Deborah Sampson
1760-1827
The first woman to take a bullet for the United States.
Deborah Sampson was a Massachusetts woman who fought in the Continental
Army disguised as a
man
named Robert Shurtliff, 1782-1783. She was shot in the leg while
serving in the light infantry, but rather than risking a surgeon
discovering her secret gender, she fixed the wound by herself using a
pen knife and a sewing needle. A year later, she fell ill and the
doctor discovered her secret, but he kept quiet until the war ended in
September 1783.
