Deborah Sampson Gannett was one of a handful of women who fought in the Revolutionary War disguised as men. She was a descendent of Pilgrims Miles Standish (on her father’s side) and William Bradford (on her mother’s). In 1781 she enlisted to serve in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment under the name Robert Shurtleff. She received multiple sword and bullet wounds and received an honorable discharge in 1783.
In 1792 the General Court of Massachusetts awarded her a pension citing her “extrodinary [sic] instance of female heroism and by discharging the duties of a faithful and gallant soldier.” In 1805 she petitioned the State of Massachusetts for an “invalid” pension. Her petition was supported by Paul Revere who, in his letter to U.S. Representative William Eustis (Massachusetts), said Gannett’s “ill health is in consequence of her being exposed when she did a soldiers [sic] duty…I think her case much more deserving than hundreds to whom Congress have been generous.”
This document is Gannett’s sworn testimony that she “served as a private soldier…in the war of the revolution” and states that “she is in such reduced circumstances, as to require the aid of her country” for additional compensation. Her testimony is part of her application for a larger, Federal pension from the U.S. Government. It references that her service record was lost (during the burning of Washington by the British in 1814), and provides a thorough accounting of her service in the Revolutionary War. Gannett was one of only two women to receive a Federal pension, the other being Margaret Corbin.
