Born a slave, Cathay Williams (1844 – 1893) enlisted in the United States Army under a male identity. She is the first black woman to enlist, and the only known to have impersonated a man.
The Civil War
Born in Independence (near Kansas City, Missouri, USA), Cathay Williams is the daughter of enslaved woman and a freed man, which also makes her a slave. She grew up on the Johnson Plantation in Jefferson City, Missouri, where she was a domestic slave.
Cathay was 17 when the American Civil War broke out, an American civil war between the United States of America (the Union) and the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). Early in the war, Union forces occupied Jefferson City and forcibly conscripted slaves, including women, into cooks, housekeepers, and nurses.
“When the war broke out and the United States soldiers came to Jefferson City they took me and other colored folks with them to Little Rock. (…) I did not want to go. He wanted me to cook for the officers but I had always been a house girl and did not know how to cook. I learned how to cook after going to Little Rock and was with the army at the battle of Pea Ridge. »
(When the war broke out and the Union soldiers came to Jefferson City, they took me and other colored people to Little Rock. (…) I don't didn't want to go. He wanted me to cook for the officers, but I had always been a house slave, and I didn't know how to cook. I learned to cook after going to Little Rock, and I was with the army at the Battle of Pea Ridge)
Cathy Williams’ story, interview published in the St Louis Daily Times, January 2, 1876.
For the next five years, Cathay followed the army to Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Washington. She witnesses several battles and meets African-American men serving as soldiers. When the war ended in 1865, Cathay served in the army at a military school near St. Louis, Missouri.
The US Army
The end of the Civil War also marked the abolition of slavery in the United States but Cathay Williams sees the army as his best chance to earn a living, and decides to enlist. Since women could not become soldiers, she enlisted in November 1866 under the name of John Williams, pretending to be a man. A cousin and one of his friends, members of his regiment, know his situation but do not denounce it.
“Only two persons, a cousin and a particular friend, members of the regiment, knew that I was a woman. They never 'blew' on me. They were partly the cause of my joining the army. Another reason was I wanted to make my own living and not be dependent on relations or friends. »
(Only two people, a cousin and a particular friend, knew that I was a woman. They never denounced me. They were partly the reason for my enlistment in the army. another reason was that I wanted to make a living and not depend on relationships or friends.)
Shortly after enlisting, Cathay contracts smallpox and has to be hospitalized. The aftermath of the disease, the long walks and the heat of New Mexico where she was affected exhausted her and degraded her health. Cathay has to be hospitalized frequently and eventually a doctor discovers her secret and informs the command.
“The men all wanted to get rid of me after they found out I was a woman. Some of them acted real bad to me. (The men all wanted to get rid of me after finding out I was a woman. Some behaved very badly towards me)
In October 1868, she was discharged from the army.
After the army
Cathay Williams settles in Colorado and earns her living there as a cook and laundress. She marries, but the wedding ends in disaster:her husband steals a watch, money and a team of horses, and Cathay has him arrested. Following this bad experience, she moved to Trinidad, Colorado, and worked as a seamstress. To the journalist from Saint-Louis who came to interview her about her time in the army, she reports enjoying her new life.
Cathay's health continues to deteriorate. Probably suffering from diabetes and rheumatism, her toes have been amputated and she has to move around with a crutch. In 1891, she asked for a disability pension for her military service, but did not get it.
The date of his death is not precisely known. After her pension application was rejected, Cathay Williams probably died around 1892-1893.
Book
Cathy Williams , from slave to buffalo soldier – Phillip Thomas Tucker