Deborah Sampson: Her Incredible Story as a Continental Soldier in the American Revolution

Deborah Sampson (Dec. 17, 1760 – April 29, 1827) enlisted as a soldier, saw action in heated skirmishes, was wounded, and during her seventeen months in her disguise as a man, had won the “applause” of her officers and fellow soldiers in arms.

From the time Deborah Sampson’s memoirs were printed in 1797 and rewritten, but not published until 1850, and for generations thereafter, there had been many inconsistencies in relation to facts regarding her enlistment as a Continental Soldier, the length of her service, the campaigns she may or may not have participated in, number of times wounded, and manner in which she received her honorable discharge. However, from all documentation that has survived, it has been proven that she was an incredible individual. Tall, alert, lean muscles, strong willed, adventurous, courageous and gallant under fire, meticulous and self conscious in the performance her duties, and in all things, a model soldier totally committed to the patriot cause. It is the intent of this article to differentiate between fact and that which had been embellished, supported by documentation and examination of Continental records. This while not taking away from the fact that she was and remains one who had left a remarkable impression on history and played an important role in the founding of this nation.

Deborah Sampson (1760-1827), disguised as a man, enlisted into the Continental Army at Bellingham, Massachusetts on May 20^th, 1782 and was mustered into the 4^th Continental Massachusetts Regiment at Worcester on May 23rd. She joined the army at West Point and performed the duties of a soldier that won her high praise from her officers and companions in arms. She participated in several heated skirmishes in the Hudson River Valley’s Highland Division – from the border of northern New York City and throughout Westchester County, New York to New Windsor, north of West Point. She was wounded in one such skirmish near Terrytown, NY [Not the Battle of Terrytown which some texts have incorrectly stated – occurring a year before her enlistment]. She kept her identity secret until near the end of the war when in Sept., 1783, due to sickness and confined to a hospital in Philadelphia, her sex was discovered. After recuperating, she returned to her regiment at West Point and received an honorable discharge from the army at the close of the war, November 1783. Her total service in uniform as a male soldier in the Continental Army was one year and five months.

Her experiences as a Continental soldier came to light at the close of the war and word spread throughout the Boston region. She became a topic of discussion and broadsheets, including some early authors, wrote freely of her exploits to which some of the inconsistencies of her war experiences remain to this day. Herman Mann, a romantic writer of limited skills who resided in the Boston region, interviewed Sampson and prepared a manuscript of her memoirs in 1797.

Five years later, from 1802-1803, her popularity grew as she toured New England dressed in her uniform, lecturing and demonstrating military drills including priming and the use of a musket. The original manuscript had a very limited printing and some years later was rewritten by Mann. Perhaps it was determined that the original manuscript was crude and imperfect and that a more worthy volume would increase sales. Mann greatly embellished the work with extended descriptions of major battles and campaigns to which it is questionable that Sampson took part. Whether embarrassment or not wishing to be queried over content, during the rewrite Sampson requested that this second version of her memoirs not be published until after her death which occurred in 1827. Mann was to die six years later before completing the memoir. His son would do so and the final rewritten memoir was made public in 1850.

A detailed text of Deborah Sampson’s life, including her memoirs, was published in 1866 by John Adams Vinton. He analyzed the material found in her memoirs and traced the data to shed light on inconsistencies, putting into question dates, places, and actions described in detail in the original manuscript. He succinctly wrote of Herman Mann’s biography of Sampson: “Instead of presenting a simple narrative, a round, unvarnished tale, the writer made a kind of novel, founded, indeed, on fact, but with additions of his own. He aimed at weaving a web of gaudy colors which should strike strongly on the fancy of his readers. He introduced a great deal of extraneous matter which serves only to fill out the pages…” He also concluded, “It affords, to some extent, a picture of those times, and opens before us scenes of trial and hardship, of patriotism and fortitude…” A most recent publication by Alfred Young, Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier, 2005, is another good source. And though I very rarely recommend Wikipedia for all its misleading and incorrect information, the article under Deborah Sampson is well done and deserves a read. Further documentation, including an examination of pension requests made by Sampson, Continental records of commanding officers and movement of units to which Sampson was assigned, have helped sift fact from fiction.

Early Life

Born Deborah Samson (later use of her name added the p in Sampson) on December 17, 1760, in a small shanty at Plympton, Massachusetts. Biographer John Vinton traced her mother’s lineage; she was the great granddaughter of William Bradford of the Mayflower and Governor of Plymouth Colony. Her parents were Jonathan Samson (1729-1811) and mother Deborah Bradford Samson (1731 – ?). There were seven children: Jonathan (1753), Elisha (1755), Hannah (1757), Ephraim (1759), Deborah – subject of this article (1760), Nehemiah (1764), and Sylvia (1766). The family were very poor and moved often, as evidenced by the various birthplaces of Sampson’s siblings. Sampson’s memoir stated that upon her grandfather’s death in 1759, her father was deprived his inheritance by a spiteful brother leading to her family’s extreme poverty. The father felt cheated which drove him to seek his fortune on the high seas. He left his family around the birth of his last child and when Deborah was five and later died in a shipwreck. This was not correct; more like a tale a mother would tell her children to hide the truth. Deborah’s father, within three weeks of his father’s death, sold his share of the estate to his brother. The money must had been squandered as the family remained poor. When Sampson turned five, the father abandoned the family and moved to Maine where he eventually found a common wife (Maria) and fathered another family. His new family suffered the same financial upheaval while there were reports that her father had been involved in several murders, though there is no record of trial. Dorothy would never see her father again. Records indicate he died in Maine in 1811.

The mother was unable to support her family. As was common practice among widows and abandoned wives, she sent them to live with distant relatives and friends. Children were required to work for their keep as basically indentured servants. Deborah, at age five, was sent to live with a Mrs. Fuller, a distant relation of her mothers. According to the memoir, she lived with the elderly maiden for three years before the woman, “was seized of a violent malady” and died. The young girl, now eight, was placed in the home of Reverend Peter Thatcher’s widow in Middleborough, some miles from Plympton where Deborah’s mother remained. Thatcher was also elderly and It is believed both women had taught the child to read to them, often bible passages. After two years, the eighty year old Thatcher died and Deborah, now ten, was removed to Deacon Jeremiah Thomas’ home, also in Middleborough. Deborah, who was now a ‘bound girl’ would remain with the Thomas family until eighteen. It was a prosperous home in which Deborah was not only required to perform female chores – cooking, weaving, attending to younger children,etc., but also helped in the fields. Reverend Stillman Pratt of Middleborough would later write of Deborah, “She became acquainted with almost all kinds of manual labor… If occasion required, she could harness the horse and ride him to plough, or to town on errands. She could rake hay, or stow it away in the barn: was familiar with the milkmaid’s task.” Haying and plowing was usually done by men, but Deborah also acquired another skill considered solely masculine. Pratt wrote, “a tolerable mechanic…If she wanted a basket, a milking stool or sled, she could make them. With the use of a jack knife whe was familiar, and could work out a weather cock, with that instrument as well as a man.”

She became a regular ‘tom boy’, but also showed a keen interest in learning. Though the boys attended school, Thomas refused to allow the girls a basic education. According to the memoir, Deborah had a very inquisitive mind and would borrow the boy’s texts to continue her education on her own. She became fond of adventure and an observer of events shaping the world. She had a great deal of energy and a very independent personality. At age fifteen (1775 that included Lexington and Bunker Hill) and for the next several years, she became embroiled in the political upheaval that affected the whole country. Mann wrote, “From the beginning of the Revolutionary struggle, she had, though a young girl, sympathized intensely with the cause of liberty…” She envisioned breaking through the barriers of her sex and traveling to obtain knowledge of the the world.

Plots to Join the Army

At age18, in 1778, she left the Thomas residence. For the next four years she worked independently at people’s homes for room and board. She applied her skills in weaving, as a servant, and even a spell as a teacher to earn her keep. Throughout this time, her passion for travel and adventure intensified. Deborah resolved to put on a male attire to explore the country. She spun and wove, including employing a tailor to make a suit for a gentlemen. Her memoir stated, “she made a genteel coat, waistcoat and breeches… the other articles, hat, shoes, etc., were purchased under other pretexts.” This, combined with her increased interest in patriotic causes, induced her to seek a way to enlist in the Continental Army. In the spring of 1782, Massachusetts offered bounties for 1,500 new recruits into the Massachusetts Line of Continental Soldiers. Deborah decided to don her disguise and pretend that she was young man of 17, a “smock faced boy” (term that taunted beardless young men), and leave home to join the army.

Sampson was Among Other Woman who Enlisted as Male Soldiers

The most famous case of a woman disguised as a male soldier occurred some years before the American Revolution. Hanna Snell enlisted into the British Army and had successfully kept her identity secret; her experiences were recorded in the 1750 publication, The Surprising Life and Adventures of Hanna Snell and was widely read on both sides of the ocean. Two other Massachusetts women donned male garb and enlisted, but were soon discovered and quickly punished. Ann (Nancy) Bailey of Boston, enlisted in February, 1777 as Sam Gay and received a bounty of £ 15. 10 s.

She was found out three weeks later, was arrested, fined, and spent two months in prison. Anne Smith of Springfield enlisted in the spring of 1782 and just prior to receiving her bounty of $80, was discovered and imprisoned. In other colonies there were reports of women attempting to enter the service disguised as a man. They were found out early and followed by humiliation and often prison. In New Jersey, one woman was carted down the main street and ridiculed as a whore. Deborah’s case was unique and by far the longest, most successful, and received the most favorable treatment when discovered. She was accepted back into the community, spent two years touring in which she wore her uniform and spoke of her service, and, though some women received a pension for brief service to the war effort retaining their identity as a women, she was the only one to receive a pension for her service as a wounded soldier.

Her Character and Description

Senator William Ellis wrote of Deborah on Feb. 4, 1837 “From my own acquaintance with Deborah Gannett, I can truly say that she was a woman of uncommon native intellect and force of character… Her stature was erect, and a little taller than the average height of females… she conversed with such ease on the subject of theology, on political subjects, and military tactics… her manner of conversation on any subject embraced [an] illustrative style which we admire in the able diplomatist.” Colonel Sproat, later Congressman, wrote that she was tall, muscular, and very erect. Features: long face, large- prominent Roman nose and jutting lanturn jaw. Small bosom. The face was masculine. Mann describes her appearance in his memoir: “Features of her face are regular; but not the most beautiful. Her eye is lively and penetrating. She has a skin naturally clear… but her aspect is rather masculine… her limbs are regularly proportioned. Ladies of taste considered them handsome, when in the masculine garb… her movement is erect, quick, and strong… animating and graceful; speech deliberate, with firm articulation…” Physically, she was muscular and tall, five feet seven, taller than the average man and far taller than most women. According to the memoir, “she wore a bandage about her breasts, during her disguise…” When she was mustered, she was placed in the company of light infantry, reserved for those who displayed the most physical prowess and endurance, evidence of her masculine appearance as one used to physical labor. A contemporary wrote that “she was certainly a woman of very marked and decided character. Her inflexible resolution…after she enlisted, are deserving of high praise. Indeed, we know not whether, in all respects, the world’s history affords a parallel to the case.”

Inconsistencies of her Service and Enlistment Date

Published texts and current internet articles concerning Deborah Sampson’s service as a soldier in the Continental Army disguised as a man has been wrought with misinformation. Establishing the length of time she spent in uniform is important as it supports or questions the validity of her memoirs. The date of her enlistment has been recorded as 1778, 1781, and 1782. Earlier accounts, beginning with Elizabeth Ellet’s 1819 The Women in the Revolution, later in H. G. Adams Cyclopedia and Sarah Hale’s Distinguished Women, place the year of her muster as 1778; this without any reference to back up the claim. Later accounts place the date of her enlistment in April, 1781. This has been documented by a claim Deborah Gannett (Mrs.) stated under oath in an 1818 pension application which was widely accepted. However, Sampson’s initial application for pension was filed in 1792 and she specified under oath that the date of her enlistment was May 20, 1782. This application’s enlistment date is supported with documentation from the 1792 Pension Board, bounty receipt, and her commanding officers. It is concluded that the May 20,1782 date is the actual time of her enlistment and that she mustered into the 4^th Massachusetts Continental Regiment three days later on May 23^rd. Community correspondence further supports this conclusion and circumstances are presented which may explain why, twenty six years after her first pension application, Sampson would place the date of enlistment a year earlier than first stated.

Importance in Establishing her Enlistment as May 20^th, 1782

Sampson’s first memoirs, written by Herman Mann in 1797 at Dedham, Mass, was based on her memory; she had kept a journal, however she stated that it was lost in a gale while crossing the Hudson River in October, 1783. This first memoir did not include an enlistment date but in the later rewrite that was finished by Mann’s son and later published in 1850, it stated she donned her disguise to enlist in the army in March of 1781. If Sampson enlisted in 1781, she could have taken part in key actions that occurred in that year. Such added material would spice up and add popular content to the book – namely the Battle of Terrytown, in which the rewrite of her memoir claimed she was wounded, and most importantly, the Siege of Yorktown and the surrender of General Cornwallis’ army. Indeed, Mann included nearly eighty pages of the memoir’s rewrite to the Yorktown campaign, writing freely on events that led up to the siege and detailed descriptions of preparations and assaults on the British works. He vividly described Sampson’s hardships in the journey south, digging trenches outside of Yorktown, the strain under bombardment, and her participation for the final attack. Also, by placing the date of her enlistment a year earlier, Mann had more time to expand on actions that took place throughout the region of the Highland and Northern Army divisions. He embroiled Sampson in exciting passages involving British Regular troops, loyalists, and encounters with hostile Native Americans. He detailed a romantic encounter in Philadelphia with an “enraptured young heiress,” flirtations with women while in uniform, and even contrived a marriage to a Native American.

By confirming that her enlistment was actually in May of 1782, all of what occurred prior to that date is moot, seriously questioning well over half of the material contained in the 1850 publication of Sampson’s memoir. Calvin Munn, Robert Shurtliff’s (Sampson) drill sergeant dismissed the memoir as “a novel not one fourth of which is fact.” This leaves only those dates and actions from May, 1782 until war’s end in which Sampson was actively involved; mostly detached units to patrol the region between the frontier of New York City and established American lines. This was a dangerous ‘no man’s land’ of marauding loyalist troops labeled cowboys. It was most likely in one of these major skirmishes near Terrytown, New York, that Sampson was wounded in action.

Documentation 1792 Supports May 20 1782

The first pension enacted by Congress was on August 24, 1780, in which widows and orphans of Revolutionary War soldiers who served to the end of the war received half pay for seven years. The next pension which Sampson, that which Mrs.Gannett, applied to was enacted on March 23, 1792. It permitted veterans who were wounded to apply directly to the Federal Government to receive invalid pensions. In 1792, Deborah Gannet testified that she enlisted in the Continental Army for three years on May 20, 1782. She traveled further west to Bellingham, Mass. where she would not be known. She used the name of Robert Shirtliff (also spelled Shurtliff) and at Worchester, Mass., on May 23^rd, was mustered into the 4^th Massachusetts Regiment under Colonel William Shepard (afterwards Colonel Henry Jackson) in Captain George Webb’s company. Captain Eliphalet Thorp of Dedham was the mustering officer. She went to camp under Sergeant Gambel and was engaged with the enemy at Tarrytown; was wounded by the enemy and continued to serve under General Knox at West Point until the end of the war. She added, “but being a female, and not knowing the proper steps to be taken to get pay for her services, has hitherto not received one farthing for her services.” She offered, “whether it has been occurred by the fault of the officers in making the rolls, or the paymaster Effrican Hamlin of the 4^th carried off the papers…” In support of her application, she included a letter written by her commander, Colonel Henry Jackson who wrote on Aug. 1, 1786, that Robert Shurtliff did his duty as a faithful soldier and was honorably discharged. Also included was a letter by Captain Eliph Thorp who mustered her into the service. He wrote on Dec. 10, 1791: “This certifies that Mrs. Deborah Gannet enlisted as a soldier on May 20, 1782 for three years…”

Later that year, a committee of the House of Representatives that reviewed pension applications, Dr. William Eustis, Benjamin Hitchborn, and Reverand James Sproat, reported favorably on Mrs. Gannett’s application. It confirmed that she enlisted on May 20, 1782 into the 4^th Massachusetts and “exhibited an extraordinary instance of female heroism by discharging he duties of a faithful, gallant soldier, and at the same time preserving the virtue and chastity of her sex unsuspected and unblemished, and was discharged from the service in a fair and honorably character. It was signed and approved by founding father John Hancock. So too, her bounty receipt, proof of payment for her enlistment, was signed on May 23, 1782. Further evidence is found in muster rolls; Robert Shurtliff is listed in the 1782 returns of the 4^th Mass Light Infanty Company, but not in the 1781 return or earlier.

An extract from the Records of the 1^st Baptist Church in Middleborough, Mass, to which Sampson had been a member since 1780, dated Sept. 3^rd, 1782 indicated her recent absence from the community to join the army. “The church considered the case of Deborah Sampson, a member of this church, who last spring was accused of dressing in men’s clothes, and enlisting as a soldier in the army…and for some time before behaved very loose and unchristian like, and at last left our parts in a sudden manner…”

On March 11, 1805, the war department, signed by H. Dearborn, allowed a pension of $4 per month as an invalid soldier starting on January 1, 1803. Benjamin Austin, agent for Invalid pensions, allowed a back payment of $104. In 1816, it was increased to $6.40 per month. And if she were to give up her invalid pension and reapply for the 1818 Act of Congress, she could increase her monthly payments to $8.

Possible Reason for the 1818 Pension Application and the Rewritten Memoir that Supported April 1781 as the Date of her Enlistment

The 1818 Act of Congress concerning pensions was passed on March 18^th. It stipulated that not just soldiers who had disabilities resulting from the war, labeled invalid pensions to which Deborah had been granted a pension, but all soldiers would receive monthly payments for life. All invalid pensioners would have to relinquish their pension and reapply for the 1818 pension which would increase Deborah’s monthly payments that had begun on Jan. 1, 1803 at $4 per month, which had been raised to $6 per month, to the $8 figure allowed under this Act; a substantial increase in those days. Deborah must had been nervous about giving up her invalid pension and having to reapply for the new pension which meant more money. A female soldier had been granted a pension, but there was no guarantee that another board would do the same. This may have weighed heavily on her decision to embellish her original pension request.

On September 12, 1818, Deborah relinquished her invalid pension and applied for the 1818 Act of Congress Pension. Under oath, she now claimed that her enlistment in the army occurred in April, 1781. That she was wounded at Terrytown, indicating the Battle of Terrytown, and that she was present when General Cornwallis surrendered his army, Oct. 19, 1781. By claiming an earlier enlistment, she must have hoped that the board would look more favorably on her request seeing that she played a part in the most important action of the war which was the final death blow to England’s hold on America. Perhaps having been wounded at a major action, rather than a skirmish would also increase her chances of the board looking beyond her sex to the merits of her case. In support of her claim, she included a testament from Middleborough resident Reverend Pratt which stated she had enlisted in April of 1781. By 1818, the war records had yet to be organized and set aside in central locations. Many of the muster rolls and documents had been destroyed by the invading British who, during the War of 1812, torched many of Washington’s buildings on August 24, 1814. Perhaps Deborah thought the benefits of falsifying her enlistment out-weighted the risk of being caught. Her pension was approved and from Sept. 14, 1818, she would received the $8 per month. However nearly two years later, when Congress moved to limit pensions to only those who could prove a financial need, she filed a petition on January 25, 1820. She restated her enlistment as in April of 1781, detailing the economic hardships since discharge compounded by her wounds received in action. Her petition was accepted and her continued pension was approved.

Service & Actions during War

Deborah was mustered into Captain George Webb’s light infantry company of the 4^th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel William Shepard, later under Colonel Henry Jackson. She remained with the 4^th until April, 1783 when she transferred to General Paterson’s staff. These were elite troops, specially picked for their size and strength than the average soldier. They could move out rapidly to provide an army’s vanguard, flank coverage for advancing troops, or rearguard action. They would also form scouting detachments for enemy reconnaissance duties. Her disguise may have been more likely to succeed having joined this company as no one would consider a female could keep up with the vigorous demands placed on such soldiers. Even though after the victory at Yorktown nearly guaranteed the end of the war was near, there was still a great deal of partisan fighting north of New York City and in New Jersey. Sampson would become embroiled in some of these heated skirmishes and would be wounded in one of them.

Wounded

Accounts vary as to the number of times Deborah was wounded in action and types and locations of wounds she received. It is most likely that she was wounded in one action, receiving a flesh wound to the head and a musket ball to her leg which never fully healed. Though statements indicate she removed the bullet herself, rather than risking a doctor discovering her identity, it was most likely never extracted. The wound would cause her much pain her entire life, limiting her physical abilities, accruing large medical bills, and in some accounts, placing the blame for her death on her poor health resulting from her wound.

The skirmish with Tory troops in which Deborah was wounded most likely took place on June 25, 1782 (some accounts place this skirmish as July 3), not at the Battle of Terrytown (July 15, 1781) which was inferred to in her memoirs and later when she applied for the 1818 pension.

It occurred in the region of Tappan Bay, near Terrytown, New York, which might explain the memoir’s reference to an earlier action. From the time the British established a strong hold on New York City in the fall of 1776, Westchester County north of Kings Bridge had become a ‘no man’s land.’ Farms and residences of both patriots and loyalists were subject to horrendous atrocities by marauding bands of ‘cowboys’ in a civil war of partisan violence. Deborah’s party had encountered a detachment from the ‘Commander of Cowboys’ (or the American label – ‘Outlaw of the Bronx’) Colonel James Delancy’s Tory regiment of dragoons. It was James Delancy who attacked Colonel Christopher Greene, commander of the Rhode Island 1^st – the sole African American Regiment in the Continental Army. Over a dozen of Greene’s men surrounded their commander and fought to the death trying to protect him. Delancy had Greene’s body dismembered and terribly mutilated as a warning to whites who commanded black troops.

The Tory dragoons fired a volley from their carbines and were answered with a crash of muskets by the Light Infantry Americans who were on foot. The Tories wheeled about and galloped away, however engaged the Americans again when they were reinforced by a party of Tories on foot. The Americans retreated to the nearby woods while still keeping up a scattering fire. A detachment from Lt. Colonel Ebenezer Sproat’s 2^nd Mass. Regiment arrived and poured a destructive fire upon the enemy who soon retired. Deborah’s memoir stated that her second hand man was shot dead on the enemy’s second volley. Conflicting accounts stated that Deborah had received a slashing wound to the head, was shot in the shoulder, and also the thigh. She is believed to have been taken to a hospital in which her head wound was bandaged, however she left before the surgeon could attend to the musket ball still lodged in her thigh. She says in her memoir that she extracted the bullet in her thigh. Conflicting reports stated that she was able to remove the musket ball with her penknife, sewing the wound with needle and thread. However, in the Report of the Committee of Congress, Jan. 31, 1837 in which her husband was seeking Sampson’s pension, he testified that the ball was never extracted and “that the effect of the wound continued through life, and probably hastened her death.”

Further proof that Sampson enlisted in 1782

Deborah’s memoir mentioned that the skirmish with Tory dragoons in which she was wounded occurred the same year she enlisted. She mentions that after this skirmish, she came under the command of Colonel Henry Jackson, native of Boston. Jackson assumed the command of the 4^th Massachusetts Regiment on January 1, 1783, when Colonel William Shepard was promoted to a Brigadier General. Since she enlisted the year prior to Colonel Henry Jackson assuming command, she must had done so in 1782. Again, this further confirms the falsifying of her participation at the Battle of Yorktown, the fall of 1781, and the romanticized campaign with the Northern Army against hostile Native Americans.

Highland Department & Winter Quarters

Deborah’s regiment was stationed in the Hudson River Valley’s Highland department. Prior to and after Yorktown, Washington had kept a close eye on British forces in New York City, both for defensive purposes and contemplating attacking. Deborah’s company was given the dangerous task of patrolling the neutral territory of Westchester County, New York, a ‘no man’s land’ of partisan violence. Her light infantry probed enemy lines to assess the build up of British troops and were occasionally involved in heated skirmishes. She never traveled further north than New Windsor, just north of West Point, where she wintered from 1782 – 1783. Throughout most of her service she was under the command of Major General Henry Knox and in General John Paterson’s brigade. She passed herself off as a young boy of 17 and was nicknamed “Molly”, for want of growing a beard. According to the memoir, Deborah’s regiment was assigned to the Northern Army after having returned from Yorktown. This is highly questionable. Deborah would remain with the 4^th Mass. from the time she enlisted until she accompanied General Paterson to Philadelphia in the summer of 1783. The 4^th would remain in the Hudson Valley during Deborah’s service. Therefore the section of the memoir in which she campaigned with the Northern army in and around Fort Ticonderoga, battling hostile Native Americans and acquiring an ‘Indian maiden’ for a wife, was total fiction conjured by her biographer, Herman Mann.

Assigned to General Paterson’s Staff

According to Sampson’s memoir, she was taken into General Paterson’s staff as an orderly or what was termed ‘waiter.’ In April, 1783, General Paterson’s waiter, Major Haskell fell ill and Sampson supposedly took his place. Historian Vinton questions this portion of the memoir stating, “questionable that now sergeant Shurtliffe (Deborah was a private) should be given the position as an aide to a general which is held by officers.” In Sampson’s memoir she wrote, “I no longer slept on a pallet of straw on the damp, cold ground, but on a good feather bed,” having resided in the general’s home. It was odd that a private soldier would be asked to replace a position on a General’s staff previously held by a major. There was no reason stated why a common soldier should be selected to wait on the general’s table, however evidence points to this portion of the memoir as being factual. On June 24, 1783, General Paterson’s Brigade, now composing the 1^st and 2^nd Mass. Regiments was ordered to Philadelphia to put down a mutiny of American soldiers. He was to take 1,500 men and added the 3^rd Mass. Regiment. Deborah’s regiment, the 4^th Mass. would not be part of Paterson’s detachment. However, Sampson did travel with Paterson’s brigade to Philadelphia. This could only have occurred if Deborah were transferred to the 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd regiments, or was on Paterson’s staff, proving she had indeed been added to the general’s staff. Years later, when Deborah was touring the countryside, describing her time as a soldier, she would stay nearly a month at General Paterson’s home in New York. She referred to the general as “my good old friend.” She was on the general’s staff for approximately four months, however the oddity of selecting a private soldier from the ranks leads one to believe that General Paterson must have had some contact with Sampson prior to her transfer, or she was highly recommended by her officers.

Philadelphia Mutiny

It was always difficult for a budding new nation to pay its soldiers. As the war wound down, it became impossible. There was no national government, just a confederation of states bound by a Congress. This Congress did not possess the power of taxation, nor the means for raising revenue for national purposes. They resorted to borrowing and printing enormous quantities of paper money. By the later part of 1780, the money became worthless and ceased to circulate. There were little or no funds to feed and supply any army let alone pay its soldiers. Many soldiers bore the hardships and the empty promises of future restitution with discontent. But more and more there were cases of open mutiny. Some had been put down harshly, with the leaders hanged, however this did not end the open hostility. Military surgeon Dr. Thacher stated that about eighty Pennsylvania soldiers from Lancaster marched to Philadelphia in June of 1783 to demand payment from Congress. They arrived on June 29^th and were joined by over three hundred soldiers, two hundred from Carolina. With artillery and drums beating, they marched to the State House where Congress was in session. They barred the doors and demanded to meet with the delegates to force payment of back salaries. One young congressman, Alexander Hamilton met with some of the leaders while the rest of the delegates escaped to Princeton, New Jersey. Washington got word of the mutiny and sent troops to quell the uprising. He ordered Major General Robert Howe to send 1,500 troops to restore order. General Howe ordered General Patterson’s Brigade along with the 3^rd Massachusetts to Philadelphia who departed West Point on June 26^th.

Paterson, along with General Heath was successful in suppressing the mutiny. The ringleaders of the mutiny were tried and condemned to death, however Congress later pardoned them. General Paterson’s Brigade left Philadelphia on September 25^th, but without orderly Robert Shurtliffe. By then, Deborah had fallen ill had been hospitalized.

Discovery and Discharge

Deborah stated in her memoir that a malignant fever raged in Philadelphia, particularly among the troops. She said she was soon seized with it and sent to the hospital, put into a “loathsome bunk out of which a corpse had been removed for burial.” She described how her identity was soon discovered. While in a somewhat comatose state, she believed the nursing staff thought that she had died and made a gurgling sound in her throat to get their attention. A Dr. Bana rushed to her side and “Thrusting his hand into my bosom to ascertain if there were motion at the heart, he was surprised at finding an inner vest tightly compressing my breasts, the instant removal of which not only ascertained the fact of life, but disclosed the fact that I was a woman!”

Dr. Bana was Dr. Barnabas Binney. Born in 1751 in Boston, he graduated from Rhode Island College, later Brown University, named for the wealthy slave merchant family, and moved to Philadelphia in 1776 to practice as a surgeon in the military hospital. He was dignified for his skill, his gentlemanly manners, and his unfaltering kindness to his patients. Binney kept Sampson’s identity secret, telling his nurse Mrs. Parker, who aided in helping her restore her health. When able, she was removed to Mrs. Parker’s apartment where she was cared for. When she could ride, she was taken to live with Dr. Binney’s family. Though she was not told, Sampson suspected that she’d been found out by the gentle treatment she had been receiving. Binney kept her identity hidden from his family, introducing her as a “young and gallant soldier.” During this time, the memoir written by Herman Mann described a romantic liaison between Sampson and a fair maiden which had been totally fantasized by Mann.

Sampson would remain with Dr. Binney when General Paterson left Philadelphia to return to West Point. In early October, 1783, Deborah was well enough to return to her regiment at West Point. So she would not have walk back to her post, Dr. Binney kindly arranged payment for her stage passage to West Point. In parting, he also gave her a letter to give to her commanding officer, General Paterson. Accounts that claim the letter was addressed to General Washington and it was he who decided Sampson’s fate and manner of discharge are incorrect. According to Deborah’s memoir, she arrived at Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, on October 12^th. Here she says that she took a boat from South Amboy to New York City. During a gale, she lost all her belongings, including her journal she had kept throughout the war. She made it to the city and found her way back north to West Point three days later. This section of the memoir raises a serious question. How could an American soldier in full uniform be allowed to visit New York City which was still occupied by the British?

The letter by Dr. Binney addressed to General Paterson disclosed Sampson’s sex. She would receive an honorable discharge. It is believed that Paterson developed a close bond with the ‘young man’ and after having discussed the situation with his officers, they decided that Sampson’s merits qualified her favorable discharge. According to Sampson’s memoir, General Paterson spoke with Colonel Jackson who informed him that private Shurtliffe had died in Philadelphia from fever. He was then informed that Sampson, now in female attire, was one and the same person. She was discharged on October 23, 1783. She also received testimonials of faithful performance of duty and exemplary conduct in the army by General Paterson and Colonels Shepard and Jackson, her regimental commanders. General Paterson arranged payment for her transport home to Massachusetts.

Later Life

After discharge, she arrived home about November 1^st. Deborah spent the winter of 1783-1784 with her uncle Mr. Waters – the husband of her mother’s sister. It was during this winter that she became acquainted with her future husband, Benjamin Gannett (1757-1837), a young farmer from nearby Sharon, Massachusetts. According to the memoir, she supposedly kept her masculine disguise until the spring of 1784 when she resumed woman’s clothing. This is difficult to believe as they were married on April, 7, 1784. They managed a hundred acre farm in Sharon and were always for want of money. Due to complications from her war wound, she could not perform great labor. They were constantly subjected to heavy medical expenses; on physician’s bill alone was $600 – thousands in today’s economy. As already noted, for several years after the war, like many soldiers of the Revolution, Deborah was not compensated for her time in the service. She wrote to friends and influential citizens (Paul Revere being the most prominent) in support of back pay and pensions. She would be successful in her pension applications, however not receiving a monthly stipend until 1805 and back pay to 1803, twenty years after her discharge.

In the mid 1790’s, Herman Mann, local writer and contributor to mainly broadsheets, approached Deborah to write her memoirs. The memoir was printed in 1797 with minimal success. A few years after, perhaps with Mann’s marketing connections, she decided to tour New England and New York, lecturing and demonstrating her military skills while in uniform. She never made much money in this endeavor and traveling with poor health complicated by her injuries must had been strenuous. The couple had three children, Earl (b 1785), Mary (1787), and Patience (1790) and adopted an orphan named Susanna Baker Shepard. Her son would join the army and rise to Captain Earl B. Gannett, passing away on June 9, 1845. Deborah become an active member of her community, however the family strained to make the farm successful under heavy financial burdens and remained poor. She died on April 29, 1827 reportedly of yellow fever. Benjamin Gannett would survive his wife by ten years. He tried to several years to get the inheritance pension which finally was rewarded shortly after his death, which went to his children.

Herman Mann wrote Deborah’s obituary in which he poured over her fine attributes and patriotism. He also plugged the new memoir he was now free to publish as part of Deborah’s stipulation that it not be done until after her death. He talked on all the main talking points of the memoir and ended with a promise as to its publication.

Deborah is buried at the Rock Ridge Cemetery, Sharon, Massachusetts. The town of Sharon commissioned a statue of Deborah Sampson that sits in front of the public library. Sharon also named a park for Deborah and memorialized the historic “Deborah Sampson Gannett” House which is privately owned. The farmland around the home is protected against future development. In 1906, the town of Plympton, the place of Deborah’s birth, placed a boulder on the town green with an inscribed plaque. During World War II, the Liberty Ship (class of cargo ships) S. S. Deborah Gannett was named in her honor. The ship was decommissioned in 1962. In 1983, she was named the official heroine of Massachusetts.

Further Note on Herman Mann’s Manuscript

Voltaire asked Fredrick II how he could allow himself in statements so variant from the truth. He famously replied, “I write history to be read, not to be believed.” He could have made reference to what Herman Mann penned in Sampson’s memoirs. Much of his extended descriptions of battles that occurred when Sampson was still teaching and weaving in Middleborough, Mass was copied word for word from military surgeon James Thacher’s Journal. Historian Adam Vinton wrote, “This work must have been before him all the time while; for he borrows from it constantly, and uses the very words of Dr. Thacher in more than 20 instances.” He also lifted material from the 1750 publication The Surprising Life & Adventures of Hanna Snell.

Check out Deborah Sampson in an incredible re-enactment portrayal by Judith Kalaora by clicking:  History At Play

According to History At Play™ , the site “was created to educate and entertain students young and old, from all over the world. Our living history performances breathe life into the stories of influential and often forgotten women. Founder and Artistic Director Judith Kalaora discovered living history through her work as a historical interpreter in Boston, MA. It was there that she portrayed Massachusetts’ Official Heroine Deborah Sampson and noted the repeated occurrence of guests and visitors asking, Tell me more about Deborah!” You may also go to www.HistoryAtPlay.com to learn more.

You Tube “The Folklorist: Deborah Sampson with Judith Kalaora as Deborah Sampson

Want to Learn More about the Incredible Role Women played in the American Revolution. Check out these previews on Amazon.

Also of Interest on Revolutionary War Journal

The Battle of Fort Washington was the Final Devastating Chapter in George Washington’s New York Campaign

Sources

Adams, H. G. Cyclopedia of Female Biography…. 1857: Groombridge & Sons, London, England.

Ellet, Elizabeth F. The Women in the American Revolution in 2 Volumes. 1819: Baker & Scribner, New York, NY.

Hale, Sarah. Woman’s Record; Sketches of all Distinguished Women… 1853: Sampson Loco, Son & Co. London, England.

Niles Weekly Register, vol. xxxii. “Obituary to Mrs. Gannett, Deborah Sampson.” Baltimore, Maryland, (May 26) 1827, pg. 217.

Paterson, John & Egleston, Thomas [great-grandson]. The Life of John Paterson, Major General in the Revolutionary Army. 1898: J. P. Putnam & Sons., New York, NY.

Sampson, Deborah & Vinton, John Adams – edited. The Female Review: Life of Deborah Sampson, The Female Soldier in the War of the Revolution with an Introduction & Notes by John Adams Vinton. 1866: J. K. Wiggin & William Parsons Lunt, Boston MA.

Sampson, Deborah & Mann, Herman – editor. The Female Review or Memoirs of an American Young Lady… 1797: Printed for Nathaniel & Benjamin Heaton, Boston, MA.

Simpson, Henry. The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians, Now Deceased: Collected from Original and Authentic Sources. 1859: W. Brotherhead Publisher, Philadelphia, PA.

Thacher, James. A Military Journal During the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783… 1823: Richardson & Lord, Boston, MA.

Young, Alfred. Masquerade: The Life & Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. 2005: Vintage Books & Random House, New York, NY.