Margaret Cochran Corbin | 1751–1800
New York, New York County, New York
Marker Inscription
During the British-Hessian attack on Fort Washington 16 November 1776 Margaret Corbin was wounded when she filled the post of her husband John who was killed while loading artillery. The first woman to fight as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, she is …… transcription continues on the marker
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The Story
During the British and Hessian assault on Fort Washington in November 1776, Margaret Cochran Corbin stepped into the gun crew when her husband John was killed at his cannon, keeping the piece firing until she too was gravely wounded. She is remembered as the first woman to take a soldier's place in combat during the Revolutionary War and later became the first woman to receive a military pension from the Continental Congress. This marker near the old fort's ground honors her stand.
Why it matters
Corbin's courage put a woman squarely in the fighting line of American independence and forced the young nation to recognize, and pension, her service — an early milestone in women's military history.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In November 1776, the American cause was in genuine peril. The Continental Army had been driven off Long Island and out of New York City, and George Washington's forces were retreating northward up Manhattan Island under relentless British pressure. Fort Washington, perched on the high ground near the Hudson at the island's northern end, was one of the last American holds in the area.
The attack that came on the sixteenth of that month was carried out by British troops alongside Hessians — German soldiers hired by the Crown, whose discipline and numbers made them a formidable part of the assault. The fighting for the fort's outer lines was fierce, and the day would end in a costly American surrender.
This is the world into which Margaret Cochran Corbin's moment of courage falls: a desperate defensive stand at a fort about to be overwhelmed, on terrain that today sits within the northern reaches of the city. The marker planted near that old ground keeps her stand tied to the exact place it happened.
People & events
Margaret Cochran Corbin had followed her husband, John, to war — one of the many women who traveled with the army, sharing its hardships and its dangers. When the Hessian and British assault struck Fort Washington, John was serving a cannon, and Margaret was there beside the gun crew.
When John was killed at his post, loading the piece, Margaret did not fall back. She took his place at the cannon and kept it firing against the attackers. In the course of that stand she was gravely wounded herself, struck as she worked the gun.
The inscription remembers her as the first woman to fight as a soldier in the Revolutionary War — not a camp follower carrying water, but a combatant in the line, serving artillery under fire. Her wounds left lasting damage, and in the years that followed she became, by the record honored here, the first woman to receive a military pension from the young Continental Congress — a formal recognition that what she had done was a soldier's service.
Its place in the American story
Corbin's stand at that cannon put a woman squarely in the firing line of the fight for American independence, and the nation's response mattered as much as the deed. By granting her a pension, the Continental Congress acknowledged that a woman could render military service worth compensating — an early, concrete act of recognition in a era that rarely offered women any official standing at all.
Her story belongs to a larger truth about the Revolution: it was not won by soldiers alone but by the whole community that traveled and suffered alongside the army. Corbin is the sharpest example of how thin the line could be between supporting the fight and joining it.
Generations later, she came to be honored as a founding figure in the long history of American women in the military. When people trace that history back to its beginning, they arrive at moments like hers — a wounded woman standing at a gun that her country needed kept firing.
If you visit
You're in the northern part of Manhattan, on high ground that once guarded the approach to the Hudson. The old fort itself is long gone, swallowed by the growth of the city, so what you're really visiting is the memory of a place — and the marker is your anchor to it.
Read the inscription and then look at the land. Try to picture the slope as a defended position under assault, the smoke and noise of an artillery duel where a city street or a quiet green now sits. The contrast between the peaceful present and the violent day it commemorates is the whole point.
For a Revolutionary War road trip, this is a stop that repays a little imagination and a little quiet. Stand where a woman took her fallen husband's place at the gun, and let the plaque do what it was placed to do: keep her name where it happened.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- 81 Leonard Gallery10.5 mi away
- Gerben Fine Art10.6 mi away
- Bureau10.6 mi away · 112 Duane Street
- Hall des Lumières10.7 mi away · 49 Chambers Street, New York, NY
- Cloud Gallery10.8 mi away
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum11.0 mi away · 180 Greenwich Street, New York, NY
Attractions
- The River Project Wetlab10.0 mi away
- FDNY Ladder 810.4 mi away · 14 North Moore Street, New York
- Dream house10.4 mi away
- Cortlandt Alley10.4 mi away
- Chinatown10.5 mi away
- Textile building10.5 mi away
Food & drink
- Sweetgreen11.3 mi away
- Maman11.3 mi away
- Greene Hook Bar & Kitchen11.3 mi away
- Semicolon Cafe11.3 mi away
- Rumi Turkish Grill11.4 mi away
- Bluestone Lane11.4 mi away
Places to stay
- DoubleTree10.8 mi away · 455 Washington Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ
- Conrad10.9 mi away · 102 North End Avenue, New York
- Sonesta Simply Suites Jersey City10.9 mi away · 21 2nd Street, Jersey City, NJ
- M Social Hotel New York Downtown11.0 mi away · 55 Church Street, New York, NY
- Hyatt Regency Jersey City on the Hudson11.1 mi away · 2 Exchange Place, Jersey City, NJ
- Residence Inn New York Downtown Manhattan/World Trade Center Area11.1 mi away · 170 Broadway, New York, NY
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
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Related people
- · Margaret Cochran Corbin
- · John Corbin
Related events
- · Battle of Fort Washington, 1776
Themes & tags
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