A Woman of the Revolution

Stroll through Upper Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park and you’ll eventually find a plaque dedicated to ‘the first woman to take a soldier’s part in the War for Liberty.’  

Her name was Margaret Cochran Corbin, the first woman to fight in the American Revolutionary War.

She was born on November 12, 1751 to immigrant parents in Franklin County in Western Pennsylvania on the edge of the American frontier. Worried for their safety her parents sent her and brother to live with an uncle in town. She was soon orphaned at the age five when her father was killed and her mother taken captive during an ‘Indian raid’ on her former home.

She married John Corbin, a Virginia farmer, in 1772 when she was 21. Three years after their marriage John joined the Pennsylvania militia as an artilleryman. She followed him, as many wives did, becoming a ‘camp follower.’ These women earned their keep by sewing,  cooking and washing for the soldiers, and Margaret also helped take care of the sick and wounded.

Margaret picked up more skills than nursing; accompanying her husband as he drilled and practiced with his squad, she learned how to load, fire and clean their weaponry. 

They were stationed in Fort Washington on Manhattan Island, N.Y., on November 16, 1776, when the fort was attacked by British and Hessian troops. During the battle, she was by his side helping load his cannon and assisting the wounded around them.

When John was struck and killed, Margaret jumped up and took his place on the line, continuing to fire the cannon against the British. The soldiers by her side would later commend “Captain Molly’s” steady aim and sure-shot. She stayed at her cannon until she, too, was wounded, taking a shot which nearly severed her left arm and severely wounded her jaw and left chest.

The British won the battle and Margaret was made a prisoner of war. British doctors saved her life and she was soon released and assigned to the Corps of Invalids at West Point, a regiment made up of severely injured troops who could no longer serve in the field.

Unable to use her left arm for the rest of her life, she cared for the other wounded until she was discharged in 1783. 

In the summer of 1779 the officers of ‘her’ regiment petitioned Congress to recognize her service, detailing her actions that day. In a Congressional Resolution dated July 6, 1779 it was resolved that Margaret would receive compensation equal to the men for her brave service, making her the first woman to be receive a lifelong pension from the United States for her military service. Congress also gave her a suit of clothes to replace the ones ruined at the battle.

Margaret Corbin never fully recovered from her service and she died young, just 48, and was buried with little fanfare in a small cemetery on the Hudson River.  In 1926, her remains were moved to West Point and buried with full military honors.