‘Molly Pitcher’ to speak
at Battlefield Park
Stacy Roth, a character actor and a principal of History on the Hoof, will be appearing at the visitor center at Monmouth Battlefield State Park, Manalapan, 2-4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, July 6 through Aug. 11. Roth will portray the heroine of the Battle of Monmouth, Mary Hays, the wife of a gunner in the 4th Regiment of Continental Artillery, an Irish lass immortalized in the 19th century as Molly Pitcher.
Visitors to the Battlefield are welcome to ask her questions about her life as a woman of the Army. She will tell stories of the winters at Valley Forge and Morristown, mutiny in the army, and how so many soldiers fainted from the great heat during the Battle of Monmouth.
If you ask her about her pitcher, though, she will tell you that she left it home. An earthen or stoneware jug bounced around on a wagon would have a short life, so Molly carried water in a wooden bucket — although she also filled many a soldier’s empty canteen.
For further information, call the Park office at (732) 462-9616, or the visitor center (732) 780-5782.