Vila Wolf's Dyslexic Folklorist Ranting

July 13th, marks the 150th anniversary of the New York City Draft Riots, violent protests against the Civil War draft that lasted four days and resulted in over 1,000 casualties and millions of dollars of property destruction.   Acts of vandalism and destruction were reported throughout the city as the riots spread.  The mobs initially targeted government buildings and representatives before focusing their violence towards the African-American community. 

via the National Archives at New York on Facebook

235 years ago on June 28, 1778, Molly Pitcher, the legendary heroine of the American Revolution, is said to have participated in the Battle of Monmouth.  This is a copy of the engraving by J.C. Armytage after Alonzo Chappel.  

But who was Molly Pitcher?  See Will the Real Molly Pitcher Please Stand Up?  via the National Archives’ Prologue Magazine.

June 16, 1966: Errors in judgment by the navigators aboard two tanker ships carrying volatile cargos resulted in a collision, explosion and fire that consumed both tankers, two attending tugs and left 37 sailors dead and more than 20 injured in New York harbor.  The British tanker, lva Cape was entering the harbor with a cargo of naphtha and was struck amidships on the starboard side by the outgoing American tanker Texaco Massachusetts. The raging explosion and fire that resulted from the crash destroyed not only the tankers but the tugs Latin America and Esso Vermont.

Photo: Heavy smoke pours from burnig tankers Alva Cape and Texaco Massachusetts after collision off Bayonne as Coast Guard helicopter hovers above. (Gordon Rynders/NY Daily News)

Topless men were banned from the beaches of Atlantic City in New Jersey because the city didn’t want “gorillas on our beaches.” It wasn’t until 1937 when men finally won the right to wear just swimming shorts without a shirt.

The name Molly Pitcher may have originated as a nickname for any woman who carried water to men on the battlefield during the Revolutionary War.  Today the name Molly Pitcher evokes the image of a folk hero who manned a cannon after her husband was struck down.  

Some historians regard Molly Pitcher as a folktale or a composite of several women. However, the life of Mary Ludwig Hays is widely considered to be the origin of the story.  Margaret Corbin is an alternate candidate for Molly Pitcher.

Born to German immigrant parents in Pennsylvania, Mary Ludwig married a barber named William Hays who eventually became an artilleryman in the Continental Army.  Mary traveled with him as a “camp girl” providing water on the battlefield and wintering at Valley Forge.

Mary served as a water carrier during the Battle of Monmouth where temperatures broke 100 F (37 C).  William eventually collapsed, either from heat stroke or a battle injury.  After her husband was carried from the battlefield, Mary swabbed and loaded the cannon herself.  At one point, a British cannon ball is said to have shot between her legs, ripping her skirt.  Her skillful and heroic work led to commendation (or possible symbolic promotion to sergeant) from General George Washington.  In her old age, Mary was awarded an annual pension of $40 for her heroism by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Today, Friends of Monmouth Battlefield offers programming relating to Molly Pitcher and the lives of camp women.

Margaret Corbin was also the wife of a Pennsylvania artilleryman.  Unlike Mary Ludwig Hays, Margaret is said to have generally taken on the role of solider, dressing in a military uniform without disguising her gender. When her husband John was killed at the Battle of Fort Washington, Margaret took his place firing the canon and was eventually wounded. Captured by the British and released, she was assigned to the corps of invalids at West Point to perform guard duty. Listed on the discharge rolls for April 1783, Margaret Corbin was treated as a soldier by the military.  She was later granted a pension by Congress, making her the first American woman to receive a military pension for her own service.

Historical Diagram: Hudson River Tubes Cutaway, 1909

While not strictly speaking a transit map, this awesome cutaway diagram of the Hudson River Tubes featured in our last post is just too cool not to share with you. Contemporaneous with that map, this cutaway shows the junction to the northern (or Uptown) cross-Hudson tubes which leave the image to the right. Of particular interest is how the lines stack and twist around each other, almost certainly done to minimise the width of any excavation work.

(Source: Wikipedia)

May 12, 1932: The body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found, more than two months after he was kidnapped from his family’s Hopewell, New Jersey mansion.

William Jay Gaynor took office as Mayor of New York City on January 1, 1910. Initially backed by Tammany Hall, the relationship between the Mayor and the political machine soured when Gaynor began filling government posts based on merit rather than political patronage.

Soon after taking office, Mayor Gaynor was on board a ship berthed in Hoboken, NJ that was to take him on a vacation. As Gaynor walked the deck, talking to an aide, a disgruntled longshoreman approached from behind, placed a revolver on the Mayor’s neck and fired. A photographer caught the scene a moment later as the Mayor staggered with the help of the aide.

Mayor Gaynor survived the attack and returned to work two months later. However, the bullet remained lodged in his throat defying doctors’ attempts to remove it. Tammany Hall swore it had nothing to do with the attempt on the Mayor’s life.

Three years later, on September 10, 1910, Mayor Gaynor succumbed to his wound and died suddenly while on vacation in Upstate New York.

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