question: Who was the woman who disguised herself as a man in order to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, that was featured in a biography by Ann McGovern? 
answer: Deborah Sampson
context: Title: 2nd Virginia State Regiment
  Passage: The 2nd Virginia State Regiment was a regiment of the Virginia Militia that fought during the American Revolutionary War.  The regiment was authorized by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia in December, 1776 as a force of regular troops for the Commonwealth's defense.  In January, 1778, with low recruitment to the Virginia line of the Continental Army and in the wake of heavy losses to Virginia regiments at the Battle of Germantown, the 2nd Virginia State Regiment was sent by Governor Patrick Henry (per an act of the General Assembly) to join the Continental Army in the Philadelphia Campaign.  By May, 1778, the regiment was in Valley Forge training with the Continental Army.  The regiment camped at Middlebrook in the winter of 1778-79 and participated in the Battle of Monmouth.  The regiment remained in the service of the Continental Army until late 1779 when called back to Virginia.  In April and May 1780, most of the regiment was discharged.  The remaining companies of the Virginia state regiments were organized under Colonel Charles Dabney in the summer of 1781 and were under his command at the siege of Yorktown.
  Title: Deborah Sampson
  Passage: Deborah Sampson Gannett (December 17, 1760 – April 29, 1827), better known as Deborah Samson or Deborah Sampson, was a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.  She is one of a small number of women with a documented record of military combat experience in that war.  She served 17 months in the army under the name "Robert Shirtliff" (also spelled Shirtliffe or Shurtleff) of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, was wounded in 1782, and was honorably discharged at West Point, New York in 1783.
  Title: United States Army
  Passage: The United States Army (USA) is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land-based military operations.  It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 and United States Code, Title 10, Subtitle B, Chapter 301, Section 3001.  As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed (14 June 1775) to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country.  After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army.  The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775.
  Title: Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War
  Passage: Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War was essentially monitored and sanctioned by the Continental Congress to provide military intelligence to the Continental Army to aid them in fighting the British during the American Revolutionary War.  Congress created a Secret Committee for domestic intelligence, a Committee of Secret Correspondence for foreign intelligence, and a committee on spies, for tracking spies within the Patriot movement.
  Title: List of Continental Army units
  Passage: The Continental Army was the national army of first the Thirteen Colonies, and then the independent United States, during the American Revolutionary War, established by a resolution of the Congress on June 14, 1775, three days before the Battle of Bunker Hill, where it saw its first action under that title. .  The Continental Congress took a number of steps in the spring of 1775 to create the army in response to the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April and the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga in May.  The units composing the Continental Army changed frequently, especially in the first two years of the war.  From 1777 to the close of the war, the organization of the Continental Army became progressively more systematic and sophisticated.  The Continental Army that served at Yorktown in 1781 bore very little resemblance to the Continental Army that blockaded Boston in 1775.
  Title: Henry Jackson (general)
  Passage: Henry Jackson (bapt.  October 19, 1747 – January 4, 1809) was a Continental Army officer from Boston, Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War.  For most of the war he was colonel of Jackson's Additional Continental Regiment, which was redesignated the 16th Massachusetts in 1780.  He commanded the last regiment of the Continental Army, the 1st American, which was disbanded in 1784.  Jackson was a lifelong friend of Henry Knox another Continental Army officer, whose business affairs he was also heavily involved in.
  Title: Ann McGovern
  Passage: Ann McGovern Scheiner (née Weinberger; May 25, 1930 – August 8, 2015) was an American writer of more than 55 children's books, selling over 30 million copies.  She may be best known for her adaptation of "Stone Soup", as well as "Too Much Noise", historical and travel non-fiction, and biographies of figures like Harriet Tubman and Deborah Sampson.
  Title: 4th Continental Artillery Regiment
  Passage: The 4th Continental Artillery Regiment, also known as Proctor's Continental Artillery Regiment, was an American military unit during the American Revolutionary War.  The regiment became part of the Continental Army on 10 June 1777 as Colonel Thomas Proctor's Continental Artillery Regiment.  It was made up of eight artillery companies from eastern Pennsylvania.  At the time of the regiment's formation, two companies were already in existence, one from as early as October 1775.  One company served at Trenton in December 1776 where it performed well in action.  In February 1777, Pennsylvania expanded its two-company battalion into an eight-company regiment.  After officially joining the Continental Army, the regiment saw much fighting in the Philadelphia campaign in late 1777.  Elements of Proctor's Regiment fought at Monmouth in June 1778 and joined the Sullivan Expedition in summer 1779.
  Title: 1st Virginia State Regiment
  Passage: The 1st Virginia State Regiment was a regiment of Virginia Militia that fought during the American Revolutionary War.  The regiment was authorized by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia in December 1776 as a force of regular troops for the Commonwealth's defense.  In 1777, Virginia had difficulty meeting its quota for the regular line of the Continental Army.  As a result, in July 1777 under the command of Colonel George Gibson, the regiment began a march North to temporarily join the Continental Army in the Philadelphia Campaign.  In January 1778, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act directing that the 1st Virginia State Regiment "now in Continental service, be continued in said service instead of the Ninth Virginia Regiment, made prisoners by the enemy in the Battle of Germantown."  The regiment camped at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78 and at Middlebrook in the winter of 1778-79 and participated in the Battle of Monmouth.  The regiment remained in the service of the Continental Army until late 1779 when redeployed Virginia.  Unlike the standard division of eight found in the regular line regiments of the Continental Army, the 1st Virginia State Regiment consisted of ten companies including one of light infantry.
  Title: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
  Passage: Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Steuben (born Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben; September 17, 1730 – November 28, 1794), also referred to as the Baron von Steuben, was a Prussian and later an American military officer.  He served as inspector general and major general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.  He is credited with being one of the fathers of the Continental Army in teaching them the essentials of military drills, tactics, and disciplines.  He wrote "Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States", the book that served as standard United States drill manual until the American Civil War.  He served as General George Washington's chief of staff in the final years of the war.
citations: Ann McGovern Deborah Sampson