When I was in summer camp in the 70s, we did a camp program on the Rev War. Our group had Molly Pitcher. We made a song, to the tune of Sreve Martin’s “King Tut”.
When she was a young girl
She never thought she’d be
A Revolutionary war hero
A woman of history
Molly Pitcher
Where’d you get that pitcher?
Molly Pitcher
Can’t recall the rest…
+1
I only learned about her when I scored standardized test essays as an adult. I’m from the US Midwest.
Pepper Mill and I are both from NJ and grew up walking around the iold battlefields. There’s no way we wouldn’t know about her.
Nope. From the UK. Should I have?
Same basic level of knowledge here too, and I grew up in eastern PA.
According to Patriots in Petticoats by Patricia Edwards Clyne, two women both were known as Molly Pitcher: Margaret Cochran Corbin and Mary Ludwig Hays. The author said that both women carried water to men on the battlefield, (two different ones) and when her husband fell at the cannon, she took his place. There’s a poem, “Molly Pitcher” by Kate Brownlee Sherwood, and an anonymous verse to “Yankee Doodle” about her too: “Moll Pitcher, she stood by her gun/And rammed the charges home, sir/And there on bloody Monmouth field/A sergeant did become, sir.” (Supposedly Washington named her an honorary sergeant.)
I didn’t learn this at school, but from a library book, which is how I learned much of the history I know.
East of the Rockies.
Considering that Mary Ludwig Hayes McCauley is buried within walking distance of my house, I’d better know something about her. She and her husband were from Carlisle, Pennsylvania and resettled here after the war.
In addition to the monument at her gravesite, there is also a Molly Pitcher Highway (the stretch of US 11 between Shippensburg and Chambersburg), and the Molly Pitcher Hotel, which was once a fleabag motel that was converted to senior housing.
US Southeast, know the basics, but not much else. Pretty sure I got it from my Childcraft encyclopedia or other children’s general knowledge collection of books when I was very young. We also could likely have mentioned her in school - I got loads of Revolutionary War coverage in the primary grades.
Camp follower for Revolutionary War, carried water, helped the injured, fed soldiers, maybe kept a cannon firing during a battle - I didn’t remember that she may have been a composite, but that level of detail I may have just lost.
I can’t think of anywhere I would have heard of her since childhood, so I was actually pretty impressed that I remembered her correctly.
I’m quite familiar but I have an advantage. Around 1970 my family attended Old Tennant Church and I went to nursery school on the grounds of the church. (In confirming my memory I found a site saying that nursery school had it’s 40th anniversary in 2010 so I must have been in one of the first classes there). We were taught about Molly Pitcher and I still have a copy of the well known engraving around somewhere.
When I was in grade school (mid-60s), our school library had a series of biographies about famous Americans. All the illustrations were silhouettes. Anybody else read those? I remember books on Molly Pitcher, Dolley Madison, Clara Barton, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. I probably read a couple about boys, too.
I’m 52 in TN and remember her from history class in junior high school. I don’t think they mentioned that she might have been a prostitute.
Of course I know about Molly Pitcher, since I am quite over-educated. From very slightly east of the Rockies.
Midwest. Never heard of her. I have heard of Molly Hatchet though, and much like Molly Pitcher, Molly Hatchet flirted with disaster.
If you want to determine if it’s geographically biased, you’ll need to divide the people who don’t know who she is geographically, too. I accept that she was a real person. Although women who carried water to husbands and others in battle was not uncommon, apparently she helped with the cannon when her husband fell.
Monmouth, Revolutionary War. Molly Pitcher wasn’t her real name, though.
You beat me to it!
My friend dressed up as Molly Pitcher for Great Americans Day in 5th grade. I think she brought in a water pitcher too. Why I remember that is beyond me. From the East Coast.
Yes, but I’m from the Southern US so I can’t vote in the poll.
Yes. I grew up less than 10 miles from Monmouth Battlefield and visited it several times. She was a staple in history class just about every year.
Childhood of Famous Americans?
This is where I learned about Molly Pitcher, (Girl Patriot!). I read as many of the Childhood of Famous Americans books as I could get my hands on, although I preferred the ones about girls. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that this “biography” series was very liberally fictionalized. As a kid, I thought it completely believable that people would have recorded very detailed stories about little kids in the event they became Famous Americans later.