Women of the Continental Army

Many women took part in the Revolutionary War. Most followed their husbands into the army for one of two reasons: the British had occupied or destroyed their home areas, or they could not support themselves and their families with their husbands gone. That was probably true of many families of the New York soldiers at Fort Schuyler (Fort Stanwix), many of whom came from New York City and the lower Hudson Valley, occupied or ruined in the war. There was little or no room for families inside the fort; regimental orderly books suggest they mostly lived in tents or huts in the ditch outside.

Officers' families

At first officers' wives were mostly visitors: their families could support them without entering army life. But as the war went on and officers spent their fortunes and went unpaid, those who stayed in the service had to bring their families with them. Captain Copp of the 1st New York Regiment had his wife at the fort in 1779; Captain Andrew Moody, commanding the artillery there in 1780–81, had his wife and daughter. Only absolute necessity, it seems, would have brought women and children to so desolate, isolated and dangerous a place.

Image from about 1790. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Working for rations

Women with the army had to work to stay. They received a ration — half a pound of meat and half a pound of bread or flour — and were supposed to be paid, but since the soldiers were rarely paid properly, the women probably fared no better. They followed many of the same orders and routines as the soldiers, could be flogged with the cat-o'-nine-tails for prostitution or selling goods without a licence, and with few exceptions marched with the troops carrying everything they owned.

Their usual work:

• Washing and mending the soldiers' clothes — at the fort, about one woman for every 50 soldiers.
• Nursing in the hospitals — though not as we think of it: since it was considered indecent for a woman to see a man naked in public, nursing meant emptying chamber pots and changing bedding and blankets.
• Cooking for their own families, and only rarely for other soldiers.

One such occasion came at Yorktown in 1781. Sarah Osborn, wife of a soldier in the 1st New York Regiment, and other women cooked for men too busy digging trenches day and night to cook for themselves. In her pension deposition she said her husband "was there throwing up entrenchments and deponent cooked and carried in beef, and bread, and coffee (in a gallon pot) to the soldiers in the entrenchment." On one trip she met General Washington, who asked if she "was not afraid of the cannonballs." She replied: "No, the bullets would not cheat the gallows," and "It would not do for the men to fight and starve too."

"Molly Pitcher"

Women whose husbands or fathers served on cannon crews hauled water to cool and clean the barrels and for the crews to drink. Because they often carried it in pitchers, they were sometimes nicknamed "Molly Pitcher." The single "Molly Pitcher" of legend is less remarkable than the real women behind it. Two of them, Margaret Corbin and Mary Ludwig Hays, even served on cannon crews after their husbands were killed or wounded. Corbin was wounded, received a soldier's pension, and is buried at West Point, New York.

"Molly Pitcher" at the cannon. Painting by C. Y. Turner.

Under siege at Fort Schuyler

There is no record of women fighting at Fort Stanwix (Schuyler), but women were there under fire. Before the British siege of 1777, Colonel Gansevoort ordered all women with children sent down to German Flatts (today's Herkimer). Period journals show at least two women stayed. One, Nancy McCarty, wife of Dennis McCarty, was pregnant, and the other probably stayed to help her — midwives, not doctors, delivered babies then. Both women were wounded during the siege, which suggests they were also working for the garrison. Both survived, and Mrs. McCarty gave birth to a healthy girl as the siege ended. Research in the early 1900s suggested there may have been as many as eight women in the garrison.

Without these largely hidden women, much of the Continental Army's effort might have failed for lack of support. So when you visit a Revolutionary War site, take a moment to "remember the ladies."

Sources

• National Park Service, Fort Stanwix National Monument, Women of the Army. A modern sketch credited to a named artist is left out.