Margaret Cochran Corbin - First female Revolutionary War heroine.

Margaret Cochran Corbin (Captain Molly) 1751 - 1800

Margaret Corbin was the first woman to fight in the American Revolutionary War. On November 16, 1776 she and her husband, John Corbin, both from Philadelphia, along with some 600 American soldiers, were defending Fort Washington in northern Manhattan from 4,000 attacking Hessian troops under British command. John and Margaret crewed one of two cannons the defenders possessed. After her husband was killed, Margaret took over firing his cannon until she was seriously wounded. Three years later, she became the first woman in the United States to receive a pension from Congress.

In 1751, Margaret Corbin was not born into a life of luxury and ease, but into a hardy Scotch-Irish (Ulster-Scots) family on the frontier in what was then, Cumberland County. In June of 1756, during the 'French & Indian War' her father Robert Cochran was killed and scalped during the 'Ft. Bigham Massacre' in the Tuscarora Valley, while her mother and her brother, were also taken captive by the Indians during the same attack and never returned. Orphaned at five years old, Margaret and another brother, John, were raised by a maternal uncle. 

Fort Bigham was located between forts Granville & Patterson

Margaret grew up to be strong and tall, she was five feet, eight inches in height. She met a Virginian farmer named John Corbin, and in 1772 they got married. They lived in Franklin County.

 Four years later, during the outbreak of the Revolutionary War John Corbin joined a unit in the army; the Pennsylvania Artillery, Continental Line. Margaret went too. She became a camp follower. Camp followers were women, men, and children who followed after a group of soldiers. They helped by carrying bundles, cooking for the soldiers, mending and washing their clothes, and caring for the sick and wounded. When there was a battle most camp followers stayed in the camp. Margaret went to the battlefield to help her husband.  

Fort Washington, New York

On November 16, 1776 John’s division was stationed at Fort Washington, New York. This was an important fort on Manhattan Island. John was stationed at a pair of cannons on Forest Hill. The fort was attacked by Hessian troops (German auxiliaries) under British command. When John Corbin was hit and killed, Margaret took his place at the cannon, she continued loading and firing the cannon by herself until finally she was severely wounded by grapeshot which tore apart her shoulder, mangled her chest and lacerated her jaw. The fort was eventually captured by the British, the wounded American soldiers were later paroled.

Margaret Corbin gravely wounded at the Battle of Washington Fort

'Captain Molly', as she became known, never fully recovered from her wounds. She was left disfigured and without use of her left arm for the rest of her life.  In 1779, the Continental Congress granted her a pension ("half the pay and allowances of a soldier in service") due to her distinguished bravery. She continued to be included on regimental muster lists until the end of the war in 1783. Margaret Cochran Corbin died near West Point, New York prior to her 50th birthday. 

Margaret's burial & memorial site at West Point

In 1926, the Daughters of the American Revolution had her remains moved from an obscure grave and re-interred with full military honours at West Point military academy where they also erected a monument to her. She was the only Revolutionary War veteran honored in this way.  Near the place of the battle, in Fort Tryon Park in New York City, a bronze plaque commemorates Margaret Corbin "the first American woman to take a soldier's part in the War for Liberty". 

James Smith - The First American Rebel

Colonel James Smith (1737 -1813)

Eight years before the Boston Tea Party and ten years before Lexington and Concord, many believe the first shots in the American Revolution were fired in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1765. Known as the Smith Rebellion or the Black Boy's Rebellion, this crucial turning point in American history set the stage for modern American politics.

The Smith family were Scots-Irish Presbyterians and originally from the Isle of Skye in Scotland.  They moved to the north of Ireland and a few generations later emigrated to Pennsylvania from southern Ulster around 1720.  James Smith’s family were early settlers in Chester County, Pennsylvania. In 1755, during the French & Indian War, 18 year old James was hired to help cut a wagon road from Fort Loudon, Pennsylvania to join with the British General Braddock’s Road to Fort Duquesne (later Fort Pitt).  He was attacked and made captive by a war party of Indians, forced to run the brutal Indian gauntlet, given a complete physical transformation and adopted by the Caughnawaga Mohawk tribe.  He lived with them as an Indian for the next five years.  He learned their language as well as other Indian languages, acquired their skills of hunting, fishing and survival.  He read his Bible and kept a journal.  The detailed account he published in 1799 is one of amazing adaptability to and understanding of the ways of the Indian. He escaped near Detroit and walked back to his home in Franklin County, PA.

By 1765 this western part of Pennsylvania was often under attack by Indians. The Scots-Irish whom took the brunt on the frontier became aware that illegal trade goods, such as tomahawks, scalping knives, and gun powder, were being transported to Fort Pitt by a British official to rearm the Indians. James Smith's community believed they had a right to stop it.

Smith during the Black Boys Rebellion

Pocket guide issued to US troops in Northern Ireland during WWII

During WWII over 120,000 American troops were stationed in Northern Ireland, with over 300,000 passing through during the course of the war. During these years one in every ten people in NI was an American serviceman!
Every US soldier was issued with a pocket guidebook explaining the people, culture & history of Northern Ireland., and how a G.I. should conduct himself when interacting with locals. You can read this fascinating guidebook below.....

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A POCKET GUIDE TO NORTHERN IRELAND

prepared by

SPECIAL SERVICE DIVISION, SERVICES OF SUPPLY UNITED STATES ARMY

WASHINGTON, D. C.

CONTENTS

• There Are Two Irelands
• The Country
• Government
• Eire Border Problems
• The People—Their Customs and Manners .
• About Arguments
• Difference in Language
• The Girls
• Ulster at War
• Pay-Day Blues
• Conclusion
• Money, Weights, and Measures

THERE ARE TWO IRELANDS

John Dunlop, the printer of our Declaration of 
Independence was born in that little town of Strabane

YOU are going away from home on an important mission—to meet Hitler and beat him on his own ground. For the time being you will be the guest of Northern Ireland. The purpose of this guide is to get you acquainted with the Irish, their country, and their ways.
You will start out with good prospects. The Irish like Americans. Virtually every Irishman has’ friends or rela­tives in the United States; he is predisposed in your favor and anxious to hear what you have to say. This, however, puts you under a definite obligation: you will be expected to live up to the Irishman’s high opinion of Americans. That’s a real responsibility.
The people of Northern Ireland are not only friends, but Allies. They are fighting by the side of England, the United States, the rest of the United Nations. Thousands of Irishmen are hefting steel in the hot spots of the war, doing their share and more. It is common decency to treat your friends well; it is a military necessity to treat your allies well.

Every American thinks he knows something about Ire­land. But which Ireland? There are two Irelands. The shamrock, St. Patrick’s Day, the wearing of the green— these belong to Southern Ireland, now called Eire (Air-a). Eire is neutral in the war. Northern Ireland treasures its governmental union with England above all things. There are historic reasons for these attitudes.
Ireland has sent many gifted and valuable citizens to the United States. Irishmen from North and South, Prot­estant and Catholic, began to emigrate to America in early colonial days. Nine generals in the American Revolution were of Irish birth. Four signers of the Declaration of Independence were born in Ireland and four were of Irish descent. Fourteen Presidents of the United States have carried the blood of Ireland in their veins.
There are many of you soldiers who are of Irish descent. Some of you, Protestants or Catholics, may know at first hand or second hand about the religious and political differences between Northern and Southern Ireland. Per­haps they seem foolish to you. We Americans don’t worry about which side our grandfathers fought on in the Civil War, because it doesn’t matter now. But these things still matter in Ireland and it is only sensible to be forewarned.
There are two excellent rules of conduct for the Amer­ican abroad. They are good rules anywhere but they are particularly important in Ireland:

(1) Don’t argue religion.
(2) Don’t argue politics.