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Daughters of the Revolution

© Katie Anne Gustafsson

As women's history becomes more popular, more source material is being made available that is changing the way women during various time periods are viewed. For example, there has been much research recently about the exploits of the women during the American Civil War and we now know that many of them did more than sit at home and pray for their loved ones.

The same is true of the American Revolutionary War between America and England. Unfortunately, source material for this time period is more limited. One reason for this might have been the hard lives that the women of Colonial America faced with few luxuries to make life easier for them, and little leisure time to devote to journal writing - for those who could write.

However, it is known that women were active during the Revolutionary war. Some of them even receiving pensions for their heroic deeds and patriotism. Like the women of the American Civil War who followed them, the women who fought as soldiers did so disguised as men. One such woman was Deborah Samson who enlisted as "Robert Shirtliffe" and served for three years in Captain Nathan Thayer of Massachusetts's company. She was wounded twice during this period, once with a sword, and then she was shot in the shoulder. It was the second injury that unmasked her gender. The doctor who attended her did not publicly denounce her as a woman, however. Instead, he moved her to his own house whilst her wound healed, and quietly reported his findings to her Commanding Officer. He reportedly sent her on a mission to deliver a letter to George Washington, the Commander-in-Chief who, having read the letter, handed her a discharge from the service and her expenses to return home. After the war, and now a married woman with children, she was invited to Washington, where she was rewarded for her bravery with a pension and land as acknowledgement of her contribution to the war.

Other women such as Margaret Corbin, a woman who watched her husband fall in battle and then picked up his gun and took his place, Angelica Vrooman who moulded bullets whilst the fighting raged around her, and Mary Hagidorn who refused to hide with the other women and children and helped defend the Fort commanded by Captain Hager, all show that women had a great sense of loyalty for their country and were determined to fight for it at any cost.

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