Margaret Corbin's Legacy Lives On

NOTE: Please reference President General Ann Dillon’s message “A New Chapter in the Story of Revolutionary Heroine Margaret Corbin”

One Revolutionary War patriot who holds a special place in many DAR members’ hearts is Margaret Cochran Corbin – nicknamed by her contemporaries and known in perpetuity as “Captain Molly.” DAR highlights her enduring legacy every year during Continental Congress when presenting the Margaret Cochran Corbin Award to a distinguished woman in military service. The award honors both historic efforts of this female patriot and a contemporary woman whose own military service carries on the selfless spirit of Margaret Corbin.

Margaret Corbin’s husband served as an artilleryman during the Revolutionary War and she accompanied his regiment as a camp follower. During the Battle of Fort Washington in November 1776, her husband was mortally wounded and she took his place on the firing line and worked the artillery with the other soldiers. A Congressional resolution dated 6 July 1779 suggests that Margaret saw significant action at the battle as a combatant. She sustained debilitating wounds to her shoulder and breast and was captured by the British following the battle. Paroled shortly after her capture, she was assigned to the Corps of Invalids at West Point. Her wounds were so severe that she likely lost use of her arm and remained disabled and in pain for the rest of her life. 

Immediately after this ceremony, the New York State Officers Club was formed, in part, to perpetuate the legacy and selfless service of Margaret Corbin with a memorial service and wreath-laying ceremony at the site every May. The Margaret Corbin Monument placed by the DAR in 1926 remains the only monument to a woman veteran on the grounds of West Point.

In 1976, women joined the Corps of Cadets, establishing the first class of women at the United States Military Academy. That same year, West Point formed the Margaret Corbin Forum to educate the Corps on women’s roles in the military and to resolve issues integrating women into the Academy. Today, the Forum’s Motto is “Educate. Empower. Inspire.” and the New York State Officers Club is proud to host many of those women cadets at the West Point ceremony in May every year.

I personally first learned about Margaret Corbin as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy when I joined the Margaret Corbin Forum. Today, all cadets are taught about Margaret Corbin when taking part in the “Inspiration to Serve” tour of the West Point Cemetery. Now that I have learned so much more about her story through my DAR membership, it makes me so proud to know that if it were not for the Daughters of the American Revolution, Margaret Corbin’s legacy might not be taught and celebrated at West Point.

The Army National Military Cemeteries team answered our many questions during the meeting. We learned that the skeletal remains were recovered from within the casket in which they had been reinterred 90 years prior and that there was a scan of the entire surrounding area where no other skeletal remains were found. They also explained that the evidence of a shoulder wound that had been identified during the 1926 exhumation was determined to actually have been post-mortem damage to the bones from the original casket deteriorating and caving in on the bones. In discussing how the West Point Surgeon could have been mistaken in identifying the bones in 1926, they explained that very few people at that time had the training to accurately identify skeletal remains. Additionally, the many decades of advances in technology now provide much more information than could have been extracted in 1926.

The U.S. Army’s complete forensic report related to the archaeological recovery around the Margaret Corbin Monument will be available on the website of the U.S. Military Academy at www.usma.edu/news. 

We are grateful that, at the request of Ms. Durham-Aguilera, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will join with the Army National Military Cemeteries and U.S. Military Academy to plan a re-dedication ceremony in conjunction with our annual DAR wreath-laying ceremony which will take place May 1, 2018, to honor the valor and celebrate the legacy of Margaret Corbin.

These new revelations about the remains once thought to be Margaret Corbin’s now raise the question: Where’s Margaret? The original burial site identified in 1926 at the Cragston estate in Highland Falls was believed to have had a few other graves in the same area. Could Margaret’s remains have actually been mere feet away from the burial plot that was exhumed? Could advances in anthropological forensic technology over the past century aid in discovery of Margaret’s true remains? Or does the more than 200 years since her burial present insurmountable challenges to ever being able to find her remains? DAR will certainly continue to look into these questions and seek guidance from experts in this fascinating story. 

This new mystery in the story of the final resting place of Margaret Corbin may never be completely solved, but, regardless, the DAR will continue to spread awareness and celebrate the legacy of this Revolutionary heroine.