The Woman Who Snuck Into George Washington's Army

On this episode of Our American Stories, Deborah Sampson became a hero of the American Revolution when she disguised herself as a man and joined the Patriot forces. Here to tell her story is the author of Deborah Sampson: The Girl Who Went to War.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we continue with our American stories. Deborah Sampson became
a hero of the American Revolution when she disguised herself
as a man and joined the Patriot forces. Here to
tell her story is the author of Deborah Sampson, the
Girl who went to War. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I am Marilyn Gilbert came Chak, and I'm going to
be telling the story of Deborah Sampson. I was on
the Internet some years ago and was looking and talking
about a woman who fought in the Revolutionary War successfully

(00:54):
disguised as a man. This piqued my interest because there
were definite rules against it. They could be flogged, jailed,
or put out of the church any manner of things.
What made me want to go to the work in
trouble of writing about her was her extraordinary courage and
her amazing patriotic zeal that she thought to be one

(01:17):
among those who tried to pass and succeeded without being discovered.
She was born in seventeen sixty in Plimpton, Massachusetts. Her
family came over on the Mayflower, but at five years
her father deserts the family and she's sent to work

(01:39):
for a mother's cousin as a maid. At eight, she's
a maid to eighty year old widow Thatcher. At ten,
she is sent to work for the Thomas family as
an indentured servant. Although she begged them continually to let
her go to school, they would not let her go

(02:01):
to school. So she taught herself to read and write
in the loft at night, and also she in the
meantime was becoming a teacher and a weaver. Then Middleborough
gets word of the Boston tea party. The English attacked

(02:23):
the people of Boston and jailed them and whipped them
for dumping the tea in the harbor. Deborah and mister
Thomas go to Boston with food for the Americans, and
that experience helped her know that she wanted to be

(02:44):
a soldier. One night, she dresses as a man and
goes to enlist. Is almost successful when someone discovers or
sees her face finger. This is a finger that only
weavers have, of the thread rubbing against their certain finger,

(03:09):
and a man shouts, that's a woman. She has a
fellon finger. She in the meantime has woven so many
pairs of men's suits and clothing that she simply puts
on late at night a man's suit, and gathers some
other things that she might need because she is going

(03:33):
to try to find the recruiter for George Washington's army.
She walks quite some distance before she finds the recruiter,
and so she stays in barns during the day to
keep out of sight. She does find a recruiter and

(03:54):
she enlists as Robert Shirtliffe. She's given a uniform and
she marches in this dreadful weather, very very cold weather
with her unit from Boston to New York City and
joins the Light Infantry seventeen eighty two at West Point.

(04:16):
In fact, as we speak, there is a plaque on
the wall for her at West Point. She liked to
be away from the other man as much as she
could for fear of discovery, and so she volunteered as
a scout. But once while out, having volunteered as a
scout and on horseback, raided an enemy hamhouse, and as

(04:41):
she's making her getaway, is wounded in the leg. She
hides in a cave and using her knife, some brandy
and water from a nearby stream, works on the wound,
though it is never properly healed, and in time she

(05:02):
walks until she can rejoin her unit. General Patterson shows
her to be his orderly now this involves shaving his
face and helping his family. This is an honor, and
she also is given a room of her own, so

(05:25):
that helps subside her fear of being found out. Then
there is the rebellion in Philadelphia from some of the
troops there, and the General needs to go and he
wants Deborah to go with him, so while they are there,
he sends her out on several errands and while she's out,

(05:50):
she faints and falls over and loses consciousness. She's picked
up off the street and taken to a hospital. Doctor
ben comes to her and she begs him not to
turn her in because he has discovered she is female.
Doctor Bennet helps her win an honorable discharge, but before

(06:16):
she's discharged from the army, the general is very upset
and asks her why did you do this? Meaning why
did you enlist as a woman, And she said so
I could see the world and serve my country. Other
men who had faked their identity and gotten into the

(06:38):
army were severely punished, but the general said he would
not punish her he thought so much of her, but
he said she could no longer continue to be in
the army, so he had her turn in her uniform
and gave her a pink dress in pink shoes hat

(07:01):
to wear home. So when she gets home, no one
will have anything to do with her, not her mother,
not the church, not anyone. But she works as a
farm hand on different farms. And then one day a
handsome man on a great beautiful stallion rides up at

(07:26):
her door and asks her if she would like to
go riding with him. In time, they marry, and Debraah
bears three children in five years. But the farm does
not produce poor soil, and Benjamin is ill and cannot

(07:47):
work any longer, and her leg wound still bothers her.
She petitions the government for back pay as a soldier
for serving in the revolution. The government is paying soldier's
back pay, but not to her. She decides that she
can't wait any longer, and she goes in uniform and

(08:09):
does the Manual of Arms. She becomes the first American
woman to go on a paid public lecture tour. Then,
to her delight, Paul Revere had picked up her money
in Boston because he wrote a letter about her for
ninety six dollars, which was a fortune, and brought it

(08:33):
back to her in his saddle bags for her payments
to continue until her death. She died in eighteen twenty
seven at sixty seven years in Sharon, Massachusetts. In World
War II, a liberty ship launched, the Deborah Gannette that
was her husband's name and Debra's re application and struggle

(08:58):
for a military pension was on America's first freedom train,
and songs and poems have honored her, including one by
the Fort Worth, Texas Boys Choir. Her name is Annie
plaque at the US National Cemetery Song of Deborah was

(09:18):
sung for women veterans at a memorial service.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
And a special thanks to Greg Hengler on the production
and a special thanks to author Marilyn Comichek, author of
Deborah Simpson, The Girl Who Went to War and what
a movie this would be? It was a heck of
a story. And that scene at the doctor's office where
she's just hoping against hope that the doctor won't turn
her in and he does. All she wanted to do

(09:45):
was do what the boys could do, and that is
see the world and serve her country. The story of
the woman who went to war. Here on our American stories.