Prudence Cummings Wright and the Minutewomen

A group of women do their part in the early stages of the American Revolution.

"Battle of Lexington," 1910, by William Barnes Wollen. National Army Museum. After the Battle of Lexington, patriot Prudence Cummings Wright took action when she overheard a Loyalist plan. Public Domain)

On one April evening in 1775, Prudence Cummings Wright captained a group of over 30 “minutewomen” in an ambush and captured two British Loyalist spies. Nearly two years later, their town of Pepperell, Massachusetts voted to make the all-female militia some of the first women to receive compensation for their courageous act during the Revolutionary War.

Wright had always been a patriot, and, when she was 21 years old, she married David Wright who was also dedicated to the American cause. But once the Revolutionary War broke out, two of her brothers, Thomas and Samuel Cummings Jr., joined the British Loyalists and swore allegiance to the King.