The story of the woman who fought in the American Revolution passing as a man. Serving for seventeen months, she accomplished her deception by becoming an outstanding soldier. Young shows us why and how she carried it off. He reconstructs her early life as an indentured servant; her young adulthood as a weaver, teacher, and religious rebel; and her military career in the light infantry--consisting of dangerous duty that demanded constant vigilance--followed by service as an orderly to a general at West Point. Young also examines her postwar life as a wife and mother on a hardscrabble farm in Massachusetts, her collaboration on the book that made her a celebrity and sent her on a yearlong lecture tour through New England and New York in 1802-03, and her relentless and partially successful quest for veterans' benefits.--From publisher description.