Across that bullet-swept ground, a striped skirt fluttered. Mary Hays McCauly was earning her nickname "Molly Pitcher" by bringing pitcher after pitcher of cool spring water to the exhausted and thirsty men. She also tended to the wounded and once, heaving a crippled Continental soldier up on her strong young back, carried him out of reach of hard-charging Britishers. On her next trip with water, she found her artilleryman husband back with the guns again, replacing a casualty. While she watched, Hays fell wounded. The piece, its crew too depleted to serve it, was about to be withdrawn. Without hesitation, Molly stepped forward and took the rammer staff from her fallen husband’s hands. For the second time on an American battlefield, a woman manned a gun. (The first was Margaret Corbin during the defense of Fort Washington in 1776.) Resolutely, she stayed at her post in the face of heavy enemy fire, ably acting as a matross (gunner).
For her heroic role, General Washington himself issued her a warrant as a noncommissioned officer. Thereafter, she was widely hailed as "Sergeant Molly." A flagstaff and cannon stand at her gravesite at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A sculpture on the battle monument commemorates her courageous deed.
I believe there is a place for women if they are raised to understand their patriotic duty and are tough enough. My own grandmother was born in Indian Territory Oklahoma and was as tough as "Sooners" had to be back then.
You said — “I believe there is a place for women if they are raised to understand their patriotic duty and are tough enough.”
Ummmm..., how come I have Paris Hilton as an image in my mind? It just won’t go away. It must be because of those “Girls Gone Wild” videos.... (are those “American girls”?)
And then — “My own grandmother was born in Indian Territory Oklahoma and was as tough as “Sooners” had to be back then.”
Ahhh..., my dad was born in Indian Territory, too, but slightly after Oklahoma became a state. I’m an Okie, too, from Tulsa. I’m headed up the ole Indian Nation Turnpike pretty soon, hopefully dodging those tornadoes as I go up... :-)