Margaret Corbin

Common card · No. 442690

Margaret Cochran Corbin (November 12, 1751 – January 16, 1800) was an American woman who fought in the Revolutionary War. She was born in western Pennsylvania to immigrant parents. When she was five years old, Native Americans killed her father and took her mother captive, and she and her brother were raised by their maternal uncle. In 1772 she married John Corbin. When he enlisted in a Pennsylvania artillery regiment in 1775, she joined him as a camp follower, assisting in duties such as sewing, cooking, and bringing supplies to the cannon crews. At the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776, John was killed by British artillery fire. Corbin took his place at the cannon and kept it firing until she was hit three times, shortly before the fort fell. Gravely wounded, Corbin was treated by British doctors and returned to the American side, but she never regained the use of her left arm. She became the first American woman to receive a military pension in 1779 and later enrolled in...

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