Statue of Deborah Sampson outside Sharon Public Library.
On July 3, 1782, a skirmish between a colonial scouting unit and British forces broke out near Tarrytown. Fighting in the ranks was a soldier by the name of Deborah Sampson—a woman who had disguised herself as a man. Sampson was wounded in the skirmish by two musket balls lodged in her thigh, one of which remained embedded for her lifetime, as well as a sword’s gash across her forehead.
Sampson was born on December 17, 1760, in Plympton, Massachusetts, into a family of distinguished Pilgrim heritage but impoverished means. She had worked as an indentured servant and her difficult circumstances, as well as her dedication to the patriot cause, might have motivated Sampson to join the Continental Army. Near the war’s end, volunteer recruits were offered a bounty to enlist. Sampson stitched herself a uniform and made two attempts to join. She was found out on the first try, an action that was condemned by the Baptist Church and was excommunicated for “dressing in men’s cloths,” an offense viewed then as criminal. Her second attempt to enlist was successful and she saw action in the Hudson Valley as a member of an elite Massachusetts light infantry company.
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Sampson’s enlistment, under the alias of Robert Shurtleff, went unchallenged, possibly due to her height of 5 feet, 7 inches, which was tall even for men at the time. A family acquaintance described Sampson’s blonde, blue-eyed “countenance and voice” as “feminine; but she conversed with such ease on the subject of theology, on political subjects, and military tactics, that her manner would seem to be masculine,” which also might have worked in favor of keeping her gender a secret.
Sketch of Deborah Sampson, ca. 1797. (New England Historical Society)
For 17 months, Sampson served admirably, taking part in several skirmishes. Throughout her service, she avoided detection of her gender until an epidemic illness rendered her unconscious and exposed her identity shortly before the war ended. In October 1783, Sampson was honorably discharged from the army.
After the war, Sampson married Benjamin Gannet, a farmer, had three children, and lived the remainder of her life in Sharon, Massachusetts. She petitioned Congress for a veteran’s pension for her service and was aided in her request by Paul Revere and John Hancock. In 1797, Sampson’s memoir about her military experience, The Female Review, was printed. Her memoir, as well as her lectures, contain inconsistencies and possibly embellishments, such as her taking part in the decisive battle at Yorktown, Virginia. In 2019, a diary was obtained by the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which sheds light on Sampson and her service. Written by Abner Weston, a neighbor of Sampson’s in Middleborough, Massachusetts, Weston puts the date of Sampson’s initial enlistment attempt at January 1782, some months after the British were defeated at Yorktown.
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On April 29, 1827, yellow fever claimed Deborah Sampson Gannet at the age of 66. Her husband, as the widower of a Revolutionary War solider, received a military pension.
Sampson’s story relates a remarkable and little-known slice of early American history when a few women challenged social convention to fight for the patriot cause. The legacy of these female colonial combat veterans, like Sampson, helped to lay the early groundwork for women’s suffrage and the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.