that Betty Zane had saved the fort. The next morning at daybreak Colonel
McCulloch marched with a small force from Short Creek to the relief of the gar-
rison and completed the work of its salvation begun by Betty Zane.
MOLLY PITCHER.
Among the true stories of the history of the American nation in the making none touches the blood with a warmer thrill of admiration than that of brave Molly Pitcher, whose heroism on Monmouth field has found lasting record in the pages of American history.
Some time during the middle of the eighteenth century there came to America from Germany an immigrant by the name of John Gurex Ludwig, who settled in the colony of Pennsylvania. Here in the town of Carlisle was born to the wife of John Gurex Ludwig, October 13, 1744, a little daughter, whom he called Mary. The Ludwigs being poor, Mary became a servant girl in the family of Doctor William Irvine, a gentleman living in Carolina. It was while employed in Doctor Irvine's household, no doubt, that "Molly," as she was familiarly known, first learned to love the country of her birth, and there she developed that patriotism and loyalty that was one day to make the humble servant girl a soldier and heroine.
In July, of the year 1769, Molly left the roof of her master, and became the wife of a barber named John Hays. Whether or not Molly filled her husband with warlike ambition is an open question, but, at any rate, Hays was commissioned gunner in Proctor's first Pennsylvania Artillery on the fourteenth day of December, 1775, "changing the peaceful occupation of cutting of hair with shears to the more exciting one of cutting off heads with cannon balls." With a loyalty born of devotion and unselfishness, Molly determined to follow her husband, so when Gunner Hays marched off with Proctor's first, Molly marched with him.
