Brita Hagberg 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 battle in Sweden before women were allowed into the military in the 20th century . Biography . Hagberg is believed to have been born in Finnerödja . She arrived in Stockholm in 1777 , where she married Anders Peter Hagberg ( 1753 – 1816 ) , a soldier of the guard , in 1785 . Her husband was called to serve in the war in 1788 . She enlisted in the army dressed as a man under the name Petter Hagberg in search for her husband , because she had heard nothing of him since the beginning of the war . She participated in the Battle of Svensksund ( 1790 ) and in the 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 several 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 gave her a pension and decorated her with the medal För tapperhet i fält 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 . 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 . Hagberg was later in her service wounded in battle at Björkö Sund , and was ordered to go below deck to have her wounds tended to . She was unwilling , but was forced to obey this order , and thus , her gender was revealed . Hagberg was given a military pension of three riksdaler a year , also something which was a very rare thing for a woman to receive . She was recommended for the pension by Carl Olof Cronstedt . After the war , Hagberg was given the personal privilege ( unusual for a married woman ) to trade in food ( 1793 ) , and she had a spot reserved for her at the square of Oxtorget in Stockholm ( 1802 ) , which was renewed the last time in 1819 . Her husband died in 1816 . She had at least two children ( at least , these are the only ones confirmed to have reached adulthood ) ; a son born in 1792 , and a daughter born in 1797 . In 1864 , she was mentioned in a reference book about famous Swedish women in history . Here , it was said that ; " For about thirty years ago , on the Oxtorget square in Stockholm , one could see an old woman selling ginger - bread cookies on a stand with a medal of bravery on her chest . She had been married to a guardsman by the name of - if this is correct - Hagström , and found a life filled with loneliness after her husband had been called out to serve at the war of 1788 . She therefore had herself enlisted in the navy dressed in the clothes of a man . " The name Hagström was a misspelling , and it would , counted from 1864 , have been forty rather than thirty years ago . In 1828 , the life of Brita Hagberg was celebrated in the poem " Fruktmånglerskan med Tapperhetsmedalj " ( The fruit seller woman with a medal of bravery ) by the female poet Euphrosyne , ( Julia Nyberg ) who tells the tale of the female soldier , who dresses herself as a man and enlists in the army in search of her husband . Brita Hagberg was not the only woman in Swedish history to have disguised herself as a man to serve as a soldier , but she may be the only one to have received a military pension for military service in an age where women were officially barred from military service , and is as such unique . She died in Stockholm , and was given a military burial , which was probably unique for her time .