Sampson is one of the best-know women to have posed as a man in the Revolutionary war. She had been a domestic servant but a way to perhaps the war as an opportunity to earn a living. She cut her hair, put on men's clothes and enlisted in George Washington's Continental army as Robert Shurtleff. Her family descended from one of the original colonists, Priscilla Mullins Alden, who was later immortalized in Longfellow's poem, "The Courtship of Miles Standish." She was hired as a teacher in Middleborough Public School after her servitude in the household of Jeremiah Thomas ended in 1779. She enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment at the age of 21. Because of rumors of her dressing as a man and enlisting in the army, she was excommunicated from the First Baptist Church in Middleborough. Her regiment was sent to West Point, New York where she was wounded in the leg in a battle near Tarrytown. She tended the wounds herself so her gender would not be discovered. General Henry Knox honorably discharged Sampson from the army at West Point. She married a farmer named Benjamin Gannet and had three children. She also taught school. Nine years after her discharge, she was awarded a pension in the amount of thirty-four pounds lump sum from Massachusetts. Paul Revere sent a letter in her behalf to Congress in 1804. She was awarded a U.S. pension of four dollars a month. She died in 1827 at the age of sixty-six. More American Revolution Women Warriors Introduction Lydia Darragh Sybil Ludington Deborah Gannet Sampson Women in the Continental Army Civilian Women's Roles Back to Cry Havoc #31 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com