SAUGUS — The Historical Society took the time to remember Deborah Sampson, an important figure in the American Revolution and a trailblazer for women, as Patriots Day approaches.
Society member Bill Stewart introduced Sampson’s story, saying that at age 21, Sampson had cut her hair and dressed in men’s clothing to join the army.
When Sampson was caught enlisting in Middleborough, MA, in 1782, the Baptist church she belonged to withdrew her fellowship, and all of the members of the church refused to associate with her unless she asked for forgiveness.
However, Sampson would enlist again, this time in Uxbridge, MA, under the name Robert Shurtliff.
“She joined the Light Infantry Company of the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment under the command of Capt. George Webb,” Stewart said. “This unit consisted of 50 to 60 men, was first quartered in Bellingham, MA, and later mustered at Worcester with the rest of the men commanded by Col. William Shepard.”
The Light Infantry soldiers were specifically chosen for being taller and stronger than the average soldier with the job of providing rapid flank coverage for advancing regiments, as well as rearguard and forward reconnaissance duties for units on the move, according to Stewart.
Stewart explained that because Sampson joined this unit, due to being larger and taller, her disguise was more likely to work.
“No one was likely to look for a woman amongst soldiers who were especially chosen for their above-average size and superior physical strength,” he said.
Sampson would participate in combat in either June or July, and she would be shot in the thigh and receive a sword cut to her forehead.
“She begged her fellow soldiers not to take her to a doctor for the fear that her sex would be discovered, but a soldier put her on a horse and took her to a hospital,” he said.
Sampson would leave the hospital after her forehead was tended to, and removed her ball in her leg with a penknife and a sewing needle.
“Some of the shot was too deep to reach. As described in a later application for a pension, her leg never fully healed, and on April 1, 1783, she was assigned for new duties and spent seven months serving as a waiter to Gen. George Paterson,” Stewart said.
He noted that, though some soldiers had found out she was a woman, she continued her work as a soldier.
“On June 21, the president of Congress ordered George Washington to send a contingent of soldiers under Paterson to Philadelphia to help a rebellion of American soldiers who were protesting delays in their pay and privileges,” Stewart said, and in Philadelphia, Sampson would grow ill, and Dr. Barnabas Binney, in treating Sampson, would find out her gender.
“Without revealing his discovery to army authorities, he took her to the house where his wife, daughters, and female nurse cared for her,” he said.
Binney then had Sampson deliver a note to Paterson, which would tell the general what he had discovered.
“In other cases, women who pretended to be men to serve in the army were reprimanded. But Paterson gave her a discharge, a note with some words of advice, and enough money to travel home. She was honorably discharged at West Point, New York, by Gen. Henry Knox on Oct. 25, 1783, after a year and a half of full service,” Stewart said.
