Brita Hagberg: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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[[Image:Johan Tietrich Schoultz målning Slaget vid Svensksund.jpg|right|thumb|The Battle of Svensksund]]

'''Brita Christina Hagberg''', née Nilsdotter, alias '''''Petter Hagberg''''', (1756 – 19 March 1825), was a woman who served as a soldier in the Swedish army during the [[Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)]]. She is one of two confirmed women to have been decorated for bravery in this battle in Sweden before women were openly allowed into the military in the 20th century.

== Biography ==

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===War service===

She participated in the [[Battle of Svensksund (1790)]] and in the [[Battle of Vyborg Bay (1790)|Battle of Vyborg Bay]] as a marine soldier. At this battle, there was "at least one woman in a fighting position", and that was Hagberg. She was stationed to serve on the ship ''Styrbjörn''. According to a story, Admiral [[Kurt von Stedingk]] once called out for "Hagberg", and at this call, two soldiers reported to him; one was Hagberg, and the other was her husband. They kept her sex a secret, and this is known from her own words many years later. It was said that severalMany of the soldiers who received medals for bravery in battle after having served in the Swedish army in the wars of 1788–1790 and the [[Finnish war]] of 1808–1809 were discovered to have been women disguised as men. Hagberg was one of these women.

She was not the only woman to have distinguished herself in the war of 1788–90. A maid from [[Färnebo]] in [[Västmanland]], [[Anna Maria Engsten]], the maid Major P. H. Scharff, distinguished herself at the same occasion in 1790; when the ship she travelled on was evacuated, she refused and stayed on, and singlehandedly steered the ship back to Sweden at night during Russian fire, for which King [[Gustav III of Sweden|Gustav III]] gave her a pension and decorated her with the medal [[För tapperhet till sjöss]] for bravery. Hagberg and Engsten were the only two women confirmed to have received a decoration for bravery at sea; another woman, [[Elisa Bernerström]], is confirmed to have received a medal for bravery in battle on land.<ref>Cristopher von Warnstedt, Medaljerna för Tapperhet till Sjöss (1974) Forum navale. 29. (Swedish).</ref> A third woman, [[Dorothea Maria Lörsch]], wife of officer Theslöf, took command over the ship ''Armida'' and directed it back from the battle after the officers of the ship had fallen, and for this, she was given the title of a Captain of the Swedish fleet.