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Testimony of Deborah Sampson Gannett
September 14, 1818
Background
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.
Deborah Gannett, of Sharon, in the county of Norfolk, and District of Massachusetts, a resident and nation of the United States, and applicant for a pension from the United States, under an Act of Congress entitled an Act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the United States, in the revolutionary war, maketh oath, that she served as a private soldier, under the name of Robert Shurtleff, in the war of the revolution, upwards of two years in manner following [illegible]. Enlisted in April 1781 in the company commanded by Captain George Webb in the Massachusetts regiment commanded then by Colonel Shepherd, and afterwards by Colonel Henry Jackson – and served in said corps, in Massachusetts, and New York – until November 1783 – when she was honorably discharged in writing, which discharge is lost. During the time of her service, she was at the capture of Lord Cornwallis, was wounded at Tarrytown – and now receives a pension from the United States, which pension she duly relinquishes. She is in such reduced circumstances, as to require the aid of her country for her support—
Deborah Gannett
Mass. District September 14, 1818
“Sworn to before me
[illegible] Davis
Dis judge
Mass. District[1]