Washington faced off against British troops under General Henry Clinton. Mary brought water to the parched American troops until her husband collapsed. He collapsed from either from the heat or after being wounded. After which she supposedly took his place and helped operate cannon for the rest of the battle. A soldier who witnessed the action later wrote about in his diary, without referring to the woman involved by name: “While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her feet as far before the other as she could step, a cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any other damage than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat.”Washington faced off against British troops under General Henry