t might be supposed that it would be a very strange thing to see a
woman on the battlefield firing a cannon; but even if the enemy had
watched Molly with a spyglass, they would not have noticed anything to
excite their surprise. She wore an ordinary skirt, like other women of
the time; but over this was an artilleryman's coat, and on her head was
a cocked hat with some jaunty feathers stuck in it, so that she looked
almost as much like a man as the rest of the soldiers of the battery.

During the rest of the battle, Molly bravely served her gun; and if she
did as much execution in the ranks of the Redcoats as she wanted to do,
the loss in the regiments in front of her must have been very great. Of
course, all the men in the battery knew Molly Pitcher, and they watched
her with the greatest interest and admiration. She would not allow any
one to take her place, but kept on loading and firing until the work of
the day was done. Then the officers and men crowded about her with
congratulations and praise.

The next day General Greene went to Molly,--whom he found in very much
the condition in which she had left the battlefield, stained with dirt
and powder, with her fine feathers gone and her cocked hat
dilapidated,--and conducted her, just as she was, to General
Washington. When the commander in chief heard what she had done, he gave
her warm words of praise. He determined to bestow upon her a substantial
reward; for any one who was brave enough and able enough to step in and
fill an important place, as Molly had filled her husband's place,
certainly deserved a reward. It was not according to the rules of war to
give a commission to a woman; but, as Molly had acted the part of a man,
Washington considered it right to pay her for her services as if she had
been a man. He therefore gave her the commission of a sergeant, and
recommended that her name be placed on the list of half-pay officers for
life.

Every one in the army soon came to hear of the exploit of Molly Pitcher,
and it was not long before she was called Captain Molly. The officers of
the French regiment on the American side were particularly pleased with
this act of heroism in a woman, and invited Molly to review their
troops; and as she walked down the long line of soldiers, nearly every
man put a piece of money in the cocked hat which she held in her hand.

This was the last battlefield on which Molly Pitcher appeared, but it
had not been her first. Not long