James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
June 28Mollie Pitcher
By Kate Brownlee Sherwood (18411914)
’T
For Lee was beating a wild retreat;
The British were riding the Yankees down,
And panic was pressing on flying feet.
Washington rode with his sword swung high,
Mighty as he of the Trojan plain
Fired by a courage from the sky.
And a bombardier made swift reply.
Wheeling his cannon into the tide;
He fell ’neath the shot of a foeman nigh.
Fired as she saw her husband do.
Telling the king in his stubborn pride
Women like men to their homes are true.
Up to the gun that a woman manned.
“Mollie Pitcher, you save the day,”
He said, as he gave her a hero’s hand.
While her war-brown face was wet with tears—
A woman has ever a woman’s ways,
And the army was wild with cheers.