Deborah was born on Dec. 17, 1760 in Plympton, Mass. She was the great-great granddaughter of William Bradford. She was one of seven kids. When she was five, her father did not return from a sea voyage. It was thought he had perished, but actually he abandoned his family. Her mother was forced to place most of her children with friends and relatives. Deborah was an indentured servant from ages 10-18. Although she was treated well, she was not allowed schooling. However, she learned from the boys in the household how to read and write. Her indenture ended at age 18 and worked as a teacher and weaver. She was very patriotic and enlisted in disguise into the Continental Army to fight for independence in 1782. (This means that although some sources credit her with being at Yorktown, she couldn’t have because that was in 1781.) Her first attempt to enlist failed when she got drunk with the enlistment bonus and revealed her identity. So, she went to another town and tried again. This time she was successful and joined the 4th Massachusetts Regiment. She was tall enough (at 5’7” she was a bit taller than the average male) to be chosen for an elite unit. Her mates nicknamed her Molly for her feminine looks. Apparently, none of them made the jump to if he looks like a female, he might just be a female. Robert (she had named herself Robert Shurtleff) participated in several skirmishes with Tory guerrillas. She led a mission on a house where 30 Tories were captured. On another mission, she was wounded in hand-to-hand combat. She took a saber cut to the side of the head. She later was wounded by two balls in the thigh in a Tory ambush. She crawled into some bushes to nurse herself. She was able to remove one of the balls with a knife, but kept the other in her leg for the rest of her life. She was eventually found out when she caught the flu and a doctor discovered her gender. He decided not to rat her out and she stayed in the Army until discharged in 1783. Although her identity was revealed at the time of her discharge, she was given a military pension. She married a farmer and had three kids. In 1802, she became the first American female to do a lecture tour. She died at age 66.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Sampson
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/deborah-sampson
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