She was assigned to the Light Infantry Company commanded by Captain George Webb, which was part of the 1st Brigade under General John Paterson. This was not a peripheral assignment. The light infantry in the Continental Army were the elite forward units, responsible for reconnaissance, scouting, flank security, and the kind of mobile engagement that required physical endurance, tactical alertness, and the ability to operate in small groups with limited supervision.
Why she was placed in the Light Company is not entirely clear from the surviving record. Light infantry soldiers were selected for fitness and agility, and one account suggests she was tall enough and physically capable enough that she passed the informal evaluations. The unit’s duties were also, by their nature, somewhat more independent and less susceptible to the constant close-quarters living that might have made the maintenance of a disguise more difficult in other assignments.
She drilled, performed garrison duties, and participated in the active operations the unit was assigned. The Hudson River Valley in 1782 was not a quiet theater. Loyalist raiding parties, DeLancey’s Brigade among them, remained active. Skirmishes occurred. The army’s presence was a function as much of suppressing Loyalist activity and protecting Patriot communities as of engaging any remaining British regulars.
## Active Service: The Hudson River Valley in 1782
The record of Deborah Sampson’s specific actions during her service is complicated by the unreliability of the primary biographical source. Herman Mann’s The Female Review, published in 1797 and revised and expanded in 1866, contains episodes that subsequent scholarship and primary-document research have not been able to corroborate. The Moore expedition against Mohawk raiders, the alleged message delivered to General Washington, and several other dramatic set pieces in the Mann biography should be treated as literary embellishment rather than documentary record.