 1t is with view to
furnishing evidence as to her identity
and her early life that this article is
written The main facts are furnished
by Commodore" Porter of Carlisle,
Pa, distant relative of the heroine who
was named "Mollie Pitcher" by the
Pennsylvania soldiers because she car
ried water in pitcher for them on the
hot and dusty battlefield. "Mollie or
"Moll, = was Mary Hays wife of Ser
geant John Hays, an artillery officer in
Colonel Irvines command, who had
been barber at Carlisle before the war,
but went to the front with the Associa-
tions, as the colonial militia of Penn
sylvania was called.
Before her marriage she was Mary
Ludwig, daughter of John George Lud-
wig, who came to Pennsylvania from
the Palatinate She was born Oct 13,
1744, and took service in the house of
General William Irvine at Carlisle Pa.
She married John Hays July "a, 1859.
When the Revolutionary war broke
out, her husband enlisted in Proctor S
First Pennsylvania artillery, which was
later attached to the Seventh Pennsyl-
vania line, commanded by Colonel Irvine
--and part of the famous rif1emen of
General Wayne-which did such terri
BILE execution against Moncton S grena
diers and the heavenly pretty red
coats at Princeton and Monmouth.
With a spirit born of the frontier,
where the wives and youths guarded
their homes against the Indian sayages
while the husbands and older sons were
fighting for freedom in their homespun
suits, Mary Hays accompanied her hus-
band to the battlefield and shared its
fatigue and perils
The battle of Monmouth was fought
June 80, ITS, and the stubborn valor
and heroic conduct of the Pennsylvania
line had an important bearing upon the
success of the patriot arms. Lossing says
that it was one of the hottest days of
the year, and the battle opened at a.
M, continuing until night.
In the patriotic verses of the Revolu-
tionary period this heroine's action at
Monmouth is thus set forth:
Mollie Pitcher, she stood by her gun
And rammed the charges home, sir,
And thus on Monmouth's bloody field
A sergeant did become, sir.
How Mollie looked as a gunner bold
has been portrayed by those ever swift
to use patriotism to advertise their bust
ness. There is no authentic picture of
her to be found. A Revolutionary con
temporary curtly says, "She was stout
and red and a coarse and uncouth look
ing female
Doubtless upon that arid day the
amazonian patriot, sunburned and be-
grimed with the smoke of battle, did
not compare favorably with the Tory
bellies of Philadelphia who praised the
heavenly pretty redcoats with whom
they danced and played i'll Major An
dre' "Mischianza" while the patriot
army was starving and freezing at Val
ley Forge. Others who still remembered
her years ago said that she was brlxom
lass, with rosy, plump checks and red
dish hair which later i'll life was mixed
with gray. Her eyes were mild blue,
and one became blind by accident. In
old age her form became bent. Accord
ing to the oldest inhabitants, she wore
a short skirt of blue with white stripes,
and her head was covered by broad
white cap with white fiaring ruffles
She also wore sunbonnet, and her
woolen stockings were of her own knit
ting. Heavy, serviceable shoes covered
her feet. This description relates to her
as very old woman, for she died Jan.
20, 1882, over 66 years ago, at the ad-
vanced age of 88.
"Uncouth" and coarse" she may
have been, but when she rushed to the
side of her fallen husband with her Ii
tian red hair streaming over her strong
shoulders and her blue eyes flashing as
she served the gun she must have been
the centraffigure of a picture of strength
and heroism that any painter would
have delighted to immortalize on can
vas To this figure enchintment is lent
by her glorious head of hair, the hair
which made Helen an AphrOdite and
caused Titan to place upon his heroines
a crown of gold.
Well has Apuleius said in The Meta
morphosis, ''How exquisitely charming
is hair of beautiful hue and rich lus-
ter when it flashes back the rays of the
sun or shines with milder radiance and
varies its lovely aspect with every
change of light, now emitting bright
pess like that Of gold; now shaded off
into tie setter hue of honey y
Carlisle is rich in historic names and