How long did deborah sampson serve in the war

Brigit Katz is a freelance writer based in Toronto. Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including NYmag. Engraving by George Graham. From a drawing by William Beastall, which was based on a painting by Joseph Stone. Public Domain In , as the Revolutionary War was barreling toward its conclusion, a woman named Deborah Sampson disguised herself as a man, enlisted in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment under the name "Robert Shurtleff" and fought in military operations.

Post a Comment. This, however, makes for a garbled story. The summary of her life related above uses the date, which the author believes is the right one. Young Alfred A. Knopf, Deborah Sampson : A continental soldier. Social Welfare History Project. Comments for this site have been disabled. Please use our contact form for any research questions. New York: Alfred A. Diamant, Lincoln, Ed. Westport: Praeger, Resmond, Shirley Raye. Rev War Biography.

Deborah Sampson. Title Private. Date of Birth - Death December 27, - April 29, Topic s :. The war had already moved on to the New York area by the time Sampson enlisted and she was sent to fight as a light infantryman in the Hudson Valley. According to The Female Review, Sampson found war to be exhausting and terrifying:. She escaped with two shots through her coat, and one through her cap…She now says no pen can describe her feelings experienced in the commencement of an engagement, the sole object of which is to open the sluices of human blood.

The unfeigned tears of humanity has more than once started into her eyes in the rehearsal of such as scene as I have just described. While fighting in New York, Sampson was wounded in battle. Mann states in The Female Review that she was shot in the thigh during a skirmish with Tory soldiers, but according to her pension application in , Sampson said she received the wound at the Battle of Tarrytown in July of After removing the bullet herself, the wound never healed properly and caused her pain and discomfort for the rest of her life.

She was wounded again four months later when she was shot through her shoulder. Although Sampson survived her wounds, she eventually came down with a fever shortly after being dispatched to fight in Pennsylvania and was hospitalized in the summer of It was then that the doctor attending to her, Dr. Barnabas Binney, removed her clothes to treat her and discovered the cloth binding her breasts.

In September, after Sampson had fully recovered, Binney asked her to deliver a personal letter to General Patterson. Upon delivering it, Patterson informed her that the letter said she was a woman in disguise.

Realizing her secret was out, Sampson admitted she was a woman and asked to be spared punishment for her dishonesty. Patterson was surprisingly supportive and instead said she should be rewarded for her service, according to the Female Review:. After her discharge, Sampson married Benjamin Gannett on April 7, The family ran a small farm in Sharon, Massachusetts but were not very successful at it and lived in mild poverty. Like many soldiers of the revolution, Sampson had difficulty trying to obtain a pension.

After she campaigned unsuccessfully to secure a pension in , she became discouraged and feared Congress would never award her any money for her role in the war. Although Sampson had kept a journal of her experiences during the war, it was lost in October of after a boat she was traveling on while returning from Pennsylvania capsized during a storm.