The light company of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment, Captain George Webb’s command, was engaged in this work in the Hudson River Valley through 1782 and into 1783. The patrols through Westchester County, the engagements with DeLancey’s Loyalist troops, the garrison duty at West Point and other fixed points — all of this was part of the routine of light infantry service in the final year of the Revolutionary War.
For someone maintaining a sustained disguise, the light infantry environment had both challenges and potential advantages. The independent nature of light infantry operations meant less constant close supervision than some other assignments. The emphasis on individual competence and self-reliance meant that a soldier who performed well earned a measure of informal respect that might reduce the scrutiny that a soldier perceived as problematic would attract. But the physical demands of light infantry service — the movement, the patrolling, the operations in demanding terrain — also required sustained physical performance that would have been exhausting under any circumstances, let alone while managing a significant secondary concern.
## The Question of What She Received
A careful accounting of what Deborah Sampson Gannett received across the full span of her recognition effort looks different depending on the frame used.
In financial terms: she collected an enlistment bonus when she joined as Robert Shurtliff in May 1782. She received the pay of a Continental soldier for the duration of her service, at whatever rates were actually being paid to Continental soldiers in 1782-1783 — which were not always the nominal rates, given the army’s chronic payment problems. She was denied back pay at discharge. She received 34 pounds with interest from Massachusetts in 1792. She received a federal pension of $4 a month beginning in 1805, raised to $6.40 a month in 1816. Her husband received nothing from the posthumously approved survivor benefit.