Today in History

I every so often read about "today in history" to see if there is anything I should not miss! There often is a lot I SHOULD miss. I do not care when the first Harry Potter movie opened or when the Sound of Music hit Broadway, but I do get a kick out of ture American history.


Today I read about a woman in the American Revolution, she is to beleived the first woman in the Conntinetal Army and she was injured this date back in 1776. I guess I never really thought about woman as soldiers back then.

On this day in 1776, Hessian Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen and a force of 3,000 Hessian mercenaries and 5,000 Redcoats lay siege to Fort Washington at the northern end and highest point of Manhattan Island.

Throughout the morning, Knyphausen met stiff resistance from the Patriot riflemen inside the fort, but by afternoon, the Patriots were overwhelmed, and the garrison commander, Colonel Robert Magaw, surrendered. Nearly 3,000 Patriots were taken prisoner, and valuable ammunition and supplies were lost to the Hessians. The prisoners faced a particularly grim fate: Many later died from deprivation and disease aboard British prison ships anchored in New York Harbor.

Among the 53 dead and 96 wounded Patriots were John and Margaret Corbin of Virginia. When John died in action, his wife Margaret took over his cannon, cleaning, loading and firing the gun until she too was severely wounded. The first woman known to have fought for the Continental Army, Margaret survived, but lost the use of her left arm.


But her battle does not end here. Horribly wounded and disfigured by grapeshot and musket balls, Margaret is taken prisoner, paroled, and transported to a Pennsylvanian hospital. When the Continental Congress formed the Invalid Regiment in June 20, 1777, Margaret Corbin was enrolled as one of the disabled soldiers and moved with it to West Point.

In June 28, 1779, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania awarded Mrs. Corbin $30 and suggested she receive a pension. She became the first woman in the United States to receive a pension from Congress. A year later, Mrs. Corbin was given this pension (one-half soldier’s pay) and a set of clothes.

Imagine the societal battles Mrs. Corbin had to face during that time. Her left arm was unusable, her face disfigured, and she was a war widow. Accounts state that the Philadelphia Society for Women had planned to erect a memorial in her honor; until they met her and saw face-to-face the reality of what impoverishment does to soldiers and their widows. She still lived a soldier’s life style – she drank and smoked and lacked a genteel way of speech. Despite this, Margaret remarried in 1782.

But her battle does not end there. The Invalid Regiment was disbanded and her second husband, also a disabled veteran, died within the year. She was moved from West Point to Buttermilk Falls and placed in the care of a Mrs. Randall.

Again Margaret Corbin seems to fade from history’s gaze until her death at age 48, in 1800. But her battle does not end there. In 1926, the Daughters of the American Revolution, in an effort to recognize Margaret Cochran Corbin’s pivotal role in US History, exhumed her body and had it re-interred behind the Old Cadet Chapel at West Point with full military honors.