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Molly Pitcher

The Battle of Monmouth

On June 18, 1778, the last of 10,000 British troops led by General Henry Clinton left Philadelphia and began marching toward New York City. The withdrawal was one of the first fruits of the colonists’ alliance with France, as Clinton had feared a blockade by the French Navy.

It’s the sort of thing that couldn’t happen now, but in the Revolution Molly Corbin and Molly Pitcher were first-rate cannoneers

On various occasions the American muse has sung of arms and the woman: a musketeer, a marine in the fighting tops of the Constitution, a color bearer, a cavalrywoman, even a brigade commander ex officio.

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