|
DeborahSampson was the first known
American woman to impersonate a man in order to join the
army and take part in combat. She was born in Plympton, Massachusetts,
on December 17, 1760 as the oldest of three daughters and three
sons of Jonathan and Deborah Sampson. Her family descended
from one of the original colonists, Priscilla Mullins Alden,
who was later immortalized in Longfellow's poem, "The Courtship
of Miles Standish."
Deborah's youth was spent in poverty. Her father abandoned
the family and went off to sea. Her mother was of poor health
and could not support the children, so she sent them off to live
with various neighbors and relatives. At the young age of eight
to ten, Sampson became an indentured servant in the household
of Jeremiah Thomas in Middleborough. For ten years she helped
with the housework and worked in the field. Hard labor developed
her physical strength. In winter, when there wasn't as much farm
work to be done, she was able to attend school. She learned enough
so that after her servitude ended in 1779, she was hired as a
teacher in a Middleborough public school.
On May 20, 1782, when she was twenty-one, Sampson
enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental
Army at Bellingham as a man named Robert Shurtleff (also listed
as Shirtliff or Shirtlieff). On May 23rd, she was mustered into
service at Worcester. Being 5 foot 7 inches tall, she looked
tall for a woman and she had bound her breasts tightly to approximate
a male physique. Other soldiers teased her about not having to
shave, but they assumed that this "boy" was just too
young to grow facial hair. She performed her duties as well as
any other man.
Back home, rumors circulated about her activities
and she was excommunicated from the First Baptist Church of Middleborough,
Massachusetts, because of a strong suspicion that she was "dressing
in man's clothes and enlisting as a Soldier in the Army."
At the time of her excommunication, her regiment had already
left Massachusetts.
Sampson was sent with her regiment to West Point,
New York, where she apparently was wounded in the leg in a battle
near Tarrytown. She tended her own wounds so that her gender
would not be discovered. As a result, her leg never healed properly.
However, when she was later hospitalized for fever in Philadelphia,
the physician attending her discovered that she was a woman and
made discreet arrangements that ended her military career. Sampson
was honorably discharged from the army at West Point on October
25, 1783 by General Henry Knox.
Deborah Sampson returned home, married a farmer named
Benjamin Gannett, and had three children. She also taught at
a nearby school. About nine years after her discharge from the
army, she was awarded a pension from the state of Massachusetts
in the amount of thirty-four pounds in a lump payment. After
Paul Revere sent a letter to Congress
on her behalf in 1804, she started receiving a U.S. pension in
the amount of four dollars per month.In 1802, Sampson traveled
throughout New England and New York giving lectures on her experiences
in the military. During her lectures, she wore the military uniform.
Deborah Sampson Gannett died April 29, 1827 in Sharon,
Massachusetts, at age sixty-six. Her children were awarded compensation
by a special act of Congress "for the relief of the heirs
of Deborah Gannett, a soldier of the Revolution, deceased."
Click here to enter an excellent Deborah
Sampson Website |
Deborah Sampson 