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America's First Woman Soldier
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USA PAST
America's First Woman Soldier
By Dave Maxwell
Staff Writer
 Deborah Sampson Gannett is believed to be the first American woman to impersonate a man in order to join the Army and take part in combat.
Born December 17, 1760 in the town of Middleboro, Massachusetts, she was the eldest of eight children born to Jonathan and Deborah Bradford Sampson. At age five, her father moved the family to Maine. Being from a very poor family,
at age 10 she became an indentured servant in the household of Jeremiah Thomas back in Massachusetts. She received a good education while working
for the Thomas family, and when she left their employ in 1780, she held jobs as a weaver and a local school teacher.
As the Revolutionary War was raging in 1781, Deborah felt the need to do her part and had designs to join the Army. Women were not allowed to enlist, so she did the next best thing: she disguised herself as a man. It was not very difficult to
do this, as she was taller than most women of her day, quite intelligent and physically strong as well. It has been said that her disguise was able to fool even
her own mother. She enlisted under the name Timothy Thayer, but thought she had been recognized by other recruits and did not report the next day.
On May 20, 1781, she felt confident enough to try again, this time using the name Robert Shurtlief. She was not recognized, and henceforth assigned to the Light Infantry Company of the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment under Captain George
Webb. In her first combat action, as Private Shurtlief, July 3, 1781, she was shot in the thigh and received a large cut on her forehead. The Regimental doctors
treated her head, but she left the treatment room before they could get to the thigh wound. Alone, and in private, she dug the musket ball out herself with
a penknife and did the stitches. However, the leg never healed properly, and she had a noticeable limp. This kept her out of the infantry, but she was given a
position instead as table waiter to General John Patterson.
On Oct. 17, 1781, the British surrendered at Yorktown, ending the fighting and everyone thought the war to be over. However, a formal peace treaty
would not be signed for nearly two years.
In the summer of 1783, ‘Private Robert Shurtlief,’ still in the service of Gen. Patterson, came down with malignant fever and was cared for by Dr. Barnabas Binney. He discovered her secret, but kept it to himself, and even took Deborah to his own home where his wife and daughters nursed her back to health.
When she recovered, Deborah returned to the infantry, but the fighting was over. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September 1783, the American
Revolutionary War officially ended.
General Washington by this time knew of her secret also, but said nothing about it. Instead, he issued her an honorable discharge at West Point on October 25, 1783.
In 1784, now age 24, Deborah Sampson married Benjamin Gannett, a farmer
from Sharon, Massachusetts. They had three children, two girls and a boy.
For a time in the early 1800s, Deborah began giving lectures on her Army experiences. She was not only the first American woman soldier; she was also the first female lecturer.
For several years after, she sent letters of petition to Congress requesting them to grant her a military pension. Even Paul Revere, a personal friend, wrote letters on her behalf.
After considerable time Congress agreed, but gave only four dollars a month.
More years of petitions followed, and finally in 1816, Congress awarded her a pension of $76.80 a year.
Deborah Sampson Gannett (aka Revolutionary War soldier Robert Shurtlief) remained on her family farm in Sharon, MA, until she died in 1827 at the age of 67.
Today, the town of Sharon, about 20 miles south of Boston, boasts a Deborah
Sampson Street, Deborah Sampson statue in front of the public library, Deborah
Sampson field, and a Deborah Sampson House.
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