Deborah Sampson had been told all her life what a woman could not do. In 1782, she stopped listening.
With the American Revolution still raging, she donned a suit of men's clothing she had made herself, bound her chest, ran away from her Massachusetts home, and enlisted in the Continental Army under the name Robert Shurtlieff.
From that moment on, discovery could cost her everything. Yet Deborah did more than survive among the men in her unit. She marched, fought, and endured every hardship they did. She was selected for an elite Ranger company and entrusted with missions few soldiers were chosen to carry out.
Then battle nearly exposed her secret. A saber slashed open her head, and a musket ball buried itself deep in her thigh. A doctor stitched the wound in her head, but Deborah could not let him examine her leg. So, she waited until his back was turned, stole his probe, and dug the musket ball from her own flesh.
Between War and Peace is a powerful work of Revolutionary War historical fiction based on the true story of Deborah Sampson, America's first female combat soldier and veteran. She was fighting not only for her country's independence, but also against a world that had already decided what a woman's life should be. Deborah wanted something radical for her time: the freedom to live life on her own terms.
