Deborah Sampson Facts, Biography, Legacy

Deborah Sampson Gannett (December 17, 1760–April 29, 1827) was one of the only women to serve in the army during the Revolutionary War. After disguising herself as a man and enlisting under the name Robert Shurtliff, she served for 18 months. Sampson was severely wounded in battle and received an honorable discharge after her gender was discovered. She later successfully fought for her rights to a military pension. Fast Facts: Deborah Sampson Also Known As: Private Robert ShurtliffKey Accomplishments: Disguised herself as a man and enlisted as â€Å"Private Robert Shurtliff† during the American Revolution; served for 18 months before being honorably discharged.Born: December 17, 1760 in Plympton, MassachusettsParents: Jonathan Sampson and Deborah BradfordDied: April 29, 1827 in Sharon, MassachusettsSpouse: Benjamin Gannett (m. April 17, 1785)Children:  Earl (1786), Mary (1788), Patience (1790), and Susanna (adopted) Early Life Deborah Sampsons parents were descended from Mayflower passengers and Puritan luminaries, but they did not prosper like many of their ancestors. When Deborah was about five years old, her father vanished. The family believed that he was lost at sea during a fishing trip, but it later emerged that he had abandoned his wife and six young children to build a new life and family in Maine. Deborah’s mother, unable to provide for her children, placed them with other relatives and families, as was common for destitute parents of the time. Deborah ended up with the widow of a former minister, Mary Prince Thatcher, who likely taught the child to read. From that point on, Deborah displayed a desire for education unusual in a girl of that era. When Mrs. Thatcher died around 1770, 10-year-old Deborah became an indentured servant in the household of Jeremiah Thomas of Middleborough, Massachusetts. â€Å"Mr. Thomas, as an earnest patriot, did much towards shaping the political opinions of the young woman in his charge. At the same time, Thomas did not believe in women’s education, so Deborah borrowed books from the Thomas sons. After her indenture ended in 1778, Deborah supported herself by teaching school in the summers and working as a weaver in the winter. She also used her skills at light woodworking to peddle goods like spools, pie crimpers, milking stools, and other items door-to-door. Enlisting in the Army The Revolution was in its final months when Deborah decided to disguise herself and attempt to enlist sometime in late 1781. She purchased some cloth and made herself a suit of men’s clothing. At 22, Deborah had reached a height of around five feet, eight inches, tall even for men of the period. With a wide waist and a small chest, it was easy enough for her to pass as a young man. She first enlisted under the pseudonym â€Å"Timothy Thayer† in Middleborough in early 1782, but her identity was discovered before she made it into service. On Sept. 3, 1782, the First Baptist Church of Middleborough expelled her, writing that she: â€Å"Last spring was accused of dressing in men’s clothes and enlisting as a Soldier in the Army [†¦] and for some time before had behaved very loose and unchristian like, and at last left our parts in a suden maner, and it is not known where she has gone. She ended up walking from Middleborough to the port of New Bedford, where she considered signing on to an American cruiser, then passed through Boston and its suburbs, where she finally mustered in as â€Å"Robert Shurtliff† in Uxbridge in May 1782. Private Shurtliff was one of 50 new members of the Light Infantry Company of the 4th Massachusetts Infantry. Identity Uncovered Deborah soon saw combat. On July 3, 1782, just a few weeks into her service, she took part in a battle outside Tarrytown, New York. During the fight, she was struck by two musket balls in the leg and a gash to her forehead. Fearing exposure, â€Å"Shurtliff† begged comrades to leave her to die in the field, but they took her to the surgeon anyway. She quickly slipped out of the field hospital and removed the bullets with a penknife. More or less permanently disabled, Private Shurtliff was reassigned as a waiter to General John Patterson. The war was essentially over, but American troops remained in the field. By June 1783, Deborah’s unit was sent to Philadelphia to put down a brewing mutiny among American soldiers over delays in back pay and discharge. Fevers and illness were common in Philadelphia, and not long after she arrived, Deborah fell seriously ill. She was put under the care of Dr. Barnabas Binney, who discovered her true gender as she lay delirious in his hospital. Rather than alert her commander, he took her to his home and put her under the care of his wife and daughters. After months in Binney’s care, it was time for her to rejoin General Patterson. As she prepared to leave, Binney gave her a note to give to the General, which she correctly assumed revealed her gender. Following her return, she was called to Patterson’s quarters. â€Å"She says, A re-entrance was harder than facing a  cannonade, in her biography. She nearly fainted from the tension. To her surprise, Patterson decided not to punish her. He and his staff seemed almost impressed she had carried off her ruse for so long. With no sign she had ever acted inappropriately with her male comrades, Private Shurtliff was given an honorable discharge on Oct. 25, 1783.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Becoming Mrs. Gannett Deborah returned to Massachusetts, where she married Benjamin Gannett and settled down on their small farm in Sharon. She was soon the mother of four: Earl, Mary, Patience, and an adopted daughter named Susanna. Like many families in the young Republic, the Gannetts struggled financially. Starting in 1792, Deborah began what would become a decades-long battle to receive back pay and pension relief from her time in service. Unlike many of her male peers, Deborah didn’t rely just on petitions and letters to Congress. To raise her profile and strengthen her case, she also allowed a local writer named Herman Mann to write a romanticized version of her life story, and in 1802 embarked on a lengthy lecture tour of Massachusetts and New York. National Tour Reluctantly leaving her children in Sharon, Gannett was on the road from June 1802 to April 1803. Her tour covered over 1,000 miles and stopped in every major town in Massachusetts and the Hudson River Valley, ending in New York City. In most towns, she lectured simply on her wartime experiences. In bigger venues like Boston, the American Heroine† was a spectacle. Gannett would give her lecture in female dress, then exit the stage as a chorus sang patriotic tunes. Finally, she would reappear in her military uniform and perform a complex, 27-step military drill with her musket. Her tour was met with widespread acclaim until she got to New York City, where she lasted only a single performance. â€Å"Her talents do not appear calculated for theatrical exhibitions, one reviewer sniffed. She returned home to Sharon soon after. Because of the high cost of travel, she ended up making a profit of around $110. Petition for Benefits In her long fight for benefits, Gannett had the support of some powerful allies like Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere, Massachusetts Congressman William Eustis, and her old commander, General Patterson. All would press her claims with the Government, and Revere, in particular, would frequently lend her money. Revere wrote to Eustis after meeting Gannett in 1804, describing her as â€Å"much out of health,† in part because of her military service, and despite the Gannett’s obvious efforts, â€Å"they are really poor.† He added: We commonly form our Idea of the person whom we hear spoken off, whom we have never seen; according as their actions are described, when I heard her spoken off as a Soldier, I formed the Idea of a tall, Masculine female, who had a small share of understandg, without education, one of the meanest of her Sex-When I saw and discoursed with I was agreeably surprised to find a small, effeminate, and converseable Woman, whose education entitled her to a better situation in life. In 1792, Gannett successfully petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature for back pay of  £34, plus interest. Following her lecture tour in 1803, she began to petition the Congress for disability pay. In 1805, she received a lump sum of $104 plus $48 a year thereafter. In 1818, she gave up disability pay for a general pension of $96 a year. The fight for retroactive payments went on until the end of her life. Death Deborah died at the age of 68, after a long period of ill health. The family was too poor to pay for a headstone, so her gravesite in Sharon’s Rock Ridge Cemetery was unmarked until the 1850s or 1860s. At first, she was noted only as â€Å"Deborah, Wife of Benjamin Gannett.† It wasn’t until years after that someone memorialized her service by carving into the headstone, â€Å"Deborah Sampson Gannett/Robert Shurtliff/The Female Soldier.† Resources and Further Reading Abbatt, William. The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries: Extra Numbers. 45-48, XII, 1916.â€Å"Letter from Paul Revere to William Eustis, 20 February 1804.† Massachusetts Historical Society Collections Online, Mass Cultural Council, 2019.Mann, Herman. Female Review: Life of Deborah Sampson, the Female Soldier in the War of the Revolution. Forgotten, 2016.Rothman, Ellen K., et al. â€Å"Deborah Sampson Performs in Boston.† Mass Moments, Mass Humanities.Young, Alfred Fabian. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. Vintage, 2005.Weston, Thomas. History of the Town of Middleboro, Massachusetts. Vol. 1, Houghton Mifflin, 1906.