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- [S104] Cocke County, Tennessee, and its People, Cocke County Heritage Book Committee, (Walsworth Publishing, 1992), 259.
- [S147] Find a Grave, (Memorial: 71977612).
BARBARA SUSONG 'PASSED' AS A MAN IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
Barbara took a younger son, John Jacob, and went to Virginia, where she passed as a man and joined another regiment, Massey said.
Most women who served as soldiers in the Revolutionary War had to pass as men, he said, and were "drummed out" if discovered.
Massey said Barbara Susong was apparently held in such high regard that this did not happen, possibly because of her tie to Lafayette.
Instead, after three years of service, Barbara Susong was given a land grant and bounty of 25 pounds in American currency.
Because married women could not own land in their own name at the time, the land grant went to her husband.
After the war, the Susongs left Pennsylvania and settled in the vicinity of what is now Lexington, Tenn.
In the same area were the Sevier and Houston families, he said. Massey noted that these families later produced John Sevier, the first Tennessee governor, and Sam Houston, also governor of Tennessee and the first governor of Texas.
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