{"id":164,"date":"2025-04-20T18:32:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T18:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/?p=164"},"modified":"2025-05-03T08:43:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T15:43:36","slug":"was-a-soldier-in-the-us-revolution-a-woman-dressed-as-a-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/2025\/04\/20\/was-a-soldier-in-the-us-revolution-a-woman-dressed-as-a-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Was a Revolutionary War soldier a woman dressed as a man?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Deborah Sampson wore male drag to smuggle herself into the Continental Army. Under the name of Robert Shurtliff, she served throughout the War of Independence without being exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wounded in battle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At one point she was wounded in the head and thigh. She allowed an army doctor to treat the head wound but prevented him from treating her thigh, which she disinfected herself with wine and then extracted the bullet with a penknife. After the war ended, she was honorably discharged from the army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loved women<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sampson had several affairs with women while in the public guise of a man. She traveled to the Ohio frontier (still as soldier Shurtliff) where she purchased the freedom of a young white girl held captive by Indians, taking the girl as her wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denied a pension<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Sampson\u2019s true gender was discovered, she was denied her veteran\u2019s pension. Paul Revere, in recognition of Sampson\u2019s patriotic contributions, provided some financial support.
FURTHER READING: SHILTS. CONDUCT UNBECOMING<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deborah Sampson wore male drag to smuggle herself into the Continental Army. Under the name of Robert Shurtliff, she served throughout the War of Independence without being exposed. Wounded in battle At one point she was wounded in the head and thigh. She allowed an army doctor to treat the head wound but prevented him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-excerpts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sampsondeborahimage___05144325258-1156478491.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queersinhistory.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}