Deborah Sampson
Our Nation’s First Woman Soldier

Sources Various

    When advised of the situation, Gen. Patterson notified Gen. Henry Knox, who, in turn, advised Gen. George Washington. He ordered Robert Shurtleff/Deborah Sampson to be honorably discharged. Gen. Knox signed the document on 25 October 1783, and letters of testimony to her gallantry in combat were presented for her by Gen. William Sherpard, Col. Henry Jackson and Gen. Patterson. She had served for a year and a half. And, finally, wearing the dress given her by Gen. Patterson’s wife, she and the General stood on the steps of his headquarters and the entire Fourth Regiment passed in review - probably wondering who the young lady was with the General.

    On 7 April 1785, Deborah married Benjamin Gannett, a farmer of Sharon, Massachusetts, and bore him three children.

    In 1805 she was awarded a pension by the State of Massachusetts in the amount of $4.00 per month, primarily because of her wound to her thigh which was proving debilitating. In 1818 it was doubled.

    At the urging of Paul Revere, Deborah went on tour in 1802, capitalizing on her wartime fame. She lectured in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York and was perhaps America’s first women lecturer. She delivered speeches about her wartime experiences, and at the conclusion of her speech she would leave the stage, put on her “regimentals” and return to demonstrate the manual of arms, unheard of from a woman, and usually to the cheers of her appreciative audience. For these speaking engagements, she was not making enough money to pay her expenses. She frequently had to borrow money from her family and from her friend Paul Revere. Revere also wrote letters to government officials on her behalf, requesting that she be awarded a pension for her military service and her wounds.

    In 1804, Revere wrote to U.S. Representative William Eustis of Massachusetts on Sampson’s behalf. A military pension had never been requested for a woman. Revere wrote: “I have been induced to enquire her situation, and character, since she quit the male habit, and soldiers uniform; for the more decent apparel of her own gender...humanity and justice obliges me to say, that every person with whom I have conversed about her, and it is not a few, speak of her as a woman with handsome talents, good morals, a dutiful wife, and an affectionate parent”. On 11March 1805, Congress approved the request and placed Sampson on the Massachusetts Invalid Pension Roll at the rate of four dollars a month.

    On 22 February 1806, Sampson wrote once more to Revere requesting a loan of ten dollars: “My own indisposition and that of my sons causes me again to solicit your goodness in our favor though I, with Gratitude, confess it rouses every tender feeling and I blush at the

thought of receiving ninety and nine good turns as it were—my circumstances require that I should ask the hundredth.” He sent the ten dollars.

    In 1809, she sent another petition to Congress, asking that her pension as an invalid soldier be modified to start from her discharge in 1783. Had her petition been approved, she would have been awarded back pay of $960—approximately $13,800 in 2016 ($48 a year for 20 years). Her petition was denied, but when it came before Congress again in 1816 an award of $76.80 a year (about $1,100 in 2016 dollars) was approved. With this amount, she was able to repay all her loans and make improvements to the family farm.

    Sampson died of yellow fever at the age of 66 on 29 April, 1827, and was buried at Rock Ridge Cemetery in Sharon, Massachusetts. On her tombstone is inscribed “Deborah wife of Benjamin Gannett, died April 29, 1827, aged 68 years”. On the reverse side of the stone it reads “Deborah Sampson Gannett, Robert Shurtleff, The Female Soldier Service 1781-1783” Also, the D.A. R. erected a plaque in her memory, detailing her exploits.

    During World War II the Liberty Ship SS Deborah Gannett was named in her honor. It was laid down at the Bethlem-Fairfield Shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland, launched 10 April 1944 and scrapped in 1962.







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