June 1778, the Battle of Monmouth: near 100-degree heat, men dying of heat stroke before a musket fires, and a woman hauling water through cannon fire who steps up to her wounded husband's gun. Every American schoolchild knows Molly Pitcher. Here is the puzzle: dig into the pensions, government records, and memoirs, and no singular Molly Pitcher exists. This episode investigates how history blended several real, flesh-and-blood women into one easily digestible heroic avatar, and why the messy truth is far more interesting than the myth.

The canonical story belongs to Mary Ludwig Hays, a hardened Valley Forge camp follower whose water runs were a tactical necessity, since every cannon shot left burning embers that had to be swabbed before the next powder charge went in. But her heroics rest on a memoir written 52 years after the battle. Two  ...