McCauley, Mary Ludwig Hays (1754–1832)

US war heroine. During the American Revolution, she accompanied her first husband, John Hays, to the Battle of Monmouth in 1778 and carried water to the artillerymen in a pitcher, earning the sobriquet ‘Molly Pitcher’. When her husband was wounded at his cannon, she is said to have taken over and continued firing.

She was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and worked as a domestic servant. After the American Revolution she returned to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and after her second husband died she was awarded a lifetime annuitiy in recognition of her valour whilst with the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment. She was said to have ‘sworn like a trooper’ and chewed tobacco.