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Anna Maria Lane (1755–1810) joined the Continental Army in 1776 with
her husband John. Lane’s is the only
documented case in Virginia of a woman dressing like a man and fighting on the
battlefield. Lane and her husband fought
side by side. The couple were on campaigns in New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Georgia. Anna Maria received a severe wound at the Battle of
Germantown (Pennsylvania) in 1777 which rendered her permanently lame. Despite
her disability, she continued to fight alongside her husband and was with him
when he was wounded during the siege of Savannah in 1779. Husband and wife
served until 1781. They then settled in Virginia.
In 1808, Virginia Governor William H. Cabell asked the General Assembly
to grant Anna Maria Lane a soldier’s pension, writing that she was “…very
infirm, having been disabled by a severe wound which she received while
fighting as a common soldier, in one of our Revolutionary battles, from which
she never has recovered, and perhaps never will recover.” The pension was granted and the record notes
that, “in the Revolutionary War, (she) performed extraordinary military
services at the Battle of Germantown, in the garb, and with the courage of a
soldier.”
How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs
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