Bitches Get Stuff Done: Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson was the first known American woman to impersonate a man in order to join the army and take part in combat!

In 1782, when she was 21, Sampson enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment as a man named Robert Shurtleff. Being 5 foot 7 inches tall, she looked tall for a woman and she had bound her breasts tightly to make her look more man. 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 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.

Deborah fought in several skirmishes. During her first battle, she received two musket balls in her thigh and an enormous cut on her forehead. She begged her fellow soldiers to just let her die and not take her to the hospital, but they refused to abandon her. A soldier put her on his horse and they rode six miles to a hospital. The doctors treated her head wound, but she left the hospital before they could attend to the musket balls. Fearful that her true identity would be discovered, she removed one of the balls herself with a penknife and sewing needle, but her leg never fully healed because the other ball was too deep for her to reach. Sampson was honorably discharged from the army in 1783.

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, 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.

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(I found about about this through Meryl Streep's article in the latest Vogue. Yah, that's where I learn about history.)