Williams, Cathay

Impact on the world

Enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1866 disguised as a man under the name 'William Cathay,' becoming the first Black woman known to enlist in the Army and the only documented woman to serve among the Buffalo Soldiers, the Army's first peacetime African American regiments; she served undetected for nearly two years before repeated hospitalizations led to the discovery of her sex and her honorable discharge.

Life & background

Born enslaved near Independence, Missouri, Williams was taken as 'contraband' property by Union troops in 1861 and forced to serve as a cook and laundress for the Army for the remainder of the Civil War, work that exposed her to military life and the hardships of campaigning. After the war, with few options for a formerly enslaved woman seeking stable income, she enlisted under the alias William Cathay in 1866, joining the 38th U.S. Infantry, one of six regiments newly created for Black soldiers that became known as the Buffalo Soldiers. She served in New Mexico for nearly two years without her fellow soldiers discovering her identity, enduring smallpox and the physical toll of marching and harsh winter conditions, until repeated hospitalizations led an Army surgeon to discover she was a woman; she was honorably discharged in October 1868. She went on to work as a cook and laundress in New Mexico and Colorado, and her story, documented in a newspaper interview shortly before her death, remained obscure for over a century until historical interest in her revived in recent decades; debate continues among historians over how much can be reliably verified about her service beyond the basic facts of her enlistment and discharge.

Sources

1. National Park Service; Atlas Obscura; Saturday Evening Post; Military.com; KCUR