RANSVESTIA

beard and moustache was attributed to youth. So Private Shurtleff joined his comrades in arms without being confronted by any insur- mountable obstacles. These were to appear later.

Deborah's first wound was a saber slash across the left side of her head. Practically self-healing, it did not require the services of a doctor. Her second wound, however, was caused by a musket ball, which pierced her thigh. Frightened at the thought of detection, Deborah crawled away from a field dressing station and treated the wound herself. The musket ball remained embedded in her thigh for the rest of her life.

Finally, it was a doctor in Philadelphia who made what must have been for him a truly remarkable discovery. Deborah had been stricken by "malignant fever" and close to death, she found herself in a hospi- tal. Unable to move and probably not caring, she could only lie in pain and misery as a Dr. Binney decided to check her heartbeat. We can wryly imagine the doctor's surprise when he probed under the tight bandage Deborah always kept wrapped around her upper torso. But, for reasons known only to himself, the doctor kept the secret and transferred Deborah to his own home to recuperate.

Although Deborah had never been one to turn a man's head, she did make an unusually attractive disabled soldier. Within days, Dr. Binney's young niece fell in love with the dashing hero who bore a scar across his face as testimony to her heroism. Private Shurtleff accepted many gifts from the impressionable girl, took long rides in the country with her, and eventually marched back to his regiment, there to end the affair by writing a long and revealing letter to the moonstruck maiden. Dr. Binney then revealed the secret of the bandage to General Patterson.

General Washington himself authorized Private Shurtleff's discharge from the service, and Deborah returned to Massachusetts in November, 1783.

She was married in 1784, and in time she became the mother of three children. On April 29, 1827 she died. A street in Sharon, Massachusetts, was named after her, and on April 10, 1944, a Liberty Ship bearing her name was christened.

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