Lucy Brewer (also known as Eliza Bowen or Louisa Baker) is the pen name of a writer who purported to be the first woman in the United States Marines, serving aboard USS Constitution as a sharpshooter.

This series of seduction and betrayal precisely follows the strict line of the romance genre—until, that is, motivated by a patriotic desire to fight in the War of 1812, Brewer tricked her way onto the American frigate USS Constitution, pretending to be a man named George Baker.

"[3] No one by the name of Lucy Brewer (or that of her other pseudonyms, or that of her husband) can be found in historical records; in addition, it is highly unlikely a woman could have disguised herself for three years on Constitution, as the crew had little to no privacy[4] (for example, no toilet facilities or private quarters existed on the ship, and physical examinations were thorough in the Marines).

Cohen writes: At the time of the first appearance of The Female Marine, Nathaniel Hill Wright was in his late twenties, a family man with a wife and at least one small child, evidently struggling to make ends meet.

[8]Joan Druett writes that "Coverly could have been inspired by a fellow opportunist, Robert Kirby of London,"[9] who published the tale of Mary Anne Talbot, an Englishwoman who served as a man in the Napoleonic wars.

"[13] Alexander Medlicott notes that The Female Marine is the "first American novel to employ a woman warrior as the focal point of the action" – though the History of Constantius and Pulchera; or, Virtue rewarded bears small similarities.