The Memoir of a Female Soldier : Deborah Sampson's American Revolution

He was a she.

During the Revolutionary War, a young man called Robert Shurtlieff enlisted in the Continental Army. Stationed at West Point, he was chosen for the elite Light Infantry to fight Tory loyalists terrorizing the Hudson Valley. He served for a year and a half, was wounded in combat, and got promoted as an aide to a general. This is a true story. But in fact, "Robert" secretly was Deborah Sampson. Of Mayflower ancestry but born into poverty, she left home at age five to earn her keep. Frustrated by the limitations she faced as a young woman, she donned men's clothing to seek opportunity and freedom.

She won respect as the man she wasn't.
But she wanted respect for the woman she was.

Twenty years later she was a wife and mother, disabled by her war wound, her petition for a veteran's pension ignored by Congress, and the victim of media misinformation. She went on the road to tell her story as the first American woman to do a lecture tour. In this fictionalized memoir, Deborah seeks to set the record straight about her life and military service, and to overcome prejudice against her. This historical novel is based closely on the author's three years of research, including living in the house where Deborah was born. Written nearly fifty years ago, her book is published now for the first time.