via History News Network, where editor David Walsh has decided to “revive an old childhood tradition (suitably modified for the Internet) and bring you the HNN’s 2011 Advent Calendar, this year focusing on America’s fighting men. Every day from now until Christmas, we will feature a new image of American soldiers celebrating (or campaigning) around Christmastime. Follow our updates on Facebook or on Twitter at @myHNN. Happy holidays!”

So, as a corrective, I’m going to start my own damn Advent Hanukkah Kwanzaa Festivus Solstice [insert whatever winter holiday you like here] Calendar of America’s fighting women.  [BTW, Advent started last Sunday, November 27, so Walsh is also late out of the gate on getting that started].  Here’s my first entry:  Deborah Sampson, who “rebelled against the British and society by dressing as a man and fighting in the Revolutionary War for eighteen months under the guise of “Robert Shurtlif” of “Shirtlieff.”

Fellow women’s historians, please do join me in this endeavor.  Seasons greetings!