"I am indeed willing to acknowledge what I have done, an error and presumption. I will call it an error and presumption because I swerved from the accustomed flowery path of female delicacy, to walk upon the heroic precipice of feminine perdition!"

Deborah Sampson Gannett, a young Massachusetts woman, defied 18th-century gender norms by disguising herself as a man to fight in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Her courage, tenacity, and skill earned her respect from fellow soldiers, and her story became a symbol of female strength and determination in a time when women's roles were rigidly defined.