Deborah Sampson Deborah Sampson opted for this small portrait to illustrate The Female Review, a short book about her unusual military career published in 1797. By then a wife and mother, she displays femininity here: long curly hair, necklace, and stylish low-cut gown. Sampson the soldier had used a cloth band to compress her breasts; Sampson the matron wore a satin band to define her bustline. Getty Images.