ARTICLE

PRIVATE ROBERT SHURTLEFF

America's First Woman Soldier

From "Liberty" a Magazine of Religious Freedom Volume 71, No. 2, March/April 1976

H.T. Kellner

Private Robert Shurtleff was only 21 years old when he joined the Continental Army in May, 1782. Wounded three times and a veteran of several campaigns, he must certainly have been a good soldier. Indeed, history tells us that Private Shurtleff did his job so well that he was finally transferred to Philadelphia to serve as an orderly for General Patterson.

Ironically, however, the move from a combat area to one that was relatively secure proved to be Private Shurtleff's undoing - for it was in the City of Brotherly Love that a doctor discovered that Private Shurtleff was really a woman.

Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts, on December 17, 1760. About five feet eight inches tall and not especially attractive, she had spent the early part of her life as an indentured servant and general handywoman. But Deborah had set her sights higher. She taught herself to read, and by the time she was 20 she was able to find work as a teacher. Using twelve dollars she had saved from her new profession, she bought some cloth and carefully sewed herself a man's outfit. As each article was completed, she hid it in some hay.

When all was ready, she wrapped a tight bandage around her breasts, assumed her new identity, hiked seventy-five miles to Worcester, Massachusetts, and became Private Robert Shurtleff, the newest member of Capt. George Webb's Fourth Massachusetts Regiment.

None of her comrades, it seems, had the slightest intimation of the truth. The tightly wrapped bandage did its job well, and the lack of

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