05/25/2026
This Memorial Day we honor all who served, particularly the histories of the women who paid the ultimate price, but who have far too often disappeared from history.
Women have served in the military since the founding of the Republic. Many stories stand out. Molly Pitcher, possibly an amalgamation of more than one woman seen on the battlefield, served with the Continental Army during the Revolution. At the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, Molly Hays brought water in a “pitcher” to soldiers in the field. When her husband was carried off the battlefield, Mary took his place at the cannon and continued to “swab and load” the cannon using her husband’s ramrod. After the battle, General Washington asked about the woman whom he had seen loading a cannon on the battlefield. In commemoration of her courage, he issued Mary Hays a warrant as a non-commissioned officer.
Since the Spanish-American War, women have volunteered and died in active duty while battling diseases and treating wounded soldiers. Typhoid was the deadliest killer during the Spanish-American War, accounting for the vast majority of U.S. casualties. Of the more than 1,500 female Army contract nurses who served, 21 died in the line of duty, with most succumbing to typhoid contracted while caring for infected soldiers.
Because the Daughters of the American Revolution initially refused to accept Black volunteers, the Surgeon General appointed Namahyoke Curtis, a prominent Native and Black American nurse in Washington, D.C., to recruit Black nurses. She brought 32 women to care for patients during the outbreaks in Santiago, Cuba. Two of these women died of typhoid fever in the line of duty.
Over 3 million women have served in the military since the American Revolution, including women like Deborah Samson. In 1782, as the Revolutionary War raged on, Sampson disguised herself as a man named Robert Shurtleff and joined the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment. She was the only woman to earn a full military pension for participation in the Revolutionary army.
