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Captain Molly

One of the many tasks of the War Department in the 1780s and 90s was the administration of wounded or invalid veterans of the Revolutionary War. In general, all that had to be done was keeping track of the residence of a veteran and paying pensions. William Price, Deputy Commissary of Military Stores and officer in charge at West Point from 1785 to 1786, had more to deal with when it came to one particular pensioner: Captain Molly.

Her name was actually Margaret Corbin, although Price only ever refers to her as Captain Molly. During the Battle of Fort Washington in 1776, she took her husband’s place at an artillery piece when he was killed in battle (if this sounds familiar, it’s because Molly Pitcher, aka Mary Hays, did the same when her husband was wounded). As a result, Margaret lost the use of one arm and was, in July 1779, granted a life pension of half pay for a soldier. In addition, the military took on the responsibility of finding her room and board, which was not an easy task.

As Price wrote Henry Knox in January 1786, Captain Molly was “such an Offensive Person that People are unwilling to take her in charge.” Her current landlady was only willing to keep her until the first of March, and Price was having a very hard time finding someone willing to take on the task of living with and caring for cantankerous Captain Molly. By May, he had found a new landlady, but moved Captain Molly in October because he felt that she was “not so well treated as she ought to be”. Despite her unpleasant personality, Price felt that she deserved to be well treated.

Margaret Corbin died in 1800 and is buried at West Point.