Early life
Williams was born in Independence, Missouri, to a free man and a woman in slavery, making her legal status also that of a slave. During her adolescence, Williams worked as a house slave on the Johnson plantation on the outskirts of Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1861 Union forces occupied Jefferson City in the early stages of the Civil War. At that time, captured slaves were officially designated by the Union as "contraband", and many were forced to serve in military support roles such as cooks, laundresses, or nurses. While being a washerwoman all over the country (under General Philip Sheridan) was still considered being a part of the army, Williams wanted more. At this time, cooking and cleaning was the only known way for women to contribute to the war. She continued out these jobs during the Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862 and the Red River Campaign in 1864. In 1865 when slavery was abolished, African Americans were limited as to what jobs they could have due to the fact that they could not read or write. Williams knew that soldiers were given basic needs like clothing, food, and shelter while being in the military and that was an offer she was not willing to overlook. She knew that being a woman was forbidden in the military but she also knew that she would make more money being a black male in the army than she would being a black female cook. She decided to disguise herself as a man and enlist in the Army.
U.S. Army service
Despite the prohibition against women serving in the military, Cathay Williams enlisted in the United States Regular Army under the false name of "William Cathay" on November 15, 1866, at St. Louis, Missouri, for a three-year engagement, passing herself off as a man. A physical was required in order to enlist but it wasn’t too in depth because they needed soldiers immediately. The instant need for soldiers caused the army medics to overlook her physical and inadvertently believe she was a man. Standing at five feet and seven inches it was easy to mistake her for a man with the average height being around this at the time. Their uniforms also had a bulky fit and made it much easier for her to hide her identity. She was assigned to the 38th United States Infantry Regiment after she passed a cursory medical examination. Only two others are known to have been privy to the deception, her cousin and a friend, both of whom were fellow soldiers in her regiment. Williams remained respectful and obedient throughout her time in the army. She prided herself on the fact that she never got sent to the guardhouse for creating chaos like some of the soldiers had.
Shortly after her enlistment, Williams contracted smallpox, was hospitalized and rejoined her unit, which by then was posted in New Mexico. Even after her diagnosis of smallpox, Williams tried to continue to march and go through with required soldier training but her body could no longer stand it. Possibly due to the effects of smallpox, the New Mexico heat, or the cumulative effects of years of marching, her body began to show signs of strain. She was frequently hospitalized. The post surgeon finally discovered she was a woman, and informed the post commander. She was honorably discharged from the Army by her commanding officer, Captain Charles E. Clarke, on October 14, 1868. In an interview Williams described her discharge experience as, “The post surgeon found out I was a woman and I got my discharge. 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."
Post-military service years
After being honorably discharged, the government allowed all-Black military units to form and Williams joined. She joined a group called the Buffalo Soldiers where she was the only woman. Cathay Williams went to work as a cook at Fort Union, New Mexico, and later moved to Pueblo, Colorado. Williams married, but it ended disastrously when her husband stole her money and a team of horses. Williams had him arrested. She next moved to Trinidad, Colorado, where she made her living as a seamstress. She may also have owned a boarding house. It was at this time that Williams' story first became public. A reporter from St. Louis heard rumors of an African-American woman who had served in the army, and came to interview her. Her life and military service narrative was published in The St. Louis Daily Times on January 2, 1876.
In late 1889 or early 1890, Cathay Williams entered a local hospital where she remained for some time, and in June 1891, applied for a disability pension based on her military service. The nature of her illness and disability are unknown. There was precedent for granting a pension to female soldiers. Deborah Sampson in 1816, Anna Maria Lane, and Mary Hayes McCauley (better known as Molly Pitcher) had been granted pensions for their service in the American Revolutionary War.
Online Sources
- "Buffalo Soldiers." History.com, https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/buffalo-soldiers. (July 9, 2020).
- "Cathay Williams." National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/people/cwilliams.htm. (July 9, 2020).
- "Cathay Williams." United States Army, https://www.army.mil/africanamericans/profiles/williams.html. (July 9, 2020).
- "Cathay Williams, Female Buffalo Soldier." Legends of America, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/cathay-williams/. (July 9, 2020)
- "This Ex-Slave Pretended to Be a Man and Served in the Army. " Military Times, https://www.militarytimes.com/military-honor/black-military-history/2018/02/07/this-ex-slave-pretended-to-be-a-man-and-served-in-the-army/. (July 9, 2020).
- "Who Were the Zouave?" PBS, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2015/5/18/who-were-zouaves. (July 9, 2020).
- "A Soldier's Story: Cathay Williams Defied Her Time to Become the Only Known Female Buffalo Soldier." Wounded Warrior Project, https://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/The-Only-Known-Female-Buffalo-Soldier-Cathay-Williams. (July 9, 2020).
- "Cathay Williams." Gale Biography Online Collection, Gale, 2020. Gale In Context: Biography, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1650012035/BIC?u=umuser&sid=BIC&xid=da564bbe. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021.
Shiloh, T. (2019, Mar). Cathay williams: Buffalo soldier. Oakland Post Retrieved from https://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/newspapers/cathay-williams-buffalo-soldier/docview/2214846685/se-2?accountid=14667
 | This is the sandbox page where you will draft your initial Wikipedia contribution.
If you're starting a new article, you can develop it here until it's ready to go live. If you're working on improvements to an existing article, copy only one section at a time of the article to this sandbox to work on, and be sure to use an edit summary linking to the article you copied from. Do not copy over the entire article. You can find additional instructions here. Remember to save your work regularly using the "Publish page" button. (It just means 'save'; it will still be in the sandbox.) You can add bold formatting to your additions to differentiate them from existing content. |
Early life
Williams was born in Independence, Missouri, to a free man and a woman in slavery, making her legal status also that of a slave. During her adolescence, Williams worked as a house slave on the Johnson plantation on the outskirts of Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1861 Union forces occupied Jefferson City in the early stages of the Civil War. At that time, captured slaves were officially designated by the Union as "contraband", and many were forced to serve in military support roles such as cooks, laundresses, or nurses. While being a washerwoman all over the country (under General Philip Sheridan) was still considered being a part of the army, Williams wanted more. At this time, cooking and cleaning was the only known way for women to contribute to the war. She continued out these jobs during the Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862 and the Red River Campaign in 1864. In 1865 when slavery was abolished, African Americans were limited as to what jobs they could have due to the fact that they could not read or write. Williams knew that soldiers were given basic needs like clothing, food, and shelter while being in the military and that was an offer she was not willing to overlook. She knew that being a woman was forbidden in the military but she also knew that she would make more money being a black male in the army than she would being a black female cook. She decided to disguise herself as a man and enlist in the Army.
U.S. Army service
Despite the prohibition against women serving in the military, Cathay Williams enlisted in the United States Regular Army under the false name of "William Cathay" on November 15, 1866, at St. Louis, Missouri, for a three-year engagement, passing herself off as a man. A physical was required in order to enlist but it wasn’t too in depth because they needed soldiers immediately. The instant need for soldiers caused the army medics to overlook her physical and inadvertently believe she was a man. Standing at five feet and seven inches it was easy to mistake her for a man with the average height being around this at the time. Their uniforms also had a bulky fit and made it much easier for her to hide her identity. She was assigned to the 38th United States Infantry Regiment after she passed a cursory medical examination. Only two others are known to have been privy to the deception, her cousin and a friend, both of whom were fellow soldiers in her regiment. Williams remained respectful and obedient throughout her time in the army. She prided herself on the fact that she never got sent to the guardhouse for creating chaos like some of the soldiers had.
Shortly after her enlistment, Williams contracted smallpox, was hospitalized and rejoined her unit, which by then was posted in New Mexico. Even after her diagnosis of smallpox, Williams tried to continue to march and go through with required soldier training but her body could no longer stand it. Possibly due to the effects of smallpox, the New Mexico heat, or the cumulative effects of years of marching, her body began to show signs of strain. She was frequently hospitalized. The post surgeon finally discovered she was a woman, and informed the post commander. She was honorably discharged from the Army by her commanding officer, Captain Charles E. Clarke, on October 14, 1868. In an interview Williams described her discharge experience as, “The post surgeon found out I was a woman and I got my discharge. 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."
Post-military service years
After being honorably discharged, the government allowed all-Black military units to form and Williams joined. She joined a group called the Buffalo Soldiers where she was the only woman. Cathay Williams went to work as a cook at Fort Union, New Mexico, and later moved to Pueblo, Colorado. Williams married, but it ended disastrously when her husband stole her money and a team of horses. Williams had him arrested. She next moved to Trinidad, Colorado, where she made her living as a seamstress. She may also have owned a boarding house. It was at this time that Williams' story first became public. A reporter from St. Louis heard rumors of an African-American woman who had served in the army, and came to interview her. Her life and military service narrative was published in The St. Louis Daily Times on January 2, 1876.
In late 1889 or early 1890, Cathay Williams entered a local hospital where she remained for some time, and in June 1891, applied for a disability pension based on her military service. The nature of her illness and disability are unknown. There was precedent for granting a pension to female soldiers. Deborah Sampson in 1816, Anna Maria Lane, and Mary Hayes McCauley (better known as Molly Pitcher) had been granted pensions for their service in the American Revolutionary War.
Online Sources
- "Buffalo Soldiers." History.com, https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/buffalo-soldiers. (July 9, 2020).
- "Cathay Williams." National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/people/cwilliams.htm. (July 9, 2020).
- "Cathay Williams." United States Army, https://www.army.mil/africanamericans/profiles/williams.html. (July 9, 2020).
- "Cathay Williams, Female Buffalo Soldier." Legends of America, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/cathay-williams/. (July 9, 2020)
- "This Ex-Slave Pretended to Be a Man and Served in the Army. " Military Times, https://www.militarytimes.com/military-honor/black-military-history/2018/02/07/this-ex-slave-pretended-to-be-a-man-and-served-in-the-army/. (July 9, 2020).
- "Who Were the Zouave?" PBS, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2015/5/18/who-were-zouaves. (July 9, 2020).
- "A Soldier's Story: Cathay Williams Defied Her Time to Become the Only Known Female Buffalo Soldier." Wounded Warrior Project, https://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/The-Only-Known-Female-Buffalo-Soldier-Cathay-Williams. (July 9, 2020).
- "Cathay Williams." Gale Biography Online Collection, Gale, 2020. Gale In Context: Biography, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1650012035/BIC?u=umuser&sid=BIC&xid=da564bbe. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021.
Shiloh, T. (2019, Mar). Cathay williams: Buffalo soldier. Oakland Post Retrieved from https://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/newspapers/cathay-williams-buffalo-soldier/docview/2214846685/se-2?accountid=14667
| This is the sandbox page where you will draft your initial Wikipedia contribution.
If you're starting a new article, you can develop it here until it's ready to go live. If you're working on improvements to an existing article, copy only one section at a time of the article to this sandbox to work on, and be sure to use an edit summary linking to the article you copied from. Do not copy over the entire article. You can find additional instructions here. Remember to save your work regularly using the "Publish page" button. (It just means 'save'; it will still be in the sandbox.) You can add bold formatting to your additions to differentiate them from existing content. |