Margaret Corbin

Margaret Cochran Corbin (November 12, 1751 - January 16, 1800) was a woman who fought in the American Revolutionary War. On November 16, 1776, her husband, John Corbin, was one of some 2800 American soldiers defending Fort Washington in northern Manhattan from 8,000 attacking Hessian troops under British command. Margaret, too nervous to let her husband go into battle alone, decided she wanted to go with him. Since she was a nurse, she was allowed to accompany her husband as a nurse for injured soldiers. John Corbin was on the crew of one of two cannons the defenders deployed; when he fell in action, Margaret Corbin took his place and continued to work the cannon until she too was seriously wounded. It is said that Corbin was standing next to her husband when he fell during battle. Immediately, she took his post, and because she had watched her husband, a trained artilleryman, fire the cannon so much, she was able to fire, clean and aim the cannon with great ease and speed. This impressed the other soldiers and was the beginning of her military career. She later became the first woman in U.S. history to receive a pension from Congress for military service when she could no longer work due to injury, and was enlisted into the Corps of Invalids.

Sources

• "Margaret Corbin." Wikipedia, revision of 30 December 2023. < link > Accessed 12 January 2024.
• "Margaret “Captain Molly” Cochran Corbin." Find a Grave. < link > Accessed 12 January 2024.
• https://www.dar.org/national-society/margaret-cochran-corbin
• https://www.army.mil/article/204658/west_point_hosts_monument_reded...
• https://blog.dar.org/margaret-corbins-legacy-lives
• https://blog.dar.org/new-chapter-story-revolutionary-heroine-margar...
• https://www.dar.org/national-society/margaret-cochran-corbin
• https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/margaret-corbin-revolut...
• https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/marga...

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I wrote the following based upon my research. -Elizabeth R. Laumas

Margaret Cochran was born in 1751 though little is known of her life before the Revolutionary War; one incident in her childhood is recorded.

Margaret had a very traumatic childhood, for when she was but five years old; she and her brother were away from home when her parents were attacked by a Native American tribe. Tragically, her father was murdered and her mother was taken captive and Margaret was never to see her dear mother again. Margaret’s uncle raised her from that point forth.

When Margaret was twenty-one, she married a man named John Corbin who was a farmer. When the Revolutionary War began, John enlisted and Margaret followed him as was common practice for wives of soldiers during that time. Wives of soldiers such as Margaret, spent their days cooking, cleaning and caring for the soldiers at the military camps.

In November 1776, during the Battle at Fort Washington on Manhattan Island, Margaret and her husband John were among many who fought to defend the fort against Hessian troops. Specifically, Margaret and her husband were operating a cannon. Margaret’s husband was killed during the attack and though she was injured, she immediately took his place at the cannon and continued to fight.

The fighting continued on and it was a bloody and brutal battle. After Margaret took over her husband’s cannon, she became even more wounded during the fight, in fact, she became severely wounded which lead to her being disabled for the rest of her life. The British won that battle but as was proper, they released Margaret because she was in fact, a wounded soldier and they were duty bound to let her go.

After the battle, Margaret’s fellow soldiers transported her to Fort Lee which was in New Jersey and there she was treated for her wounds. Yet, sadly, Margaret never fully recovered from the injuries she sustained during the battle at Fort Washington and she was completely disabled for the remainder of her life.

In 1779, the Executive Council of Pennsylvania granted Margaret a stipend of $30 "to relieve her present necessities.” They went on to recommend that the Board of War grant her a pension which they did, thus, she became the very first woman in the history of the United States of America to be granted a pension for her military service.

When Margaret died in the year 1800, she was buried near the Hudson River and was given a very rudimentary grave marker. In 1926, when this came to the attention of the Daughters of the American Revolution in New York, they pushed forward the process that eventually led to Margaret Corbin receiving a proper military funeral and being re-interred in the cemetery at West Point Academy.