Margaret Cochran Corbin was born in 1751 on the frontier of western Pennsylvania. Her father, Robert Cochran, was an Irish immigrant – he was killed and her mother, Sarah, was kidnapped in an Indian raid when Margaret was just five years old. She and her brother went to live with an uncle, and at the age of 21, Margaret married John Corbin, a local farmer.
When the Revolution began, John enlisted in the Pennsylvania Artillery. Margaret accompanied him to the war, joining other women who did domestic duties and cared for wounded soldiers. Margaret had a strong personality that earned her the nickname “Captain Molly” among her peers.
John and Margaret were at Fort Washington, NY, on 16 November 1776, when the British attacked. John Corbin was working a cannon and was killed. Margaret quickly took his place, loading and firing the cannon, until she was wounded, then captured by the British, and was taken to Philadelphia. Margaret never fully recovered from her wounds.
In 1779 she became the first woman to receive a U.S. military pension – getting half a soldier’s monthly pay and a clothing allowance and a rum ration. After the way, she helped with cooking and laundry at the Corps of Invalids for wounded soldiers at West Point in 1781.
Mike McCormick writes in an article on the the AOH website::
In Major Boynton’s History of West Point, she is described as ‘usually appearing with an artilleryman’s coat over her skit. She was brusque, coarse, red-haired, wholly wanting in feminine charms and one of her biographers recorded that she made use of swear words!’ She died in Highland Falls, NY in January 1800. In an age of Victorian values the smokin’, drinkin’ and cussin’ heroine of the Revolution was not the image of an American lady held by the elite, so she was buried without ceremony.
Today, three memorials celebrate her memory. In Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan at the Fort Washington battle site, a tablet, erected in 1909, remembers her as “the first woman to take a soldier’s part in the War for Liberty“; the park entrance is Margaret Corbin Circle, and a large mural depicting the battle is in the lobby of nearby 720 Fort Washington Avenue. In 1926, the Golden Anniversary of the Revolution prompted a search for her grave and the body was re-buried with full military honors in West Point and a Margaret Corbin Memorial erected. She is the only Revolutionary War veteran so honored.
Read more about Margaret Cochran on AOH.com:
Irish American Heritage Month: Margaret Corbin, “Captain Molly”
IrishAmerica250.org 