Marie-Angélique Josèphe Brûlon, née Duchemin, was a French female soldier who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars. Born in Dinan into a soldier family, Duchemin married a soldier named Brûlon and served from 1792 to 1799 in the defence of Corsica. She initially fought disguised as a man along with her husband, and though she was eventually discovered to be a woman, she nonetheless continued to fight.
Serving in front-line combat duties in Corsica during the wars of the French Revolution, this iron lady rose through the ranks from private to sergeant major, won a medal for her swordfighting skills, and survived being badly wounded at the Battle of Calvi in 1799 where she led the assault on an enemy fort, fighting first with a rifle, then battling her enemies with a sword “with the courage of a heroine”. When Brulon took a nasty cut to her sword-swinging arm during one battle, she pulled a dagger with her left hand, and continued hacking/slashing like a maniac, killing several men. Later in her career she would be awarded the French Legion of Honor by Napoleon III.
Battle vs. Deborah Sampson (by LokoDito)[]
It was the glory days of the American frontier — the land remained uncharted, wilderness covered the Earth, and wild animals roamed to and fro. Even in an inhospitable environment that would eat any unprepared fools, small pockets of civilization existed in a few nooks and crannies. Most of them were trading posts, but a few were military outposts, scattered across the U.S. - Canadian border.
Blizzard battered one such outpost in the middle of a red forest. A French woman, Angelique Brulon, could hear the tarp, which served as a makeshift roof of the broken cabin, swaying in the wind. She could be home right now in France, enjoying warm chicken soup with her children inside their brick home. But Brulon was no ordinary woman. She wore the dark blue coat and bicorne. She was a French soldier, ordered today to man this outpost.
Limping outside in the snow was another female warrior. Her name was Deborah Sampson, of the 44th Masachusettes Regiment, the best the Continental Army had to offer. She wore a fur blanket on top of a lighter blue uniform. A rifle was strapped to her back and an ammo pouch and powder horn hung on her belt. And today, she’d been tasked to do a reconaiscance mission.
She eyed the cabin in front of her, noting the smoke coming out of its chimney. Someone was inside this cabin, and though Sampson knew neither if the occupant was armed or not, she knew well that there was no American forces nearby. Instead of knocking, she decided to wait and observe. Soon enough, the occupant came out to get some fresh air.
Brulon did not know what hit her. All she rememebered was a strong force that hammered her shoulder, throwing her to the ground. A bullet had burrowed itself in Brulon’s shoulder, and though in pain, she quickly crawled away back inside the cabin. Another bullet pierced through the window as she kept to the floor. The slow intervals of the shots meant she was contending against only one enemy.
She soon found her Charleville musket, and began firing from gun ports carved from the walls. But her musket lacked range and her shots flew uselessly, made worse by the forest concealing her foe. Sampson, on the other hand, cursed her misfortune. She gambled on killing Brulon with that first shot. Having failed that, she was now stuck in a stalemate against an opponent who was well protected inside a cabin. It was a grave mistake, for a bullet in her leg from a skirmish during the revolution, made sure she wouldn’t be able to maneuver far to finish Brulon off.
The French woman was in an even more dire predicament. Her opponent was slowly chipping away the walls of the cabin, and it would not be long before she found her mark. Brulon herself couldn’t do anything. Her musket lacked range, her bullets missed, and if she continued, she’d run out of ammo to give. With the damage the makeshift house had taken, it would either be that sniper or the damn blizzard which would kill her. As such, she made a calculated but risky move. She made sure first to pinpoint exactly where those shots were coming from. And then, she went out, waving her musket.
Sampson was shocked to see Brulon burst out of the cabin, screaming like an Indian, with an unconquerable flame surrounding her. Brulon made a suicide charge towards Sampson, forcing the surpised Yank to reload quickly to take her out. Yet, Brulon was not dumb. She filled her run with dips, crouches, zig-zags, and weaves, just enough to make scoring a bullseye with an innacurate musket difficult. Sampson cursed as her shots missed, her movement becoming filled with panic.
Brulon finally closed in, just enough to see Sampson’s face. As the two were now in front of each other, almost point blank, both female warriors quickly aimed their muskets. The French woman, however, dove into the snow as she fired her gun. The Yank’s shot missed, but hers hit true.
A wave rippled throughout Sampson’s body, and searing hot pain spread in her gut. She clutched her wound in pain, screaming and crying, crimson salty blood also trickling from her mouth. Brulon did not bother to reload her musket. She grabbed her sword and knife, and ran, intending to finish this battle once and for all. Sampson knew her opponent getting near, and she prepared her musket’s bayonet to skewer Brulon. But the latter swung her sword, driving the bayonet away, before stabbing her knife right through Sampson’s neck.
There was gulp, followed by the sound of air slowly leaving Sampson’s body. As life began to leave Sampson’s eyes, the female warrior attempted to commit one final act of valor. Brulon felt a pocket knife stabbing her in the side, and the two soon wrestled each other, twisting their blades and tearing flesh. In the end, Sampson failed to take Brulon with her. She was the only one to fall. She may have been the first to draw blood, but now she was the first to leave this earth.
Brulon pulled her knife, and felt blood flowing from her wounds. She now made the treck to find her mates before she too meet death’s embrace.
Expert's Opinion[]
Deborah Sampson may have had the better musket and training, but Angelique Brulon still beat due to having more experience, physicality, and the better melee weapons.