Women in warfare (1750–1799)

Warfare through history has mainly been a matter for men, but women have also played a role, often a leading one. The following list of prominent female warrors and their exploits from about 1750 C.E. up to about 1799 C.E. can only indicate the involvement of women, some of them thrust into positions of leadership by accident of birth or family connection, others by force of circumstance from humble origins.

[

---

thumb|200px|Molly Pitcher depicted in 1859 engraving]

Female warriors (1750-1799)

* 1754–1763: French and Indian War. Seneca leader Queen Alliquippa is a key ally of the British.
* 1755: Cherokee leader Nancy Ward fights side-by-side with her husband at the Battle of Taliwa. When her husband is killed, she picked up his rifle and led the Cherokee to victory.
* 1757: Sailor "Arthur Douglas" is revealed to be a woman. Her birth-name is unknown.
* 1759-1771: Mary Lacey serves as a Marine carpenter under the name of "William Chandler".
* 1760s: Hannah Witneg serves in the Royal Marines while disguised as a man from 1756 to 1761. She is noted for serving with "fortitude and valor".cite book | title=The Encyclopedia of Amazons | author=Salmonson, Jessica Amanda | publisher=Paragon House | year=1991 | pages=270]
* 1760-1761: A woman serves in the British Marines as "William Prothero".
* 1763: After the assassination of her husband, Gabriela Silang decided to continue his rebellion against Spain but was unsuccessful.
* 1767-1795: Reign of Ahilyabai Holkar, Indian queen of the Malwa kingdom. She personally led troops into battle.
* 1770s: Cherokee woman Cuhtahlatah causes her people to rally in battle by attacking the enemy after her husband was killed. [Salmonson, p. 65]
* 1770s: Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, the mother of Andrew Jackson, treats and nurses sick and wounded Continental soldiers in American Revolutionary War on British prison ship.
* 1772: Mademoiselle de Guignes and Mademoiselle d'Aguillon fight a duel in France.
* November 16, 1776: Margaret Corbin assists her husband in manning the cannons while fighting the British in battle in the American Revolutionary War. When her husband is killed, she mans the cannons alone.
* April 26, 1777: Sybil Ludington warns colonists that the British were burning the city of Danbury, Connecticut during the American Revolution.
* 1777: Mademoiselle Leverriére fights a duel with a man in France.
* 1778: Baltazara Chuiza leads a rebellion against the Spanish in Ecuador. [Salmonson, p. 58]
* 1778: Sikh princess Bibi Rajindar Kaur leads 3,000 soldiers to rescue her cousin who was defeated by Hari Singh.
* 1778: Molly Pitcher (born Mary Ludwig in 1754) married John Hays in 1769. Her husband fought for the Continental Army at the Battle of Monmouth (New Jersey) on June 28 1778. During the battle, she brought pitchers of water to her husband and fellow soldiers, thus earning the appellation Molly Pitcher. When her husband succumbed to exhaustion, she picked up his rifle and fought against the British.
* 1778: Ann Bates serves as a spy for the British loyalists during the American Revolutionary War.
* 1780: Manuela Beltrán organizes a peasant revolt in Colombia. [Salmonson, p. 32]
* 1780: Huillac Ñusca of the Kolla tribe rebels against the Spanish in Chile.
* 1780s: Swedish runaway Carin du Rietz becomes a soldier at the royal guard.
* 1781: A French-Canadian woman called "Miss Jenny" serves as a spy for the British during the American Revolutionary War .
* 1781: Margaret Thompson serves in the British Marines under the name George Thompson.
* 1781: Kate Barry warns the American militia that the British were approaching before the Battle of Cowpens. Her warning gives the colonists enough time to prepare and win the battle.
* 1782: Bartolina Sisa, an Aymara woman who led an indigenous uprising against the Spanish in Bolivia, is captured and executed.
* 1782-1783: Deborah Sampson serves in the American army during the American Revolutionary War while disguised as a man. She is the first known American woman to join the military, the first to fight in combat, and the first to receive a military pension.
* 1785: According to Thai legend, Chan and Mook, two sisters, help repel a Burmese invasion of Thailand by dressing as male soldiers and rallying the troops.
* October 25, 1785: Toypurina, a Tongva medicine woman, rebels against the Spanish, leading an attack against Mission San Gabriel Arcángel.
* 1787-1807: A woman serves twenty years in the British Marines under the name "Tom Bowling".
* 1788-1790 : After the war between Russia and Sweden, several of the soldiers decorated in the Swedish army are discovered to be women in disguise. One of them is Brita Hagberg, who enlisted in search of her husband; she is given a military pension.
* 1788-1790 : During the Russo-Swedish war, Anna Maria Engsten, after a battle at sea, singlehandedly steers one of the boats back to Sweden after having been left alone onboard after its evacuation; she is decorated for bravery at sea [http://runeberg.org/sqvinnor/0156.html] .
* 1788-1790 : During the Battle of Svensksund, Dorothea Maria Lörsch takes command of a Swedish ship and is revarded with the rank of captain of the Swedish fleet [http://runeberg.org/sqvinnor/0280.html] .
* 1789: Female revolutionary Anne Josephe Theroigne de Mericourt leads the storming of the Bastille in Paris at the beginning of the French Revolution. She also leads female troops in 1792-1793.
* 1792: Two hundred and eighty women participate in defense of the city of Frauenbrünn in Switzerland.
* 1792: The Albanian woman Moscho Tzawella leads several women in defense of their village against the Turks.
* 1792: Eight thousand women are estimated to have served openly in the French army in informal local defense troops (though not in the battle fields) between 1792 and 1794. Women were forbidden from joining the army 1795 and the female soldiers are encouraged to "return to their homes".
* 1792: Mary Anne Talbot serves as a drummer boy in the British army for two years.
* 1792: Lady Braddock and Mrs. Elphinstone fight a duel in England.
* 1792-1799: Angelique Brulon serves in the French army in Corsica. Although she initially disguises her self as a man, she is eventually allowed to remain openly in her service because of her acknowledged military skill.
* 1793: Suzanne Belair, called "Sanité Belair", serves in the armé of Toussaint Louverture in the Haitian Revolution. She was promoted to sergeant, and was executed by the French in 1802. She did not hide her sex.
* 1793: Renée Bordereau disguises herself as a man and fights as a Royalist cavalier in the French Revolution.
* 1793-1800: Therese Figeur serves in the French army.
* 1796: Sikh princess Bibi Sahib Kaur leads armies into battle against the British. She is the only Indian woman to win battles against a British general.
* 1796-1798: Wang Conger is the leader and commander of the White Lotus rebellion in China.
* 1797: Margaret Catchpole serves in the British Marines as a man.
* 1798: Mary Ann Riley and Anne Hopping serve in the British Marines during the Battle of the Nile against the French outside Egypt.
* 1798: Mary Doyle, an Irish woman, participates in the Irish rebellion against the British.

References

ee also

*Timeline of women in early modern warfare
*Timeline of women in 19th century warfare

External links

* http://www.lothene.demon.co.uk/others/women.html
* http://www.users.bigpond.com/ShipStreetPress/Snell/Morestories.htm