The Battle of Monmouth - 28 June 1778
"Please lady, bring your pitcher of cool water over here.
I haven't ever seen a hotter day in all the year.
The sun is beatin' down so hard, it's pricklin' at my brain.
The weather seems ag'in us, too; if only it would rain."
"Why did them troops build ragin' fires? It don't make sense to me.
They call you Captain Molly? Molly Pitcher, it should be."
In Valley Forge, they'd spent the winter in hardship, before
they got their orders to march over to the Jersey Shore.
Now here they were at Monmouth under General Greene and Wayne,
praying for a vict'ry so their suff'rings weren't in vain.
It was in intense heat Molly knew that she must bring
some water for the soldiers; she had found a nearby spring.
The soldiers with parched throats cried, "Lady, bring us water, please.
There's not a leaf a stirrin' and no sign of any breeze!"
In Pennsylvania we wrapped rags around our frozen feet;
now, jes' a few months later, we're dyin' of the heat."
John Hays* was cannonier with his comp'ny from the start,
with his wife, Molly, stayin' close behind to do her part.
Tho' it was not the custom then for women to fight wars,
sometimes wives hung around the camp to help perform the chores.
John Hays fought the good fight, 'til by heat stroke he was felled.
Then Molly Hays moved over to the post her husband held
to load and shoot the cannon, John's duty to fulfill.
Then, a red-haired, freckled Molly nursed the wounded and the ill.
Captain Molly, Molly Pitcher - it is certain you will be
remembered with your countrymen in Jersey history.
*A library update by Samuel S. Smith, New Jersey historian
and author, recently uncovered evidence that Mary "Molly" Hays'
first husband was William Hays, not John Hays,
as was previously documented.