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Homework Help: Social Studies: People: Mary Ludwig Hays Diary Entry
by Elizabeth Mycaster.
June 27, 1778
Dear Diary,
Today was the most terrifying day of my life! Like always, the few other
women who had followed their husbands to war and I marched off to battle
beside our husbands. We marched off to Monmouth where we fought the
battle. It was the hottest day that I have ever experienced and the sun
was shining brighter than I have ever seen it. My job was the hardest
today because the soldiers needed the water in the horrible heat. They
call me and the other women ?Molly Pitcher? because we carry pitchers full
of water from nearby streams. I was carrying men over my shoulder who had
fallen down from the heat. I had to get them out of the rush of the
British fire and carry them to safety. Right after I had carried a man to
the shade of a tree, I went to get some more water for the soldiers when I
saw my husband fall down from a heat stroke.
I was so shocked that I didn't know what to do! I was terrified and
worried for my husband and that he might be injured. So many people had
either been injured or fallen down from dehydration that when my husband
fell down, the army was about to retreat. I didn't want to give up that
easy because it would be an easily won battle for the British. Without
hesitating to think, I ran over to the cannon that my husband had been
firing to take his place. The British kept firing as hard as ever and a
bullet shot right through my legs! I only looked down long enough to see
that it had only left a little tear in my dress.
When I got to the cannon, I fired it one shot after another. It was
terrifying because I had not expected to fight. I was only expecting to
help the soldiers. One of the other women got my husband out of the way so
he was not too badly hurt. Thanks to my patriotic act, we won the Battle
of Monmouth! Can you believe that? Because of me we won!
To make my day better than it already was, when General George Washington
found out about my patriotic act that had helped win the battle for us, he
named me a noncommissioned officer! Everyone knows about how I took my
husband's place in the battle so now they call me "Sergeant Molly"!
Well, that was my terrifying but fabulous day!
Sincerely,
Mary Ludwig Hays
"Molly Pitcher"
Homework Help: Social Studies: People
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