Margaret Cochran Corbin

Corbin Monument - 2014

    Margaret Cochran was born in Pennsylvania in 1751. After her father was killed and her mother taken captive by Indians, she and her brother were raised by an uncle.  In 1772 she married John Corbin of Virginia.  He enlisted in the Pennsylvania Artillery in 1775 to fight in the Revolutionary War and Margaret accompanied her husband as a camp follower, helping with the needs of the soldiers.
    Margaret ventured onto the battlefield at Fort Washington in November 1776, helping her husband load cannon.  After his partner, the cannoneer, was killed,  John took over, with Margaret loading the weapon for him.  When John was killed, she loaded and fired the cannon alone until she was wounded during the battle–the most grievous injury being to her left arm, which was almost severed.
    Margaret survived her injuries, but was never able to use her damaged arm.  She received recompense from Pennsylvania, but the money did not go far.  In 1779 Continental Congress awarded her a lifetime pension for her war-time injuries, unfortunately less by half of that granted to male soldiers.  She also received assistance in bathing and dressing, activities made almost impossible by the uselessness of her arm.
    In 1782 she married a second time, but her husband died the following year.  Since she had a rather abrasive personality and undesirable personal habits, the rest of Margaret’s life was very difficult.  She died in poverty in 1800 and was buried in obscurity on the banks of the Hudson River near present-day Highland Falls, New York.
    The site of her burial was discovered in 1926 and her remains, identified by the vestiges of the injuries she had sustained, were moved to the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point.  The New York State Organization, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, erected a monument with a bronze tablet at her grave next to the Old Cadet Chapel.  

 

Commemorative tablet - 2014

   
IN MEMORY OF/ MARGARET CORBIN/ HEROINE OF THE REVOLUTION/ KNOWN AS CAPTAIN MOLLY/ 1751 - 1800/ WHO AT THE BATTLE OF FORT WASHINGTON NEW YORK CITY/ WHEN HER HUSBAND JOHN CORGIN WAS KILLED, KEPT HIS FIELD PIECE/ IN ACTION UNTIL SEVERELY WOUNDED AND THEREAFTER BY ACT/OF CONGRESS RECEIVED HALF THE PAY AND ALLOWANCES OF/ A SOLDIER IN THE SERVICE/ SHE LIVED DIED AND WAS BURIED ON THE HUDSON RIVER BANK NEAR THE VILLAGE NOW CALLED HIGHLAND FALLS/ IN APPRECIATION OF HER DEEDS FOR THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY/ AND THAT HER HEROISM MAY NOT BE FORGOTTEN/ HER DUST WAS REMOVED TO THIS SPOT AND THIS MEMORIAL ERECTED BY/ THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE DAUGHTErS OF THE/ AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN NEW YORK STATE/ 1926.

     On 6 May 2014 the New York State Officers Club (DAR) held its 88th anniversary ceremony at the site.

Margaret Corbin Day, 6 May 2014

Photos by Buffalogen