Anna Maria Lane

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Anna Maria Lane (c. 1755–1810) was the first documented Virginia woman to fight with the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. She dressed as a man and fought beside her husband, John Lane, after they joined the army in 1776. She is believed to have come from New Hampshire.

Lane and her husband fought in campaigns in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. On October 3, 1777, at the Battle of Germantown near Philadelphia, Anna Maria was badly wounded and left lame for life. Washington had just ordered women away from the battlefield, so some think she did not seek treatment quickly to keep her disguise. She continued fighting with her husband when he re-enlisted, and she was with him at the Siege of Savannah in 1779; they served until 1781.

After the war, the Lanes settled in Virginia. They moved to Richmond in 1801, where John joined the Public Guard. Anna Maria volunteered at a military hospital, nursing soldiers. In 1808, the governor asked for pensions for disabled soldiers and some women, and Anna Maria Lane was named for a lifelong pension of $100 in recognition of her wartime service at Germantown. She died on June 13, 1810. Her story was rediscovered in the 1920s, and in 1997 a marker in Richmond honored her near the Bell Tower in Capitol Square.