Hes A Lady essays

He's A Lady essays On Monday, May 20, 1782, a tall rangy blond young man with a firm jutting jaw and a prominent nose, who identified himself as Robert Shurtliff stated he wanted to join the army for the balance of the war. The Munster Master Noal Taft paid him sixty pounds bounty money and Shurtliff signed. The signature was bold, legible and still exists in Deborah Sampson was born into a poor family of seven children. At the age of 5, father disappeared and because her mother could not provide for her children, Deborah was taken in by another family. After moving around a few times, she ended up with the family of farmer Deacon Jeremiah Thomas where she was the only girl among ten sons. She spent her days doing strenuous farm work dressed in male clothing, and in the evening she made the boys, who went to school, teach her what they were learning. Deborah spent about ten years there, growing to be almost five foot eight inches tall, almost a foot taller than the average woman of her day. On May 20, 1782, dressed in men's clothing, Deborah signed up for the army as Robert Shurtliff. She marched with forty-nine other recruits to West Point where they were given their uniforms and equipment. Because there werent physical examinations for soldiers her gender went undetected. At this time, the last major battle of the Revolutionary War had already been fought, however, guerilla warfare was still being fought in some areas where Tories Deborah, or Robert Shurtliff, demonstrated courage, strength, loyalty and fighting skill over and over again during these small, but wild battles. When her group was ambushed near Tarrytown, Deborah was slashed in the forehead wound with a saber and was shot by a musket in the upper left front thigh causing her to fall to the ground. At a field hospital, a French doctor bound up her head wound. In ...