Margaret Corbin: First Woman to Fight for America

On November sixteenth, seventeen seventy-six, a massive British and Hessian force stormed Fort Washington at the northern tip of Manhattan. Among the defenders was Margaret Cochran Corbin, who had followed her husband John to war as was common for soldiers' wives, helping to cook, launder, and care for the sick.

When John was killed at his artillery piece, Margaret stepped in and kept firing the cannon until she herself was struck by grapeshot, losing the use of her left arm permanently. She became the first woman to receive a military pension from the United States government, and is remembered as one of the first women to take a soldier's place in battle during the American Revolution.

She was buried at West Point, and her remains now rest in the cemetery there beneath a monument erected in nineteen twenty-six. This marker at Fort Tryon Park stands near the ground where she fought, in the shadow of the Heather Garden overlooking the Hudson River.