The story of Molly Pitcher of American Revolution fame gives pride to her community of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and the United States Field Artillery that claim her as its heroine. Her battleground in New Jersey boasts of a Molly Pitcher Well and a Monument dedicated to her contributions during the Battle of Monmouth. The flesh and blood woman who fought at Monmouth, May Hays McCauly, served her country well.

Because her tale has been retold many times, details conflict in different versions. In addition, assumptions in a few historical documents have led to controversy over whether the famed Molly Pitcher's real name was Mary Hays McCauly or Mary Ludwig Hays. Though many disagree, I can only conclude from research and historical documentation that the heroine Molly Pitcher was May Hays McCauly.

The heat of June 1778 soared to 96 degrees as the guns barked at the British. The cannon barrels smoked, and men fell from heatstroke. In the heat, a woman walked back and forth from a well (or possibly a nearby creek) carrying water to the hot men and smoldering guns. Her husband manned one of the valuable cannons. They were making a difference by holding the causeway.

During one of her many returns to the line, she saw her husband fall. A Colonial officer ordered his gun moved to the rear to make room on the line; he had no one left to man it. But Molly Pitcher stepped forward to keep her husband's gun roaring - every cannon was important.

Carlisle holds the memories and remains of Molly Pitcher. The "Old Graveyard" in Carlisle is where she was laid to rest with military parade but with no stone marker for her grave. All that was left of her story lived in the memories of those who had known her and a few diaries describing the Battle of Monmouth.

One such citizen recorded some of his memories of Molly Pitcher six weeks before the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. Wesley Miles recounted his time as the charge of Molly Pitcher in an article that appeared in The Carlisle Herald.

A stonecutter from town, Peter Spahr, remembered Molly McCauly. After reading Wesley Miles' article, he pursued the idea of a gravestone suggested by Miles. The community raised $100 to mark her grave, and Spahr cut the stone to mark the spot. He carved:

The people of Carlisle returned to the grave of Molly McCauly to erect yet another marker. On 28 June 1916, 138 years after the Battle of Monmouth, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania unveiled a monument to stand near Molly McCauly's grave.

A local legend states, "If a little girl stands in front of Molly's buxom statue…looks up into her face, makes a wish, closes her eyes then walks around the statue three times…and looks up at Molly's face again, the wish will come true." The Patriotic Order of the Sons of America added a cannon, flagstaff and bronze relief to depict the heroic deeds of Molly Pitcher.

During the aftermath of the Battle of Monmouth, the tired and hot men retold the story many times - the story about acts of bravery by one of the gunner's wives. Because the events happened during the confusion of battle, many details went unnoticed by different witnesses. After the day's skirmish, the story's life was dependent on its being retold, and each witness added to or subtracted from the details. Many conflicts with a few consistencies put the Molly Pitcher tale into the category of legend and folklore.

Mr. Frederick Hays, Molly's great-grandson, agreed to allow Mrs. Patton to dig up Molly's grave. He and Mars Patton's attorney stood near as the remains of an adult woman were uncovered at the spot marked as the grave of Molly McCauly. Molly Pitcher had been flesh and blood.

While preparing the bicentennial celebrations at Monmouth, Samuel Steele Smith searched for documented information about Molly Pitcher. Digging into the local archives of Carlisle, Smith found evidence that Molly's husband's last name was Hays but that his first wasn't John.

Initially, John was the only Hays identified as present at the Battle. The historians inferred that Casper had a second name, John. From this came the assumption that Molly Hays' full name was Molly Ludwig (or Ludwick) Hays.

Mary Hays remarried John McCauly. Spelling variations of McCauly show that her second husband, John, couldn't write either. The records show that McCauly was assessed for the holdings of the widow of William Hays. (But no marriage certificate has been found for William Hays and Mary.)

Research initially had overlooked the Pennsylvania unit at the Battle because of its name change, and prior to their discovering it, they only had been able to determine one Hays (John, and infantryman) had fought at the Battle. Some erroneously inferred that Casper Hays to whom Mary Ludwig was married also carried the name John. But finding William in the Pennsylvania unit introduced a second Hays at the Battle of Monmouth - an artillery gunner.

Based on whether Molly was Mary Ludwig Hays or Mary Hays McCauly, the controversy extends to whether she was of German or Irish descent.

The first try to connect Mary Hays to the Mary Ludwig found on the marriage certificate was William Stryker, the author of The Battle of Monmouth. Stryker claimed he even knew the name of her father, "John George Ludwig, who came to this country with the Palatinates."

Many secondary sources on Molly Pitcher relied on Stryker's use of the marriage certificate. Mary Ludwig Hays' parentage has been well-researched, whoever she was.

Irish. The majority of Carlisle was populated by Irish and Scottish immigrants during the Revolutionary days, Captain John B Landis wrote "Investigation into the American Tradition of a Woman Known as Molly Pitcher" in 1905, which appeared in the Journal of American History in 1911. Landis wrote, "The real Molly, then, was a young woman of German parentage, living among the Scotch-Irish…." But locals described Molly Pitcher as an Irish woman. The people of Carlisle who knew Molly didn't use the word German to describe her; "Irish" appeared in every local account where the nationality was mentioned.

Molly's former charge The Carlisle Herald, described Molly and used the word Irish three times in his article: "…and aged Irish woman…. The Irish woman was employed by my father…." And "The remains of this Irish woman rest…."

Buxom. The physical descriptions were similar. Harriet Foukle remembered, "She was homely in appearance…average height, muscular, strong and heavy-set." Wesley Miles described her as "…an aged Irish woman, past sixty, healthy, active and strong, fleshy and short of stature…." Fairfax Downey stated that Molly was a "plain, stocky, ruddy girl, with a tuft of hair on her nose." In his poem Downey describes her:

Common Language. Molly's choice of coarse language often appeared in descriptions of her character. Stryker, in an explanatory note, quoted miss Ege, who knew Molly: "Molly was a rough, common woman who swore like a trooper."

The Carlisle Historical Society published an article, "Goodbye Molly Pitcher" in the Cumberland County History, Summer, 1989. The author corrected many of the misconceptions about the Molly Pitcher story. The article is compiled from the notes of D.W. Thompson with additions by Merri Lou Schaumann, a Pennsylvania genealogist. The original work was published around 1976.

Carlisle benefits from the Molly Pitcher story. The town boasts of "Molly Pitcher Clubs." If her deeds of bravery and valor cause these groups to use her as a model, then she deserves to have her life properly documented.

This article originally appeared in the August 1990 Edition of the Field Artillery Magazine.